sameskybooks.org blocked again?

Today's edition of The Nation reports that access to the sameskybooks.org website has been blocked within Thailand. However, the site is currently accessible, so perhaps the blocking is only intermittent. (The site was investigated by the Thai police in May, following an accusation of lese majeste; it was temporarily shut down in January.)

Bangkok Post Sunday

The Bangkok Post today relaunched its Sunday edition, substantially expanding its pagination. Traditionally, Sunday newspapers are thicker than their weekday equivalents, and in the UK I enjoyed nothing more than settling down to read The Observer and The Sunday Times on a Sunday afternoon (as I discussed a couple of years ago). So it's great that the Bangkok Post has expanded its Sunday edition.

In contrast, today's edition of The Sunday Nation is extremely thin: only eighteen pages in total, with virtually no advertising at all. Today's launch of the bulkier Bangkok Post Sunday should have been the perfect opportunity for The Nation to either launch a new supplement or revamp its existing content. However, The Nation instead appears to have practically given up. It does at least include national news now, which it had dropped following the launch of the Daily Xpress; the Xpress itself is now twenty pages shorter than it used to be (and is seemingly no longer published on Sundays, replaced by The Sunday Nation).

400 more websites blocked

Thailand's MICT announced yesterday that approximately 400 websites have been blocked for contravening the Computer Crime Act. 344 of these sites apparently contain material that is "contemptuous" of the monarchy, according to today's Bangkok Post.

EC's verdict: dissolve the PPP

The Election Commission's verdict on the PPP was announced today, following last month's delay. The EC voted unanimously to recommend the dissolution of the PPP. Their verdict will now be passed to the Constitution Court for its authorisation.

The EC's decision was based on the Supreme Court's conviction of PPP deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyaphairat, following the EC's investigation into vote-buying during the 2007 general election. The PPP's fate is thus likely to be the same as that of TRT, which was dissolved last year.

state of emergency in Bangkok

Prime Minister Samak has announced a state of emergency in Bangkok, following violence between pro- and anti-government protesters outside Government House, where a PAD protest has been held for the past week.

One man died early this morning, and shots were fired, when supporters of the government confronted the PAD. As a result, Samak declared a state of emergency, putting army chief Anupong in charge of security in the city. The violent clashes have now stopped, though Government House is still surrounded by PAD protesters. Anupong appears more cautious than Samak, and has so far refused to disperse demonstrators by force, recognising that military action would only inflame the situation.

It appears that the violence was instigated by the pro-government side, as they marched towards the PAD, though the PAD's subsequent decision to resist the state of emergency is also extremely provocative. The state of emergency allows the public to move around the city as usual, though it prevents gatherings of more than five people.

The sudden violence this morning came after a weekend of stalemate. Following reports that Anupong and Samak's coalition partners had privately called for him to resign, the coalition leaders held a press conference to reaffirm their support for Samak. An emergency (yet unproductive) parliamentary session was held yesterday to discuss the crisis, though it did not reach any consensus.

[A state of emergency was last declared on 19th September 2006, when Thaksin unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the military coup. The emergency declaration was swiftly cancelled by the military, replaced by a declaration of martial law the following day. Martial law was not lifted until January last year. (Thaksin is currently facing problems of his own, as he has announced the sale of Manchester City FC.)]

novelist arrested

Harry Nicolaides, an Australian writer, has been arrested in Thailand and charged with lese majeste. The charge relates to his novel Verisimilitude, which includes a description of Prince Vajiralongkorn's "coterie of concubines".

pressure mounts on Samak

Tonight, even Samak's closest allies have advised him to quit, in order to ease the political tension of the past few days.

Samak held a meeting with army chief Anupong Paojinda this afternoon, during which Anupong advised him to either resign or dissolve parliament. The leaders of the other five coalition parties agreed during a meeting this evening that they would request Samak's resignation as Prime Minister and PPP leader.

Anupong has repeatedly stressed that a military coup is not imminent, and the close relationship between him and Samak makes his reassurances credible. (Anupong now seems much more rational than his predecessor, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who staged the 2006 coup against Thaksin.)

The PAD's occupation of Government House started on Tuesday. Samak initially demanded that the protesters evacuate immediately, and a large police presence built up in the area. Samak has shown surprising (and welcome) restraint in his responses to the PAD's "final war", refusing to sanction violent or military actions despite deliberate provocation from the PAD.

The PAD's core leaders have not yet been arrested. If Chamlong Srimuang (one of the PAD's most prominent leaders, alongside Sondhi Limthongkul) is detained, his ally, Pallop Pinmanee, has vowed to replace him. Pallop's reputation as a military assassin leaves little doubt that, if he did take over, the situation would become even more volatile.

