Amnesty International finally speaks out against lese majeste

In September 2009 I noted the failure of Amnesty International to take sufficient action in response to lese majeste cases. At the time I wrote to Amnesty International's London office to ask Amnesty to take action on the case of Darunee Charnchoengsilpakul (aka Da Torpedo) who in 2009 was sentence to 18 years in prison for lese majeste. In my letter I wrote that Amnesty's failure to take action on this issue undermined the core principle which the organisation stood for, the universality of human rights.

Finally Amnesty International has spoken out on the issue with a statement titled "Thailand: Reverse backward slide in freedom of expression" on its website (via Prachathai). The statement says, "Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law." It also mentions Suwicha Thakhor and Darunee Chanchoengsilapakul who are both currently serving prison sentences for lese majeste.

The statement says that the lese majeste law supersedes the constitution and "goes beyond the permissible restrictions on freedom of expression provided for under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)." Furthermore it also mentions the 2007 Computer-related Crimes Act. It says the Act has been used to block tens of thousands of websites and this is another violation of the ICCPR.

The statement ends by saying that Amnesty supports the Prime Minister's initiative to review the law and encourages the government to amend the law in line with international standards. The government should suspend the use of the law until changes are made and the government should stop censoring websites on the grounds of upholding the lese majeste law.

It is good that Amnesty International has finally spoken out on this issue. Their previous silence seriously undermined their credibility in addressing human rights issues in Thailand. I hope that Amnesty will also launch campaigns for the release of Suwicha Thakhor and Darunee Chanchoengsilapakul.

2009 INEB Conference

The biennial conference of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) was held in Chiang Mai this month. The conference marked INEB's 20th anniversary. I was involved in organising the conference in Taiwan in 2007 and in Thailand in 2001. I didn't attend this time, but came across a couple of reports online.

Brooke Schedneck, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University, writes about the conference at Wandering Dhamma (also posted on New Mandala). The Clear View Project has a report from Alan Senauke, a long term member of INEB (link via Rev. Danny Fisher). Alan also reports on the Think Sangha meeting that followed the INEB conference. (Update: Priyadarshi Telang from TBMSG's Jambudvipa project also has a report.)

The conference statement below comes from the Clear View Project website.

INEB CONFERENCE STATEMENT

This week in Chiang Mai the International Network of Engaged Buddhists celebrated its 20th anniversary with a successful conference dedicated to peace and social transformation. As kalyanamitta, more than two hundred socially engaged Buddhists from twenty-five countries – from Asia and the Pacific region, from North America and Europe – joined together for study, dialogue, and dharma practice, committing ourselves to work for peace.

We affirm our deep belief that the suffering of society – war, racism, poverty, gender oppression, destruction of the environment, and cultural degradation – can be transformed into liberation for all beings.

We affirm and have seen ourselves that peace can arise from even the fiercest of conflicts.

Together we confronted critical concerns that affect life on this precious and fragile planet:

• the intertwined disasters of consumerism and environmental destruction;
• the vital need to empower and educate young people;
• the pervasive oppression of women, and all gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered men & women;
• the denial of human rights and meaningful livelihood;
• the need to preserve Buddhism and all traditional culture and religion;
• and the obscenity of war, civil strife, and violence.

These concerns, wherever they arise in the world are our concerns. They are close to our hearts. In the Buddha's way and in the way of every great religion, we know that we must meet this suffering not with faith alone, but with all our efforts and action day by day.

— 17 November 2009

Understanding the sex industry

Many people that visit Thailand will come into contact with the sex industry in some way. It is a topic that many people hold very strong opinions about. The issue is very complex and there are no simple answers to the problems associated with it. In order to better understand the issues I have tried to read as much as I can on the topic. I have made a list of brief reviews of books that offer a variety of insights into the sex industry and prostitution in Asia, and in particular Thailand.

This page was formerly hosted at the now defunct Geocities. Click on the links to buy the books direct from Amazon.com or the publisher.

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Invisible Trade: High-class sex for sale in Singapore
by Gerrie Lim
Monsoon Books, Singapore, 2004
ISBN: 9810510330

This book offers many fascinating insights into a world most people will never have the chance (or money) to visit. It examines high-class escort services in Singapore. The book is based on interviews with women working in the industry.

