Climate of fear must end

With the March election and “democratic institutions” camouflaging his military regime with “the elected government” he is forming, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha still has to do more as a “democratic leader”. The regime’s heavy-handed, authoritative approach to critics must stop. Instead, Gen Prayut should start letting freedom of speech take its course and put an end to the entrenched climate of fear.

Several disturbing incidents in the headlines recently, however, imply that Gen Prayut’s second term as prime minister will likely be as repressive and authoritative as it has been since he staged the coup in 2014.

On Tuesday, comedian Naphat Chumjittri almost certainly came under pressure from the authorities as he told his followers to delete a video clip of him mimicking and mocking Gen Prayut’s media interviews.

Then, on Wednesday, a French man, Yan Marchal, was visited by police and forced to apologise publicly for a music video mocking the National Council for Peace and Order’s (NCPO) anthem, and then delete the video.

On Thursday, police paid a visit to Chumpholphonphisai School in Nong Khai province after photos of students’ pedestal trays, decorated for Teachers’ Day, questioning justice and democracy under the regime’s rule were shared on social media.

Also on Thursday, Wisarut Butkhun, 32, was found dead in his house in Chanthaburi province. His family said he was harassed about his political comments on Facebook and told they were a crime under the Computer Crime Act (CCA). After receiving a mysterious telephone call threat and having seen men in military-like camouflage around his house, he allegedly shot himself.

Although these are scattered, unrelated incidents, they demonstrate a similar pattern of intimidation and harassment by security officials of regime critics over the past five years.

Since the coup, soldiers and police officers have repeatedly and indiscriminately shown up uninvited at the homes of political activists, offices of academics and at political gatherings of activists to deliver warnings or intimidate them.

More than a thousand people have been either arrested or hit with criminal charges for peaceful political activities, for making political comments on social media, or for simply sharing others’ messages online.

Security officials have resorted to using either the CCA, the anti-sedition law, the lese majeste law or the NCPO’s order banning political gatherings as the basis for their legal assaults.

While many of these people are critics of the NCPO, others have been non-political social media users such as those who shared information about they alleged rape of a British tourist on Koh Tao. But they still faced charges.

This is the disgraceful legacy of the regime.

As Gen Prayut and his NCPO colleagues have sought like-minded allies from political parties to join their coalition government, they must rid themselves of this legacy. All charges brought against citizens for political activities or expressions of opinion must be dropped.

Gen Prayut has no reason to fear his critics anymore because his government will face less scrutiny anyway since it has influence over checks-and-balance mechanisms, including the Senate and the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

That should be a strong enough reason for Gen Prayut to instruct security officials to stop intimidating and harassing his critics.