Yesterday, the police retreated from Government House. Today, riot police returned and broke through the PAD's guards, in the morning and again in the afternoon, though on both occasions the police soon pulled back out again. This evening, many of the protesters marched to the police HQ, and were attacked with tear gas.

This Area Is Under Quarantine

A new documentary by Thai film-maker Thunska Pansittivorakul, This Area Is Under Quarantine, was screened at Makhampom Studio, Bangkok, last night. (Thunska's website is at thaiindie.com; all of his previous films were shown at a retrospective in April.) Before the premiere of this new feature-length documentary, there were screenings of his recent short films Action! (which premiered at the 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, and is currently showing as part of the 4th Project 6) and Middle-Earth (which premiered at the 11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival), and his music video Blinded Spot. Most of the photographs from Thunska's recent Life Show exhibition were also displayed, though some were missing. [Guess which ones!]

Thunska has always made highly provocative films, and This Area Is Under Quarantine is no exception. Its first half resembles his earlier films Life Show and Chemistry, with two gay men being interviewed about their past relationships. (They later have sex with each other, filmed in close-up with a constantly moving camera, recalling Thunska's film Sigh.)

One of the men mentions that he is a Muslim, which unexpectedly veers the discussion towards the notorious incident at Tak Bai in 2004 when eighty-five Muslim men suffocated while held captive by the Thai army. Video footage of the Tak Bai incident is included, and Thaksin Shinawatra, who was Thailand's Prime Minister at the time of the incident, is directly criticised in the film.

More contentiously, photographs of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were hanged in Iran in 2005, are also included, with the suggestion that they were hanged because they had consensual sex with each other. In fact, human rights organisations have since concluded that the two Iranians were hanged for their rape of a thirteen-year-old boy, and thus that their reputation as gay martyrs is inappropriate. [Though hanging anyone for any crime is, of course, abhorrent.]

There were a few technical glitches at last night's sold-out screening. The film will be shown again at the same venue on 1st September.

PAD protest continues

The PAD pledged that their occupation of Government House was a "final war", and that if Samak did not resign they would abandon their protests. They then announced that they would remain at Government House for three days.

Well, Samak has made it clear that he will not quit, and today is the third day of the occupation, but there are no signs that the PAD protesters will leave anytime soon. Arrest warrants have been issued for the PAD's leaders, and police have been negotiating with them since Tuesday, but this morning Samak announced that he was withdrawing the police from the area.

In the past few days, Samak has reacted with uncharacteristic restraint. Today's police retreat admirably avoids any potential for violent confrontation, though it also weakens the Prime Minister, who has no choice but to remain in a temporary office at army HQ while thousands of PAD supporters camp out around Government House.

6pm PAD deadline passes

The 6pm deadline for the PAD to disperse from Government House and five ministries passed a few minutes ago. Samak is currently giving a press conference, and has refused to resign. He stressed that the police will use "soft and gentle" tactics, not violence, to disperse the PAD.

Samak also reaffirmed his plan to amend the constitution. Safeguarding the 2007 constitution was one of the PAD's stated aims when they renewed their protests in May. [I'm certainly no fan of the military-drafted constitution, but it was approved in a national referendum. I don't like Samak, either, but he won the election last year. The PAD leaders have no such legitimacy: the mob which supports them amounts to only a few thousand people.]

The PAD call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, yet their policies ('New Politics') and their tactics (disruptive street protests, ignoring the judiciary and the elected parliament) are absolutely undemocratic.

PAD's "final war"? If only...

The People's Alliance for Democracy is currently staging its largest, most disruptive protest thus far, in what it calls a "final war" against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government. There has been a continuous PAD protest since May at Makawan Bridge, Ratchadamnern Nok, Bangkok, though today the protest spread to numerous state buildings.

PAD protesters are occupying Government House, and the Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Education, and Transport ministries. This morning, they invaded the offices of state-controlled television station NBT, forcing it off the air for several hours.

At 3pm this afternoon, Samak made a live TV statement, warning that his patience is running out. Interior Minister Kowit Wattana has issued an ultimatum to the PAD: dispurse all protests before 6pm tonight, or face a forced eviction by the police.

One of the PAD's core leaders, Sondhi Limthongkul, gave an interview to the Bangkok Post newspaper this morning, in which he irresponsibly goaded the army to launch a coup ("soldiers today are cowards") and self-righteously positioned himself as the protector of the monarchy ("If we don't do it, the monarchy might collapse").

