6 minutes ago, ftpjtm said:

Any idea which parties do and don't support harsh enforcement of lesse majeste laws? AKA jailing those who speak out against royalist governments?

 

In my mind, jailing the opposition is a little more harsh than internet censorship, which I recall being most severe immediately after the coup

I think controlling what information the people of the country can see is a bigger problem than when the oligarchs and elites put themself in jail....not fanboy of any...they surely have all enough crimes done. But cutting people from information is really bad.
The few cases of lese majeste cases are in a way, you would go to jail in every other country without these laws as well. I recall that Thaksin portrait himself as hardest protector of these laws...and also blocked lot of foreign newspapers because of it. I don't think there is any hope that any party does something on it. All equal bad.
I recall after the previous coup all internet censorship was abolished (That Sonti general) in the first few days. But it didn't last long.
In discussions I actually never find anyone in Thailand who agree to my no censorship approach. It seems people love censorship when you explain them that also opinions must be allowed which they don't like.

1 hour ago, h90 said:

Maybe an additional point: I recall during Thaksin all internet traffic had to pass a state censorship server and you got sometimes an error message when it could not keep up with it. And he boasted that he hired 10.000 people to check/block/censor internet and I frequently saw foreign newspapers blocked. I am sure they still block some gambling or p*rno but I can't remember to ever again saw any message. It was a bit Chinese style. Don't know when it ended, but for sure it is not worse than before.
But agree every bit of censorship is bad. Don't know for TV and local newspaper as I don't own a TV but on Internet outside of Thailand I don't see anything blocked in my usage

Please stay on topic. If you want to talk about Thaksin there are other threads you can use or even start your own.

 

 

Thread topic

Anutin may give up politics if the latest opinion poll giving Bhumjaithai Party 3% proves correct.

 

This thread is all about Anutin and NOT Thaksin.

 

 

 

 

32 minutes ago, h90 said:

I think controlling what information the people of the country can see is a bigger problem than when the oligarchs and elites put themself in jail....not fanboy of any...they surely have all enough crimes done. But cutting people from information is really bad.
The few cases of lese majeste cases are in a way, you would go to jail in every other country without these laws as well. I recall that Thaksin portrait himself as hardest protector of these laws...and also blocked lot of foreign newspapers because of it. I don't think there is any hope that any party does something on it. All equal bad.
I recall after the previous coup all internet censorship was abolished (That Sonti general) in the first few days. But it didn't last long.
In discussions I actually never find anyone in Thailand who agree to my no censorship approach. It seems people love censorship when you explain them that also opinions must be allowed which they don't like.

Poor try at diverting the topic.

4 hours ago, h90 said:

I think controlling what information the people of the country can see is a bigger problem than when the oligarchs and elites put themself in jail.

Which oligarchs and elites are going to jail for lesse majeste violations?

 

I'm thinking of the 200+ students who have been jailed in the past 2 years since the current administration upped enforcement of lesse majeste laws. Anutin and Bhumjaithai vow to continue that level of enforcement. 

 

If you think needing to use a VPN to access some websites is worse than spending time in jail for speaking out against the government, we'll have to disagree. 

Edited April 19, 20233 yr by ftpjtm

On 4/19/2023 at 8:06 AM, Gecko123 said:

Enlightened visionary, my rear end. In terms of public policy administration, he was totally in over his head, totally lacking the training, education, and experience to administer governmental affairs properly.

 

Regardless of where you stand on cannabis decriminalization, you need only look back at how chaotic, ill-thought out, and out of touch with public sentiment the rollout was to quickly see how incompetent an administrator he is, and what a disaster he would be as prime minister.

He was involved too much with soldiers to be any good as a PM. A lot of his posters have been torn down where I live, I just laugh to myself as I ride past them.