Escorting is in many ways sophisticated and glamourous. However, ultimately it is still about selling sex. It is just that it comes packaged with conversation and companionship -- and a high price tag. It is very interesting to read about what some clients ask their escorts to do -- often it doesn't involve sex. Cross dressing, auto-asphyxiation, foot fetishes and BDSM are among the more peculiar things that clients are interested in and willing to pay large sums of money for.

The stories for the most part reveal women that are confident and self-assured about what they doing. High pay, international travel, designer clothes and gifts from generous clients make it a rewarding career choice. Although at times it reveals they must face their inner demons and insecurities. They also have difficulty forming long-term relationships.

For a well written, inside look at the sex industry from the perspective of its workers this book is a must read.

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Whispers and Moans
by Yeeshan Yang
Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, 2006
ISBN: 9628673289

This book offers many insights into the sex industry in Hong Kong. The author spent time speaking to workers in all sectors of the industry and through gaining their trust she has created a magnificent reference. From drug-addicted street walkers to high-class hostesses and gigolos, a myriad of perspectives are offered.

A movie based on the book has also been released with the same title, Whispers and Moans. If you expect to be titillated the movie will disappoint, but I think it has done a good job of presenting the issues in the book on screen.

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Only 13
by Julia Manzanares and Derek Kent
Only 13 Publications, 2005
ISBN: 0977284107

If you want to read an inside story of Thailand's sex industry from the perspective of woman who worked in it read this book. It is a no-holds-barred expose of not just the Thai sex industry, but poverty and corruption in Thailand.

At the age of 13 Lon left her village in Isaan hoping to escape poverty. She soon found herself working in Bangkok's sex industry. On one level she was successful; she made a lot of money which allowed her to live a comfortable life and support her family. However, the personal cost was very great and she was exploited and deceived in many ways. She speaks with the powerful and determined voice of an activist making clear the injustice that she and many other girls have suffered.

This book is one of the few books I have found that gives an honest and detailed account of the life a sex worker.

NOTE: This book was originally published in Thailand with the title My Name Lon... You Like Me?. More information about the book can be found at www.only13.net.

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Travels in the Skin Trade: Tourism and the Sex Industry
by Jeremy Seabrook
Pluto Press, London, 1996
ISBN: 0745311156

Seabrook is a veteran journalist and he uses his skills to good effect in this investigation of sex tourism in Thailand. He looks at the many sides to the issues. He interviews with men that come to Thailand looking for sex and relationships and also people working to help and empower the women working in the sex industry. He also sees the problems of sex tourism as part of a broader pattern of exploitation of the South by the North.

Written in the mid 1990s, the HIV epidemic that then seemed imminent never happened. This is one of the few public policy successes in Thailand. However, the corruption and other problems detailed in book are still present today -- little has changed.

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Sex Slaves: the Trafficking of Women in Asia
by Louise Brown
Virago Press, London, 2000
ISBN: 1860499031

This is a well researched and insightful look at the sex industry in Asia. The author has done in country research in Thailand, Cambodia, Japan and on the Indian sub-continent. The book shows how women are trafficked into and controlled in the sex industry. It also highlights the difficulties many women face if they want to leave the industry.

The author makes it quite clear about the fact she is totally opposed to prostitution and the injustices associated with it. This quote from the book summarises very well the root causes of the abuse of women and children in the sex industry.

Let us make no mistake, prostitution is not just about poverty. It is a business founded upon all sorts of inequalities. It is a business that is constructed out of the distorted relations between men and women, between the poor and rich and between the minorities and mainstream of a society. (p. 60)

The point, in essence, is that only if patriarchy, poverty and racism can be eliminated, can the problems associated with prostitution be resolved.

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Sex and Borders: Gender, National Identity, and Prostitution Policy in Thailand
by Leslie Ann Jeffrey
Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 2002
ISBN: 9747551861

Rather than being about the sex industry in Thailand per se, this book looks at how public policy has been used to manipulate national identity in Thailand with particular reference to gender politics and prostitution. It helps to explain the reasons why a mainstream feminism movement has never developed in Thailand. The book is very academic in its tone and extensively footnoted, but still quite readable.

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Hello My Big Big Honey!: Love letters to Bangkok bar girls and their revealing interviews
by Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich
White Lotus, Bangkok, 1992
ISBN: 9748876195

This book is made up of love letters sent to bar girls by their farang customers and interviews with bar girls. The letters are alternately romantic, sad and just plain crazy. They are filled with love, lust, longing and loneliness. In contrast the interviews with the women reveal concerns with matters much more mundane. The women's primary concerns are money, their health and securing their future. Some women do admit to genuinely loving some of their customers, but for the most part they consider the relationships as simply business.