Sondhi has pledged that today's ultra-protest will be the PAD's "final war", and that, if Samak does not resign today, the PAD's protests will cease. Let's hope he keeps his word, because the undemocratic PAD is by far the most divisive force in Thai politics. Samak has many shortcomings, but the best way to stabilise Thai politics is for the PAD to disband, not for Samak to resign.

PPP dissolution decision delayed

The Election Commission's decision regarding the potential dissolution of the PPP has been delayed until 2nd September. The EC had been deliberating ever since one of the PPP's deputy leaders, Yongyuth Tiyaphairat, was convicted of fraud by the EC, a conviction later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Under Thai law, if an executive member of a political party is convicted of electoral fraud, the Supreme Court is entitled to dissolve the party in question. (That explains Samak's on-again-off-again scheme to change the constitution, of course.) This scenario was played out last year when Thaksin's TRT was dissolved by the Constitutional Tribunal established by the leaders of the 2006 coup. After TRT was dissolved, its MPs formed the PPP as a replacement. The PPP then won the 2007 election.

If, as expected, the EC's announcement on 2nd September goes against the PPP, the party will be reincarnated yet again. It's an open secret that a new Puea Thai Party has already been formed, ready to rise like a desperate phoenix from the PPP's ashes. Thaksin himself, the PPP's puppet-master, is now in exile in London; he returned to Thailand earlier this year, though he fled to England last week when it became clear that he could not defeat the various corruption charges filed against him.

12th Thai Short Film & Video Festival

The 12th Thai Short Film & Video Festival will open on 29th August at the new Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, running until 14th September. (The BACC is also the venue for the forthcoming exhibition Traces Of Siamese Smile.) Last year's 11th Festival provided an opportunity for Thai film-makers to respond to the 2006 military coup, and featured several marquee-name directors.

This year's event will begin with Sompot Chidgasornpongse's film Diseases & A Hundred Year Period. Sompot was an assistant director on Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes & A Century, and his new film is a reaction to the Thai censorship of Apichatpong's work.

Thaksin arrest warrant issued

A warrant has been issued by the Thai police for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, following his return to England. Thaksin and his wife are both currently under investigation by the Supreme Court, after Thaksin returned to Thailand to fight the charges against him.

Thaksin's bail conditions entitled him to leave the country if he sought prior permission, and he was authorised to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. His wife, Potjaman, was found guilty of tax evasion last month, and released on bail. Presumably, that verdict was a signal that Thaksin would be likely to lose his own forthcoming court cases. Therefore, he did not return to Thailand from China as scheduled, and instead flew to London, issuing a statement to the effect that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he would not receive a fair trial.

His stated reasons for fleeing are hardly credible, considering that the PPP is in power and also bearing in mind that, when he returned in February, Thaksin announced that he was ready to defend himself in court.

Flashback '76

The group exhibition Flashback '76 commemorates the 1976 Thammasat University massacre. The exhibition includes Manit Sriwanichpoom's photo series Died On 6th October 1976; Manit soaked photographs of the victims of the massacre in blood, and the red images reinforce the violence of the event. (The 1976 massacre was also the subject of Manit's Horror In Pink series, shown at From Message To Media; incredibly, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, Thai Prime Minister Samak claimed that only a single person died in the massacre.)

Flashback '76, at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in Bangkok, opened on 2nd August, and will close on Saturday.

Traces Of Siamese Smile

Notwithstanding its very corny title, Traces Of Siamese Smile: Art & Faith & Politics & Love could be one of the greatest exhibitions of the year. It will feature multi-media works by 100 Thai and international artists, including film-makers Wisit Sasanatieng, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The exhibition (siamesesmile2008.com) opens at the new Bangkok Art & Culture Centre on 20th September, and runs until 23rd November.

International Film Festival 2008

The 2008 International Film Festival, organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, opens on 8th August with Four Months Three Weeks & Two Days (which premiered in Thailand at the EU Film Festival last year). The Festival (chulafilmfest.multiply.com) runs until 25th August, with free admission to every film.

2008 Bangkok International Film Festival

It has been confirmed that the Bangkok International Film Festival will go ahead this year, running from 23rd to 30th September at CentralWorld's SF World cinema. (This year's Festival poster was designed by Tears Of The Black Tiger director Wisit Sasanatieng.) The Festival's future had been in doubt following corruption charges filed against Juthamas Siriwan, the former head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, relating to money she received from the American company Film Festival Management.

