Acts against free speech hinder unity
The story about 63-year-old Samart Kwanchai being acquitted of violating the 2016 Constitutional Referendum Act may not be big news this week, but it demonstrates why the current regime can’t, and won’t, achieve its goal of national reconciliation.
Mr Samart was arrested on July 23 last year for distributing leaflets which said “Down with Dictatorship, Prosperity to Democracy, ‘Vote No’ on Aug 7” by slipping them under the windscreen wipers of vehicles parked at a mall in Chiang Mai.
He was charged by the military with violating the act — a law issued by the regime to forbid actions that could instigate unrest, distort information or manipulate voters in a threatening manner.
He was in jail for nine days and then granted bail. During the trial, police and soldiers insisted the message on his leaflets had the potential to stir up violence and provoke political chaos. However, on Monday, the Chiang Mai provincial court dismissed the charge, saying the message was abstract and couldn’t manipulate a voter’s decision.
Even though the act stated clearly that a person has the right to truthfully and legally express opinions about the referendum, it was extensively used by the police, the military and even the Office of the Election Commission to curb freedom of expression and suppress referendum campaigns.
A report by the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group says at least 212 people were detained or charged for violating the act and other laws prior to the referendum for simply expressing their opinions, criticising the content of the then draft charter or carrying out “Vote No” campaigning. Some 104 people faced legal action of whom 92 were later tried in military courts.
While the current status of many of these cases remains unknown, litigation is proceeding in many other others.
Mr Samart is the first publicly known case that has finally met a fair end. But the list of people forced to await an unknown fate in drawn-out court proceedings is long.
One notable case was the arrest of 13 people — students from the anti-coup New Democracy Movement (NDM) and labour activists who handed out “Vote No” flyers in Samut Prakan on June 23 last year. They were charged with violating the referendum act and a National Council for Peace and Order edict prohibiting political gatherings.
Seven were denied bail and jailed for nearly two weeks before being released. Photographs showed them shackled, as if they were dangerous criminals, while in custody and at court appearances.
One was NDM core leader Rangsiman Rome, previously arrested in 2015 along with 13 other people for staging an anti-coup protest at the Democracy Monument. They were released soon afterwards. But the case against them is still under police investigation. Student activist Jatupat “Pai Dao Din” Boonpattararaksa was among the 12 others facing the same charge, but he is in prison on lese majeste and computer crime charges for sharing a BBC story on Facebook.
Another case involves students who took a train to the army’s Rajabhakti Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan in December 2015 to investigate a corruption scandal linked to the project.
And the list goes on.
Many of them are young people concerned about the future of this country. But they are treated like criminals or enemies of the state. In many cases, they are accused of being on one side of the political divide and suffer hate speech even though their acts are not driven by any political preference.
My point is not to lament their fate here but to remind you that there are people whose future is in limbo while the government still boasts about its national reconciliation drive and its efforts to make Thailand a livable place for all.
Building reconciliation after a decade of deeply rooted political divide is not an easy task. Suppressing dissidents and restricting freedom of expression will make that path toward national unity more rocky.
It possibly reflects the regime’s misunderstanding about “reconciliation”. It seems to believe freedom of expression can be curbed and transparency can be compromised for the sake of reaching the golden goal of reconciliation.
It seems our military leaders have a picture of Utopia for everyone that does not match that of many others.
Sadly, in that Utopia, anyone expressing honest thoughts can easily become a political prisoner.
How can the country move forward when there are so many people left forgotten just because they’re speaking their minds?