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Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: Thailand's Illegal Economy and Public Policy
by Pasuk Phongpaichat, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nualnoi Treerat
Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 1998
ISBN: 9747100754

This book is thoroughly researched and reveals the inner workings of the illegal economy in Thailand. The sex industry and trafficking of women and children makes up only part of the illegal economy. The most interesting thing about this book is that it shows how deep the problem of corruption in the police force is and how that is a big obstacle to better law enforcement. It also details how the tentacles of the illegal economy stretch to manipulate the electoral process in Thailand. With respect to the sex industry it provides some reliable statistics about the size of the industry.

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Private Dancer
by Stephen Leather
Three Elephants, Thailand, 2005
ISBN: 9749275535

The shelves of Bangkok's bookshops are filled with fictional works set around go-go bars. They are usually tales of romance, lust, betrayal and intrigue. Amongst them all this book looked like it might offer something a little bit different and more insightful.

What makes this book interesting is the way it is alternately narrated by different characters taking part in the story. The book revolves around two main characters: Pete, an English guidebook writer living in Bangkok and Joy, a young Thai lady dancing in a go-go bar in Nana Plaza. The way two people can have such different perceptions of the same events highlights the enormous cultural divide that exists between Thai bar girls and their farang customers.

Private Dancer is both an entertaining read and an informative look at the farang-oriented sector of the sex industry in Thailand. While it does at times seem unsympathetic to Thai culture the book finishes up as a cautionary moral tale.

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Trafficked - New Internationalist No. 404 September 2007

The September 2007 issue of New Internationalist Magazine was on the theme of sex trafficking. All the articles are available online at the New Internationalist website.

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List of books to read

• Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration by Craig McGill
• The Wisdom of Whores by Elizabeth Pisani
• Trafficked (Briefings) by Kathleen Maltzahn

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon.com affilliate links.

Amnesty fails on lese majeste

Thailand: Amnesty criticised on lese majeste issue

The issue of lese majeste is again in the news following the 18 year prison sentence given to Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul. International human rights groups including Amnesty International have come under criticism for their failure to take sufficient action in lese majeste cases. Political Prisoners in Thailand says that Amnesty should be ashamed of its position on the issue. Bangkok Pundit also criticises Amnesty's response.

*Post from Global Voices used under Creative Commons licence.

Nick Nostitz's report on red shirt protests

Photojournalist Nick Nostitz has written a detailed eyewitness account of the red shirt protests with photos at New Mandala. His account begins on 26 March and ends on 14 April with the red shirts surrendering. It helps paint a picture of the situation on the ground as events unfolded and the feelings and attitudes of the red shirts.

Update: The Bangkok Post has a timeline of the red shirt protests. It provides a brief summary of the key events that happened over the same period as Nick's report.

Thitinan: our country is governed by an establishment

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, in an op-ed in the New York Times (link via BP), contains this quote which eloquently sums up the failure of democracy in Thailand.

Westerners think of Thailand as a democracy, ruled by the will of the majority. In reality, our country is governed by an establishment made up of the monarchy, military and bureaucracy. Elections are held, but if the establishment doesn’t like the winning party, the government is dissolved. Unable to rely on the ballot box, people take to the streets.

Shawn Crispin wrote something similar in the Asia Times.

Thailand's conflict is more accurately portrayed as a struggle between competing elites, both able to mobilize disruptive masses to their political calls, jockeying for position ahead of an uncertain royal succession.

Thitinan's editorial concludes,

The onus rests on Mr. Abhisit and his backers. The elite must stand aside and let the power of the ballot carry the day. We need to discard the undemocratic provisions of the 2007 Constitution and replace them with elements of its popularly drafted 1997 precursor. We need a fully elected legislature, courts that can make impartial decisions on election outcomes and independent watchdog agencies.

By Tuesday afternoon people were out everywhere, celebrating what was left of the New Year. But don’t be fooled by this uneasy calm. Until Thailand becomes a true democracy, we can expect more chaos in the streets.

I sincerely hope both peace and democracy prevail.

The Economist from 1932 to 2009

The Economist has taken a fearless approach to reporting on a subject that was once unmentionable -- the role of the Thai royal family in politics. Its December 2008 edition carried two articles which frankly discussed the monarchy's role in Thai politics. The issue was not distributed in Thailand, and subsequent issues of The Economist which have contained articles with references to the monarchy have not been distributed in Thailand. The articles have all been available on The Economist's website and no doubt translated and circulated to some degree in Thailand.