The Festival budget for this year will again be provided by TAT, though the funding will amount to less than half of the budget for the 2007 Festival (which itself relied on only half of the 2006 Festival budget). The financial situation may not be as drastic as it seems, however, as previous festivals wasted enormous amounts of money on corporate events which no-one attended and on Hollywood stars who made only fleeting appearances.

4th Project 6

Project 6, a film and photography exhibition, will be hosted by Gallery VER, Bangkok, next month. The event will include the short film Action! (premiered at the 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival) by Thunska Pansittivorakul, whose photographic exhibition, Life Show, is currently on display at VER. The 4th Project 6 will open on 15th August (the day Life Show closes), and will run until 30th August.

Life Show

Life Show, an exhibition of photographs by Thunska Pansittivorakul, opened today at Gallery VER in Bangkok, and will run until 15th August. (The same venue hosted a retrospective of Thunska's films earlier this year.) The exhibition includes portraits, behind-the-scenes images, and some 'X'-rated shots. Life Show is also the title of one of Thunska's short films, in which an actor discusses his sex-life. Thunska's photos can also be seen, as a slideshow, in his film Endless Story.

Yongyuth verdict upheld

The Election Commission's guilty verdict against Yongyuth Tiyaphairat has been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. The Court's decision was announced a few minutes ago.

The Supreme Court is Thailand's highest legal authority, and its decision in this case has potentially explosive consequences for the government. Yongyuth has been found guilty of election fraud (specifically, vote-buying) and, because he was a PPP executive member at the time, the PPP faces dissolution and its executives face five-year bans on all political activity.

The PPP was formed as a result of the dissolution of its former incarnation, Thaksin's TRT last year. Now, the PPP itself faces the same fate, Prime Minister Samak may be banned from politics, and a general election may be necessary. Non-executive PPP members will presumably form another new party, though whether they will receive the continued support of their coalition partners remains to be seen.

PAD's anti-democratic 'New Politics'

The PAD, currently orchestrating demonstrations in Bangkok against Samak, has proposed a 'New Politics' solution to Thailand's political crisis (a crisis caused in no small part by the PAD, of course).

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, the New Politics concept is totally undemocratic. The plan is for only 30% of MPs to be elected, with the majority being nominated representatives. Furthermore, conditions permitting military intervention have been outlined: a military overthrow of the government is 'appropriate' if the civilian government does not prosecute those charged with lese majeste, if the government is incompetent or corrupt, and if the government acts against the monarchy.

Their criteria for validating a military takeover are vague, lenient, and misguided. In any case, there should be no circumstances under which military intervention is ever 'acceptable'. Their plan to elect only 30% of MPs has only been proposed because the PAD knows that TRT/PPP will comfortably win any general election in the near future.

If they really want to position themselves as the saviours of the nation and the King, why don't the PAD form a political party and stand as candidates at the next election? Probably because their public support doesn't extend beyond a few thousand (presumably unemployed) loyalists?

The Art Of Time

Gaysorn, a shopping mall in downtown Bangkok, is hosting an exhibition titled The Art Of Time.

The exhibition is designed to promote Gaysorn's range of expensive watches, though of primary interest are works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, and other marquee-name artists.

The centrepiece is a bronze sculpture by Dali, a 3-D representation of his melting clock, a motif he first used in his 1931 painting The Persistence Of Memory. The sculpture was cast in 1980, in a limited edition of 500. (The massively over-rated Dali famously signed piles of reproductions, and even blank canvasses, each morning during breakfast, boasting that "I like to start the day by earning $20,000" and living up to the anagram, 'avida dollars', coined by Andre Breton.)

Most of the other works on display are signed prints. The 1963 Picasso linocut, La Dame A La Collerette, for example, was produced in an edition of fifty. The Dali clock sculpture is the only direct link to the exhibition's title, with the other works having no discernible connections.

The Art Of Time opened yesterday, and will close on 20th July.

youtube.com blocked by TOT

TOT, the Thai state-owned ISP, is currently blocking every youtube.com video. The website itself is unblocked, but any attempt to access a video results in a black screen and an apology: "We're sorry, this video is no longer available".

The videos are available, of course; the message is simply a smokescreen to hide the fact that they are being blocked. The message should be extended to: 'This video is no longer available to anyone unfortunate enough to have a TOT internet account'.

(The entire youtube.com site was blocked by all Thai ISPs in May last year, and finally unblocked last August.)

