Man given 10 years for insulting Thai monarchy

A Thai citizen was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting the king and his family by posting edited photos of the monarchy on the Internet, a court said.

The court found Suwicha guilty of violating the country’s lees majesty law, which prohibits insulting the king and his family, as well as the 2007 Computer Crime Act, which bars the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security or that causes public panic. Until recently, lees majesty prosecutions were rare in Thailand, and the accusation was mostly used for partisan political purposes as a means of smearing opponents.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has a tough lees majesty law that mandates a jail term of three to 15 years for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent.” Anyone violating the Computer Crime Act can be imprisoned for up to five years and fined 100,000 baht ($2,770).

The Thai government has also blocked several thousand Internet sites that it said were offensive to the monarchy. Last year, anti-government protesters showed their loyalty to the king by wearing yellow, which represents the day of his birth. They accused former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his allies of trying to usurp the king’s central role — something Thaksin has denied. Thaksin, however, has sharply criticized the king’s chief adviser, Privy Council head Prem Tinsulanonda, and accused him of masterminding the 2006 military coup that ousted him from power.

The comments have shocked Thailand, where the Privy Council is considered by many an extension of the king himself.

Thai Alcohol Ban will hurt Tourism, says President

The Thai government is currently under pressure from anti-alcohol groups in the country to ban all alcohol sales in the country during the Thai New Year Songkran holiday April 11 -15.The groups are urging this ban in an attempt to reduce the number of holiday fatalities that are caused by drunk driving during the country’s biggest holiday. More than 30,000 people are killed or injured on Thailand’s roads during the annual Songkran festivities. However, since the overwhelming percentage of people who die on the roads during this period are Thai teenagers driving motorcycles and overloaded pickup trucks racing along the highways while drunk.

Education and parental involvement are what is needed to end the carnage, but that isn’t something that is popular. Banning sales is far more newsworthy and frankly easier than trying to resolve the real challenges. As an example of some of the negative consequences that will occur if this ban is implemented, is that the tourism industry suffers yet another setback in its attempt to claw back from the nightmare of the Suvarnabhumi closing in November. The economy is bad enough and tourists are hard enough to come by already without placing additional burdens on the Tourism industry.

The government has delayed this measure while it seeks compromise solutions and they may just delay long enough so that it becomes too late to really do anything. There is also the matter of constitutionality which is being looked into. A ban might simply be illegal. Whatever the reason they come up with the government must not accede to the wishes of a few fanatics whose commitment to solving problems consists of ideas that do more harm than good to society as a whole. For the good of everyone this ban must be stopped in its tracks and real efforts that have a chance of solving the basic problem should be initiated instead.