A few days ago The Economist published a report from its archives on the 1932 Siamese Revolution on its website. The full text follows.

Last Friday a successful revolution was achieved in Siam by the officers—or a clique among the officers—of the naval and military forces. The heir to the throne and the chief of police were placed under arrest; and the King, who was not in Bangkok when the coup was carried out, returned to the capital and accepted the fait accompli. The only casualty seems to have one high military officer, who was shot and wounded in the act of resisting arrest; and this sole victim is happily expected to recover. The revolutionaries deprecate the application of the term “revolution” to their work; but a revolution does not cease to be a revolution when it is accomplished without loss of life; and this Siamese specimen is not difficult to classify and pigeon-hole. Like the recent alarums and excursions in Chile, the present upheaval in Siam is evidently a political expression of the malaise produced by the pressure of the economic crisis. But the crisis has caught Siam in a different stage of social development from some of these other countries; and accordingly, this Siamese revolution had taken rather a different form. While our Latin-American revolutionaries move in an endless cycle from one dictator or one junta to another, and while the Japanese Fascists are moving backwards from a pseudo-constitutional regime towards a one-party tyranny, the Siamese revolutionaries are moving in the opposite direction—from absolute monarchy towards self-government. This Siamese affair is a movement, engineered by military officers, for securing a parliamentary constitution; and the nearest obvious modern analogy is the Turkish revolution of 1908. In Siam, as in Turkey, the military officers are the political radicals because they are the element in the country which has been the most deeply imbued with Western ideas. The economic crisis brought the political movement in Siam to a dénouement by imposing the necessity for an increase in taxation—an increase which the late Government attempted to provide for by imposing a tax on salaries. The Siamese peasantry, whose minds are hardly touched yet by Westernisation, and whose taxes have actually been lightened, seem to have been passive spectators. It remains to be see how these peasant masses will get on with the small and rather exotic Westernised intelligentsia if the intelligentsia now comes into effective power through the curious semi-democratic constitution to which the King has now agreed.

The 18 April 2009 print edition of The Economist has also been withheld from circulation in Thailand. It contains an article titled The trouble with the king. Here are the paragraphs which no doubt ensured the magazine can't be sold in Thailand.

If the correspondent had in mind something like the Dutch monarchy off shopping on their bicycles, in Thailand that vision got hijacked on the way to the supermarket. Today King Bhumibol Adulyadej, at 81 the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has actually accrued power over the years, and remains central to Thailand’s political chaos. This helps explain one bizarre episode among many in the country’s latest crisis. At a time when large-scale bloodshed seemed possible as the army confronted anti-government “red shirt” protesters in Bangkok, Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed in a coup in 2006, gave a television interview. His voice quaking with emotion, and doubtless recalling the king’s famous televised carpeting of an army chief and a protest leader after a massacre in Bangkok in 1992, he beseeched “his majesty” to intervene again to end the showdown.

Yet Mr Thaksin, in exile and convicted in absentia of corruption, is accused by his opponents of being a closet republican. And he has indeed come close to criticising the palace, by demanding the resignation of two of the king’s privy councillors, widely assumed to be behind the 2006 coup. When “yellow shirt” protesters laid siege to the government led by Mr Thaksin’s loyalists late last year, they did so invoking the king’s name. Yet now even Mr Thaksin felt obliged to profess again his loyalty to the king, and to pay homage to his power.

Such regal influence was far from preordained when the king came to the throne as a stripling, the American-born son of a half-Chinese commoner. He and his image were moulded by palace advisers and by successive military governments. They saw how useful it would be to have a figurehead depicted as not merely beyond reproach but very nearly divine, for the king’s blessing could then legitimise what otherwise would look awfully like any old Latin American junta, in Thailand’s case backed by business cronies and the Bangkok elite. The need helps explain why a king held supposedly in wonder by his subjects warrants one of the world’s most draconian laws against lèse-majesté. The king has been not just a figurehead for Thailand’s elites, but a source of patronage and power in his own right, with destabilising consequences, especially now his reign is in its fumbling twilight. He has long bestowed honours in exchange for donations to his good causes. The causes may benefit his beloved rural poor, but the patronage system perpetuates royal influence.