Xiao Yun photos: not on Thai sites

Thai webmasters have been warned by the police that they will face prosecution if they post pictures of Xiao Yun online. Xiao Yun is a young Chinese lady who has performed a sponsored online striptease to raise money for victims of the Chinese earthquake earlier this year. Many Thai websites (with the notable exceptions of telewizmall.com and madoo.com) have indeed refrained from posting the racier Xiao Yun images.

if you don't stand up, you're mad!

Another person has been arrested for refusing to stand for the royal anthem at a Thai cinema. Rachapin Chancharoen has been accused of lese majeste by other members of the audience, in a case echoing that of Chotisak Oonsoong (who is facing the same charge following his refusal to stand at a cinema last year). Surely if someone chooses not to stand up, it should be nobody else's business?

Furthermore, the police have speculated that Rachapin may be mentally ill, as if a sane person would never refuse to stand. They should realise that standing up (or rather, sitting down) for your beliefs is not a sign of madness.

1,893 websites blocked

According to the Thai government, access to 1,893 websites is currently blocked within Thailand. The figure was provided under the Official Information Act, following a request from FACT. (The Act stipulates that all enquiries must be answered within two months; FACT had to wait for over a year.)

The official total of 1,893 blocked sites is a mere 10% of the unofficial MICT blocklist, leaked by FACT last year. Also, the Computer Crime Act forbids the blocking of any website without a court order, and so far only one such order has been applied for: to block a website selling Beagle Buddha merchandise. (The ICT Minister had previously encouraged hackers to illegally disrupt potentially offensive websites; the Beagle Buddha site is unblocked, as the court order has not [yet] been granted and the site has not [yet] been hacked.)

100 X France

As part of the 4th Month of Photography for this year's La Fete festival, the Queen's Gallery in Bangkok is hosting 100 X France, an exhibition of 100 images from the history of French photography. The exhibition opened yesterday, and runs until 8th July.

The exhibition includes some of the most famous photographs ever taken, and a roll-call of the greatest photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, et al. The exhibition's poster features Theophile Feau's famous images of the Eiffel Tower in mid-construction. The earliest extant photographic image, an 1826 'heliograph' by Joseph Niepce, begins the exhibition. There is also an example of Etienne-Jules Marey's Chronophotographie. Photographs by several artists from other mediums are also included, such as a book cover by Marcel Duchamp and a portrait by Agnes Varda.

Italian Film Festival 2008

Bangkok's Lido cinema will host the Italian Film Festival 2008 later this month, from 18th to 25th June. One of the highlights will be Martin Scorsese's documentary My Voyage To Italy (20th and 25th June at 6.30pm). Scorsese's documentary (in the style of his earlier A Personal Journey Through American Movies) is a four-hour tribute to Italian cinema, from Cabiria to Federico Fellini. Scorsese's most passionate comments are reserved for Neo-Realist classics such as Rome: Open City and Bicycle Thieves.

BBC journalist accused of lese majeste

Thai police officer Wattanasak Mungkandee has submitted evidence against BBC journalist Jonathan Head, after accusing him of lese majeste and, incredibly, of being in league with Thaksin to destabilise the monarchy. Wattanasak identified eleven 'inappropriate' BBC News articles, some of which commit the 'crime' of positioning photos of Thaksin above photos of the King. He also cited a 2007 FCCT seminar which Head moderated; at the seminar, Head broached the unmentionable subject of succession: "the King is now eighty; he will not be around forever". Wattanasak was also the officer who first accused Jakrapob of lese majeste, again after an FCCT speech: clearly, he is either paranoid or angling for a promotion.

Jakrapob resigns; charter rewrite dropped

Two substantial Thai political news stories today: Jakrapob Penkair has resigned from his position as Prime Minister's Office Minister, and the PPP's plan to rewrite the constitution has been stopped.

Jakrapob had been under pressure following an FCCT speech last year in which he implicitly criticised the monarchy. Today, the police announced that they will file lese majeste charges against him, and consequently he has resigned from the cabinet.

To introduce a motion in parliament, 126 MPs are required to sponsor it, and last week there were 164 MPs signed up to support the constitution amendment. However, a PAD campaign to impeach the sponsors gave some of them cold feet. Today, the number dropped to only 124, so the motion cannot proceed. The government had originally intended to amend two articles in the 2007 constitution. When it became clear that the amendment was merely a desperate attempt to avoid the dissolution of the PPP following the Yongyuth verdict, Samak proposed a more substantial rewrite, to be decided by a referendum.

Despite the events of today, the PAD [People Against Democracy?] rally is set to continue, and indeed the group is becoming more militant. They are now calling for the dissolution of parliament, a demand they must realise is unrealistic. Are they deliberately provoking the army into another coup?

