ASEAN
Summit from 2009-2019 and so-called “justice” in Thailand
Thida Thavornseth, Former UDD chairwoman, Chairwoman of UDD advisory board
June
26th, 2019
Gen
Prayut Chan-o-cha’s English capability has been put in question after the 34th
ASEAN Summit in Bangkok last month as foreign reporters have expressed their
displeased at the arrangement which saw the prime minister delivering his
opening speech in Thai, with no official translation. A written speech in
English was later given to the press which has lessen their concerns but there
was another pressing issue that the United Front for Democracy Against
Dictatorship (UDD) would like to address here.
That
matter involves our former co-leader who later joined the pro-military Palang
Pracharath Party, Suporn “Rambo Isan” Atthawong. Suporn was among seven co-leaders
of the UDD who were charged with instigating sedition when red-shirts
supporters disrupted the Asean Summit which was held in Pattaya in 2009.
The
case is still ongoing for other co-leaders but the charges against Suporn has
been dropped because the statute of limitations expired. The treatment of the
charges against Suporn was different than other co-leaders who are now standing
trail in Pattaya and Bangkok.
How
should we view this double standard?
1)
After
a decade, UDD’s co-leaders are still being charge from the incidents in 2008,
2009, and 2010 along with many other cases even before the far-right started to
branding us as “arsonists” and “anti-monarchists”. Now it has been proven by
the court that the red-shirts was not responsible for the fire at Central World
nor that we are “anti-monarchists” as claimed by the opposite view. There are
still charges in the provinces where red-shirt supporters have been accused of
burning down or vandalizing public building and property but in my opinion, the
red-shirt supporters were not involve in any of this. Red-shirts onlookers were
accused but I believe that the real arsonists were the ones that know all the
ins and outs of those government buildings. Or else how would they managed to disappear
without leaving any trace? Red-shirt supporters ended up becoming scapegoats
from the failure of the justice system starting with investigators, all the way
to the prosecutors.
Alongside the coup d'état and the
overthrowing of an elected government, the coup makers who later came into
power wants to get rid of dissidents and oppositions including our supporters, UDD
co-leaders, all the way to politicians that do not sees things the same way as that
they do. Does the rule of law really exist here?
As for the latest case involving Suporn
Atthawong who managed to solely escaped the charges against him and the
co-leaders, this case can be put in question whether who the justice system is
actually working for? Only for the people in power? There has been an attempt
to charge Nattawut Saikua, our co-leader, since 2017 but the court does not
allow it. Nevertheless, the attempt to charge Nattawut is still ongoing but the
charges against Suporn has been dropped because the “statute of limitations has
expired”. How is this fair? This is very unusual.
2)
Looking
back to ASEAN Summit in 2009 when leaders from Japan, South Korea, India and
Australia and many others convened, the Thai coalition government that was the
host include various parties such as the Democrats and Bhumjaithai etc. Now in
2019, those leaders from Japan and South Korea have decided not to join which
can be view that those countries are still afraid of a repeating incident, or,
they do not want to be affiliate with a country that is still not ready for
democracy, such as Thailand.
3)
The
incident in 2009 was not an act against the ASEAN Summit. The people basically want
to deliver an open letter to the world’s leaders to protest against the
illegitimacy of the then government which was formed behind military barrack.
The people were also fed up with politicians who switched side after they
gained the people’s votes to become member of parliaments just for them to be
in power. This means that the government in 2009 did not truly came from the
people. The attempt to disperse the people via violence means such as bullets
and blue-shirts perpetrators which came out to attack the red-shirt supporters
has led to confrontation that occurred. The red shirts were not displeased with
the violence against them which led them to enter the hotel where the summit
was held instead of just delivering the open letter via representatives. This
incident should not happened and it would not have happened if the government
did not ignore our request to deliver the open letter to the world’s leaders
and then used violence against us.
In
the end, the government of former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva which used the military
and police, together more than 60,000 personnel, to crackdown against
red-shirts supporters in 2009 and 2010 has been found not guilty. Now the
people at fault are the people and the UDD co-leaders.
As
for the appearance of the people at the 34th ASEAN Summit this year,
we have delivered an open letter from 400 Thai citizens to the ASEAN leaders
which is similar to that in 2009. But this time, there were no large crowd of
people or violence. The reason being that no one is against the ASEAN Summit,
no matter what year.
The
true culprit for all the violence in 2008, 2009 and 2010 was the government in
charge whose members were afraid of the people’s protest before they decided to
used guns and violence to suppress us, not the red-shirts!