*Many thanks to Bangkok Pundit and Political Prisoners in Thailand for their excellent blogging which has been the source of many useful links and information for me.

Black Songkran 2009

They are calling it Black Songkran. Instead of the usual fun and water throwing there were bullets and petrol bombs on the streets of Bangkok. For the moment at least calm has returned, but the fundamental conflict has not been resolved. It is probably only a matter of time before there are more red shirt protests with the potential for more violence. There is a lot of news to digest, so here I will collect links to some articles with brief quotes.

BBC journalist Jonathan Head sums the whole situation up well writing that there are no winners. There are also no leaders that can mediate between the two sides and create a peaceful resolution.

There appear to be no towering, Obama-like figures in Thailand, who can win the respect of both camps. Certainly not Mr Abhisit, who often looks uncomfortably out of place in the rural, red heartlands of the north and north-east.

How he deals with the leaders of the "red uprising" now - and how that compares with the treatment given to last year's "yellow uprising" - will be an important test of his promise to uphold the rule of law impartially.

So the conflict which erupted so spectacularly in Bangkok and Pattaya over the past week will probably rumble on, steadily eroding the confidence of investors, tourists and the Thai people, in a stable future for their country.

Much of the problem is rooted in the lack of justice and rule of law. David Streckfuss writes that all parties involved must stand and face the justice system.

The PAD said it needed to seize the airport. UDD leaders said the coup was illegal and the PAD has not been punished. They said therefore that they had to apply pressure by closing down the roads and wreaking havoc on the activities of the government.

But what about dropping all the discussion of "necessity" and "justification" for breaking the law, and an honest declaration: "I knowingly broke the law and will serve the time." Period.

The simple and evident truth becomes obscured through partisan rationalisations which appears (and is) self-serving hypocrisy.

Every Thai political leader claims to be acting for the good of the nation, and says much about sacrifice. A sacrifice would entail adopting a noble attitude, and a willingness to suffer the consequences for doing something you believed in.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak also addresses issues of justice. She writes that the red shirts are expressing anger at injustice in Thai society.

The undercurrents against establishment forces should not be underestimated. The lack of recognition and accommodation will make these undercurrents pent-up and dangerous.

The onus for the way ahead now rests on Mr Abhisit and his supporters. The reds' miscalculated gamble has made their months-long movement futile. What is needed next is the willingness of the establishment forces to accept, address and accommodate the reds' sense of injustice and inequality.

Otherwise the demands for greater social justice and share of the pie may well reappear in other shapes, forms and colours down the road.

Giles Ungpakorn was part of the red shirt movement and fled Thailand to escape lese majeste charges. He describes the conflict as a class war for a genuine democracy and a challenge to the monarchy.

What we have been seeing in Thailand since late 2005 is a growing class war between the poor and the old elites. It is, of course, not a pure class war. Due to a vacuum on the left in the past, millionaire and populist politicians like Thaksin Shinawatra have managed to provide leadership to the poor.

The urban and rural poor, who form the majority of the electorate, are the Red Shirts. They want the right to choose a democratically elected government. They started out as passive supporters of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai government, but have since formed a new citizens' movement they call Real Democracy.

[...]

Yet the Red Shirts are not merely Thaksin puppets. They are self-organised in community groups, and some are showing frustration with Thaksin's lack of progressive leadership, especially over his insistence that they be "loyal" to the crown.

Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly, academics at ANU and authors of New Mandala, also discuss the role of the monarchy. It was not so long ago that this topic was barely mentioned, but from Paul Handley's 2006 book The King Never Smiles to the more recent articles that saw issues of The Economist withdrawn from sale in Thailand, the monarchy and its role in Thai politics is now coming under regular scrutiny in the international media. Walker and Farrelly write,

When the smoke clears, there will, of course, be vigorous attempts to put the royal genie back into its gilded and apolitical bottle. Legal restrictions on royal commentary will be enforced with increasing gusto. Thais who dare speak up about the country’s political realities will face the risk of heavy legal sanctions. International commentators calling for free speech will be vilified as cultural imperialists seeking to impose western values on the loyal subjects of the Thai king. But these attempts to impose silence won’t work because each clamp-down on royal discussion generates yet another, more penetrating, round of debate, speculation and, in some cases, irreverence.

With or without Thaksin’s latest provocations, and whatever the ultimate fate of the red-shirts, the extraordinary events of the past few years mean that silence on Thailand’s monarchy is no longer a viable option.