Protect Our Internet petition

An online petition has been launched, to protest against the Thai police investigation into websites with potentially lese majeste content. The police were alerted by Democrat Assistant Secretary-General Thepthai Senpong, and the petition demands that lese majeste must no longer be used as a party-political weapon. Visit gopetition.com/online/19589.html to sign the petition.

here we go again...

They say that history repeats itself, and in Thai politics that appears to be true. Yesterday, the People's Alliance for Democracy organised a mass rally in Bangkok, calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister. Why do I feel a bad case of deja vu? Because the PAD did exactly the same thing two years ago. The only difference is that the target this time is Samak whereas last time it was Thaksin.

The PAD's street protests against Thaksin in 2006 led to the dissolution of parliament, Thaksin's resignation, and, ultimately, to Sonthi's coup.

The current political situation is just as volatile as that of 2006, with Samak intending to revise the constitution at any cost. (Now he plans to have a referendum on the issue, even though the current constitution was approved in a referendum less than a year ago.) Anupong Paochinda, who was appointed army chief after Sonthi's resignation, initially seemed to have formed a mutual understanding with Samak, though the atmosphere is tense once again due to Jakrapob Penkair's comments about the monarchy.

In a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand last year, Jakrapob directly criticised Prem (the King's right-hand man, rumoured to be the puppet-master of the 2006 coup) and indirectly criticised the King himself. Despite pressure from all sides, he has so far refused to resign, and Samak has refused to sack him. In a rather intimidating announcement, Anupong let it be known that the army will not tolerate any provocations against "the highest institution". (Thai politics is full of innuendo: Rama IX is "the highest institution", Thaksin's cronies are "the old power clique", and Prem is [presumably] the "invisible hand".)

The People's Alliance for Democracy is, despite its name, absolutely undemocratic. It campaigned for the resignation of democratically-elected PM Thaksin, it supported the military coup in 2006, and now it's calling for Samak's resignation, even though he won a general election less than half a year ago.

Personally, I dislike self-serving Samak, but I dislike the undemocratic PAD even more. If they're not careful, they'll provoke yet another coup. The central problem, though, is the military: if everyone has to tread on eggshells to avoid angering the generals then the army has far too much power.

websites under investigation

Twenty-nine websites are currently being investigated by Thai police, due to concerns that they contain lese majeste content:

1. youtube.com/stoplesemajeste
2. 2519me.com
3. hellosiam.blogspot.com
4. rukchard.blogspot.com
5. chakridynasty.googlepages.com
6. midnightuniv.org
7. sameskybooks.org
8. prachatai.com
9. newskythailand.com
10. chupong.net
11. sapaprachachon.blogspot.com
12. pccthai.com
13. datopido.newsit.es
14. serichon.com
15. sapaprachachon.org
16. s125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/nicolejung99/?
17. weloveudon.net
18. mvnews.net
19. cptradio.com
20. thaipeoplevoice.org
21. nationsiam.com
22. arayachon.org
23. siamreview.net
24. warotah.blogspot.com
25. killerpress.wordpress.com
26. gunner2007.wordpress.com
27. tltglobal.com
28. thaijournalistdemocraticfront.com
29. secondclass111.com

A few of these twenty-nine sites are currently blocked: sameskybooks.org (accused of lese majeste earlier this month), youtube.com/stoplesemajeste (blocked since last month), and chakridynasty.googlepages.com. Despite removing contentious content, sapaprachachon.org is also blocked. Prachatai.com was briefly blocked last week, though is now accessible. Some sites have been deleted by their webmasters: gunner2007.wordpress.com, thaijournalistdemocraticfront.com, pccthai.com, and sapaprachachon.blogspot.com.

Under the terms of the Computer Crime Act, a court order is required before a website can be blocked, though ICT Minister Man Pattanothai has assured ISPs that they will face no penalties if they block 'offensive' sites. He has even admitted that, because applying for a court order would lead to accusations of censorship, he considers it better to (illegally) suppress provocative sites. (Man is the replacement for Sittichai, who resigned as ICT Minister last year.)

The Top Thai Blogs

My blog is at #34 (from a total of 131) in the Top Thailand Blogs chart, at whatismatt.com/top100 - more votes would be appreciated!

sameskybooks.org & prachatai.com accused

Two websites, sameskybooks.org and prachatai.com, have been accused of lese majeste by Sunimit Jirasuk, a Thai citizen. Sunimit claims that both websites have hosted comments from people who support Chotisak Oonsoong (who was accused of lese majeste after he committed the 'crime' of refusing to stand up for the royal anthem).

