Media muzzlers score an own goal

COMMENTARY: UMESH PANDEY

We continue to live in interesting times in Thailand. For a start, we have completed one full year of rule by a military government, and if you believe the local opinion polls, most people are actually happy with conditions in the country. As journalists, we were resigned to an era of media muzzling after the coup and therefore expected to have less work, or at least fewer outlets for that work. But our workload seems to be more or less the same as before, thanks to a government that sometimes goes out of its way to create public-relations disasters.

Last week, while coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha was musing that he’d be willing to stay in office for two more years or even longer if “the people” wanted him to, his minions were busy doing what they do best: attempting to stifle freedom of expression. This time, their radar was trained on the Thai Human Rights Lawyers Association, which had booked the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) to stage a panel discussion on the state of human rights a year after the coup.

The police, acting on behalf of their green-clad masters, advised the FCCT and the lawyers that such a talk would not be a good idea. The party line, said a spokesman, was that “there might be some people with ill-intentions using the opportunity to create some situations that might cause chaos”.

As it turned out, the cancellation just made people more curious. An event that was not likely to attract a huge crowd turned into a media spectacle a few hours later when the lawyers gathered outside the FCCT to read their statement.

The club remained open as usual, and the public relations fiasco committed by the regime helped bring in a truckload more people (disclosure time: I am on the FCCT executive).

Images of the nearly packed venue, and the flood of local and international coverage, were a slap in the face of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

Meanwhile, in the welcoming embrace of his military-appointed National Legislative Assembly, Dear Leader was saying: “If everyone wants me to stay on, I will do so to work for them and the country, but they must protect me against accusations, both at home and abroad, that I wish to cling to power.”

To no one’s surprise, Gen Prayut drew loud applause and pleas for him to stay.

If I was handpicked as a legislator in a non-elected government, and my benefits depended on Dear Leader staying in power, trust me, I would beg him to stay on for as long as he draws breath, but alas I am not one of the chosen ones.

It seems as though nobody among those who are begging the general to stay, to those in his cabinet, has the guts to tell the supreme leader that muzzling media freedom is not going to win him any friends in the domestic media or the international community.

No country that has tried to control the flow of information has been successful, especially in the new era of social media. The reach of social media is so wide that governments and global corporations alike have to respect its power. Thailand and other countries in this region are no exception.

Take a look at Malaysia, where the all-powerful United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and its incumbent leader, Najib Razak, have tried to keep a lid on mismanagement and cronyism at the state investor 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its $11 billion in losses.

After months of trying to control the flow of information by enlisting tame state-backed media to “clarify” the issue, the government has only whetted the public’s appetite for the facts. Independent media, bloggers and others have taken up the mission of providing the information people demand. Now the central bank has finally decided to investigate the 1MDB mess.

The lesson for any government is that trying to control the flow of information is not the best way to go about building credibility.

At this stage in Thailand, it might be wise for Dear Leader to hire a good image consultant who can advise him on what should be done, and on how to handle things in a better way than we are seeing currently.

Every step that is taken to control the media or independent organisations that are trying to express their viewpoint is likely to be a step backward. If Gen Prayut wants to remain in power for the foreseeable future, allowing some space for people to express their opinions is essential.

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