The Economist, which has consistently good analysis of Thai politics, ponders on the future direction Thailand might take.

Many Thais are heartily sick of the crisis and its enormous damage to the economy in terms of lost investment and tourists. Another military coup is rumoured, although it is unclear where the army’s political inclinations lie. Presumably Mr Abhisit’s days are numbered as prime minister, though who might succeed him is anyone’s guess. Mr Thaksin hopes to ride the protests and return to power. Yet with plenty of scores to settle, his would presumably be a brittle and autocratic rule at a time when reconciliation is badly needed. Fresh elections are probably the best bet, with the promise of a search for a broad political consensus for constitutional change to allow a more representative politics. For now, with violence in the streets again, Thailand teeters on the brink.

It seems Abhisit has clung onto power for now, although it is only a matter of time before he faces another challenge. Ensuring that all those responsible for violence in the past few months -- the red shirts, yellow shirts and the army -- face the justice system would help strengthen his position and give him credibility. If the red shirts are really committed to achieving democracy they need to spend some time spelling out their agenda. I suggest possibly returning to the 1997 constitution, with some amendments, followed by fresh parliamentary elections. Whatever happens all sides must work for a peaceful resolution. Thailand cannot afford to be torn apart by violence. It is the ordinary, working class people that would have to pay the highest price.

Democracy in crisis

Thailand's democratic crisis

By Tyrell Haberkorn

The turbulent polarisation between "red" and "yellow" political camps in Thailand is a symptom of a deeper disorder, says Tyrell Haberkorn.

[Originally published at openDemocracy on 14 April 2009. Republished under a Creative Commons licence.]

Thai citizens are again living under a state of emergency and the threat of bloodshed. The successive mass mobilisations by supporters of the "yellow" and "red" camps could in other circumstances be seen as evidence of a vibrant engagement with democratic politics; in the context of the near-meltdown of Thailand's constitutional order, they are more symptoms of a dangerous crisis. Where does Thailand go from here?

The most recent events are part of a series that began in 2005-06 when members of the fledgling Peoples' Alliance for Democracy (PAD) first donned yellow shirts and called for the removal of the elected prime minister and head of the Thai Rak Thai party, Thaksin Shinawatra. The demonstrators had their wish when (in September 2006) the military ousted the populist Thaksin, who had already left the country amid outstanding conflict-of-interest charges (on which he was to be convicted in October 2008) but who has retained much of his popularity among Thailand's rural and poor people.

An inconclusive period of military rule was followed by elections in December 2007 that brought to power the People Power Party (PPP), a rebranded version of Thai Rak Thai. The "yellow" camp persisted in campaigning against this outcome; its activities reached a new peak when PAD demonstrators laid siege to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport (and the smaller Don Muang domestic airport) in November-December 2008. A court decision that ended the siege led to the resignation of the government and the appointment on 17 December of a new prime minister from the Democrat Party, the England-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva.

This did nothing to still the tumult; Thai politics have moved from the chaos of December to the deep crisis of April.

The meaning of chaos

The rhetoric has sharpened alongside the polarisation. From his exile, Thaksin Shinawatra addressed the red shirts on the evening of 12 April 2009 and commented: "Now that the military has brought tanks out on the streets, it's time for the people to come out for a revolution." It is reported too that Thaksin "has promised to return and lead it" (see "Thailand's ugly crisis", Economist, 13 April 2009).

The dangers of escalation are evident - even if a show of strength by the Thai military on the streets of Bangkok on 13 April defused the immediate protests. The most spectacular of these was in the resort town of Pattaya on 11 April, when the red-shirt activists calling for Abhisit's resignation invaded the site of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean's) annual summit. In forcing the summit's cancellation and the attending regional leaders' evacuation, the demonstrators followed the example of the airport siege in exposing Thailand's breakdown to an international audience.

Abhisit responded to the summit humiliation by declaring a state of emergency on 12 April covering Bangkok and the surrounding areas. This placed prohibitions on public gatherings and gave greater powers of arrest to the government. The red-shirt protestors were defiant: they continued to storm government buildings, surround the seat of government, and remain in the streets. At least some sought to go further, by confronting opponents and seeking to destroy buildings and vehicles. The army and other state forces responded with tear-gas, tanks and live bullets. Amid reports of government cover-ups and restriction of information, the precise number of the dead and injured on all sides is unknown.