Same Sky's website was shut down earlier this year; it moved to a temporary host, then returned to its original location. Yesterday, the site was inaccessible, though a barebones version is available now; it will be fully restored in the next few days. Prachatai's website has featured extensive news coverage of the Chotisak case (significantly more than the mainstream Thai media), including an article by Sulak Sivaraksa.

Sunimit is a private citizen, yet he can accuse anyone of lese majeste whenever he likes. Lese majeste carries not only a potentially long prison sentence but also a huge social stigma in Thailand, yet such accusations can be made by anyone against anyone. (Chotisak was also accused by a private citizen, Navamintr Witthayakul.)

For libel or slander, only the person who has been directly affected can bring charges. Maybe this rule should also be applied to lese majeste. The law itself is rather anachronistic, anyway, because those found guilty are routinely pardoned. This reinforces the image of royal benevolence, though it might be simpler to repeal the law.

Inside Out Outside In

Gallery VER, Bangkok, hosted a short season of indie films by Thunska Pansittivorakul and Panu Aree from 18th to 20th April. The event, Inside Out Outside In, featured a complete retrospective of both directors.

Panu Aree's first film, Once Upon A Time, is a compilation of home movie footage of his family at an amusement park, and was edited by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His other films are: Destiny, Postcards From Kaosan Road, In Between, The Magic Water, Stills, Parallel, The Lost Highway, and Silent Lights.

Thunska's excellent Middle-Earth originally screened at the 11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival, and his recent films Soak and Action! were screened at the 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival.

Thunska's early short films are:

Private Life
(Thunska's first film: he drives to the beach with his boyfriend, but they never make it and can't find the time or place to be alone with each other)

Lovesickness (aka Just A Life II)
(a man in his studio apartment, with only a goldfish for company; he treats it obsessively as a partner: feeding it rice, washing it with soap, and ejaculating into its water)

...for Shiw Ping 28/12/97
(faces filmed in negative, and footage of a rainstorm: Thunska's memories of his relationship with Ping in 1997)

Sigh
(two men have sex, with the images filtered by double-exposures, rapid editing, and low resolution)

Chemistry
(a man narrates his formative sexual experiences in voice-over)

Life Show
(a young actor is interviewed about his illicit sex-life, with nudity and smoking censored in the style of Thai TV)

After Shock
(a man masturbating in a boat; made for the Ministry of Culture in response to the 2004 tsunami)

Unseen Bangkok
(a split-screen film: a nude hustler discusses his clients, and a covert recording of a man taking a shower)

Endless Story
(a slideshow of Thunska's personal and graphic snapshots)

Vous Vous Souviens De Moi?
(a short story about a robot who cannot feel love, narrated over images of a nude man in an apartment)

Out Of Control
(a group of boys playing on a beach)

You Are Where I Belong To
(Thunska filming people he meets in Japan, as he tries to forget his ex-boyfriend)

Thunska's feature-length documentaries Voodoo Girls and Happy Berry (and the short sequel Happy Berry: Oops I Did It Again; all featuring frank discussions between groups of Thai youngsters), and his music video Blinded Spot (for Soundlanding) were also screened.

petition for Chotisak

In Thai cinemas, the royal anthem is played before every film. While the anthem is played, it is customary for the audience to stand, as a mark of respect for the King.

Every time I've been to the cinema here, I've always stood up when the royal anthem is played, and I've never noticed anyone not standing up. However, on 20th September last year, Chotisak Oonsoong remained seated during the anthem, and now a member of the audience has accused him of lese majeste! The police have, incredibly, accepted the case, and Chotisak faces up to fifteen years in jail if he is convicted!

Surely standing up for the anthem is a courtesy, not a legal requirement? An online petition (petitiononline.com/Chotisak) has been launched to protest against this vindictive misuse of the law.

youtube.com user blocked in Thailand

Two websites (youtube.com/stoplesemajeste and 15yearsprison.blogspot.com) by a youtube.com user criticising Thailand's lese majeste law have been blocked by TOT.

martial law lifted in most provinces

When he staged his coup in 2006, Sonthi declared martial law throughout Thailand. In Bangkok and forty other provinces, martial law was lifted in January 2007. Yesterday, it was announced that martial law will be lifted in most (but not quite all) of the remaining provinces. It remains in force in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and Songkhla, due to the terrorist activities of southern separatists.

Songkran in Pattaya

For Songkran this year, we (Dech and I) have returned to The Rabbit, a lovely resort hotel in Jomtien, Pattaya. We have been twice before: once in 2006, and last year with my parents.