How to characterise this chaos? The most convenient and perhaps plausible way is to see what is happening in Thailand as a straightforward contest for power between Abhisit Vejjajiva's government and Thaksin Shinawatra, symbolised in the colourful struggle between yellow and red shirts. The problem with this view is indicated by the fact that both groups claim to be supporting and embodying "democracy". The passionate appeals to principle and ideals cannot be ignored or dismissed. Thailand's crisis is about more than power alone.

Indeed, much more is at stake, even if it is hard to define exactly what. The historian Michael Montesano has identified the current situation as revolutionary, arguing that "neither an election nor a mediated process of reconciliation" will resolve it. But he leaves the content of this revolution unnamed, instead commenting that "the real significance of [the] debacle at Pattaya may lie in its prompting Asian leaders, along with the rest of us, to anticipate the process of revolutionary change on which Thailand now seems to have embarked" (see Michael Montesano, "On the brink, again", Straits Times, 13 April 2009).

The implication that Thailand's now lengthy series of protests represents a larger social movement is echoed by the political scientist Giles Ji Ungpakorn - now also (since February 2009) living abroad after accumulating threats to his freedom - who identifies growing republican tendencies within the red-shirt phenomenon that express a demand for participation in democracy by all Thai citizens (see "The Reds' Fight for Real Democracy", Guardian, 13 April 2009). The argument is that while some red shirts are mainline supporters of Thaksin, others are criticising the disproportionate role of elites in governance. The bus-drivers, workers, and young people protesting in Bangkok and in provincial centres have taken to the streets to stake their claim for a role in a future Thai society.

In this perspective, Thailand's disorder might be seen in terms of a longer view, where many of its people - under great economic pressures, and amid rooted structures of power - are seeking a transformation in the underlying social and political relations of rule. The warning contained in Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks seems apt in this respect: "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appears."

The colour of change

The morbid symptoms include a tide of repression - in particular, the curtailment of free speech - under Abhisit Vejjajiva's leadership. The conviction of the Australian novelist Harry Nicolaides has received the most international attention (which contributed to his release); but many more such cases of lese-majesté being prosecuted or investigated in 2009 of which Thais themselves are the main targets.

It was anticipation of a heavy sentence for alleged lesè majesté in his book on the military takeover of 2006 - A Coup for the Rich - that led Giles Ji Ungpakorn to flee to England. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the editor of the online newspaper Prachatai, was arrested in early March and her offices searched under the "computer-crimes" law of 2007; her alleged offence was vague and unspecified: not removing comments that contained content threatening to national security. Chiranuch is at the time of writing out on bail.

Suwicha Thakhor, an engineer, was sentenced to ten years in prison on 3 April 2009 on charges under both Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code (the lese-majesté law) and the computer-crimes law. Suwicha's alleged crime was posting an image insulting to the monarchy. Even after his conviction, the image or even a description of it has not been released. The expanded use of these two legal measures to silence any questioning, let alone criticism, of the royal institution in Thailand indicates a profound insecurity about its stability as well as the power of its political allies.

The repression of speech, the reconsolidation of the royal institution, violence in the streets, and a descent into bitter factional enmity - these morbid symptoms of Thailand's dysfunctional and unstable polity clearly have the potential to become mortal wounds.

Do they offer other potentials? Philip Bowring sees a possible "silver lining" in the current crisis: "It might still convince enough of the yellow shirts that demands for a full democracy will not go away, and enough of the red shirts that democracy unchecked by law easily leads to tyranny - and both of them that Thailand needs a monarch who is symbol of the entire nation" (see "What Shirt for Thailand?", New York Times, 13 April 2009). This assessment, however, leaves unquestioned the relationship between the enduring royal institution and the possibility of full democracy or the just use of law in Thailand. A lesson of this now lengthy crisis is that scrutiny of the sources and uses of power in the interests of strengthening democracy in Thailand and the participation of all citizens in governance is now needed.

The red shirts or yellow shirts alone will not provide an answer to Thailand's deep-rooted problems; neither will its existing elites and power-structures. The future of the country - whether that will involve a reconsolidation of the royal institution, a republic, or a not-yet-articulated third option (as Pavin Chachavalpongpun suggests) - is in the balance. What is clear amid much uncertainty is that any longer-term solution must find a way to accommodate the interests and voices of the mostly poor and working-class Thai citizens who have filled the streets in Bangkok and the provinces. The hour is late, but in the commitment of Thais to "democracy" lies a slender reed of hope.