Syndromes & Century (Thailand's edition)

Following the rejection of his appeal against the Thai censorship of his film Syndromes & A Century, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has agreed to present a censored version of the film for Thai audiences. It will be screened at Paragon Cineplex, starting today (preceded by a panel discussion with Apichatpong at 6pm), for the next fortnight.

Silent leader footage will be projected in place of six censored scenes, to draw attention to the censorship of the film. In a stroke of genius, each ticket comes with a free Syndromes & A Century postcard, which features photographs of the censored scenes and links to youtube.com where the censored footage can be seen, thus making a mockery of the censor's decision.

another photo for Samak

Earlier this year, Samak claimed that, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, only one person was killed during the 1976 massacre at Thammasat University.

Now, in today's Bangkok Post, Samak is quoted thus: "I have never seen anyone coming out to protest against the charter of the coup-makers". Although the coup-makers suppressed many demonstrators who protested against the military constitution, there were still numerous public demonstrations. The photograph above shows a demonstration calling for a 'no' vote outside Siam Center in Bangkok, in case Samak's memory needs jogging.

Samak is pretending not to remember any opposition to the current constitution because he wants to claim a mandate to amend certain parts of it as soon as possible. Specifically, article 309 legitimises all actions of the CNS (including the criminal investigation into Thaksin's finances), and article 237 calls for the dissolution of any political party whose executive members engage in poll fraud. Samak is well aware that the EC case against Yongyuth could result in the dissolution of the PPP, and is attempting to remove article 237 before the final verdict in the Yongyuth case is announced.

Personally, I'd be only too pleased to see article 309 dropped from the constitution, because its legitimisation of the coup was one of the reasons why I was against the 2007 constitution in the first place. Also, if only one party executive is corrupt and the rest of the party is genuinely innocent, perhaps the dissolution of the entire party as required by article 237 is too strong. But blatantly rushing through these changes merely in order to save the PPP's skin is not the way to go about it.

Tomyam Pladib

Tomyam Pladib, which opened on 19th March until 5th June, is an exhibition of Thai and Japanese art hosted by the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok. The exhibition features Emerald, a video by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Emerald is the name of an abandoned Bangkok hotel, and Apichatpong's slow-moving camera films the hotel's deserted rooms filled with floating white feather-like objects. The effect is elegiac and contemplative, evoking the memories of the hotel's long-departed guests.

Apichatpong discussed his various films and videos in a presentation this evening (Apichatpong On Video Works). He explained the origins of his multi-screen video installations (one of the more surprising sources being Thai melodramas), and played extracts from several of his films. He also screened a few short films in full: Ghost Of Asia (a man follows the instructions of a group of children), 0116643225059 (a telephone call between the director and his mother), and The Anthem (a wonderful overture to cinema, first screened at the 11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival). There was also a short Q&A session with the director.

5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival

The 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival began yesterday.

This year's event, organised by Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Project 304 (project304.org/beff5), has The More Things Change... as its central theme. There will be two programmes commenting on post-Thaksin political instability (Learned Behaviour, 27th March at 8.30pm and 30th March at 2pm; Track Changes, 26th March at 8.30pm and 30th March at 6pm). Both of these programmes will include films from Spoken Silence at the 11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival, including Middle-Earth in Learned Behaviour. Another highlight is sure to be Thaiindie Buffet, featuring a selection of independent Thai films (Thaiindie Showcase, 29th March at 8pm) and music videos (Experimental Music Videos, 27th March).

This evening, the Sompot+Thunska programme featured three works by Sompot Chidgasornpongse (Naoko Is Trying To Teach Me How To Make Tonkatsu In One Minute, 8,241.46 Miles Away From Home, and Landscape 101 01 1101 01...) and two new films by Thunska (Action! and Soak). There was also a Q&A session with Thunska.

Action! is a short compilation of out-takes from Zart Tanchareon's film God Man, featuring the actor Sitthipong Prempridi. Sitthipong died last year, and Action! is Thunska's tribute to him.

Soak stars Saifah Tanthana, who is filmed swimming in the sea (during which the soundtrack is dominated by the gurgling of the water) and riding a motorcycle, with the video camera representing Thunska's gaze. The film is an extended, improvised sequel to Thunska's first film, Private Life. It also recalls his film You Are Where I Belong To, which briefly features Thunska filming a man as they paddle in the sea.

The Bangkok Experimental Film Festival runs from yesterday until Sunday, primarily at Esplanade Cineplex.

MICT will hack websites!