An Open Letter
Ms Mallika Boonmetrakul, deputy spokeswoman of the opposition Democrat Party, has rushed out to collect political points in the aftermath of the lèse-majesté case in which a 61 year-old man named Amphon “Akong” Thangnoppakun was arrested for allegedly sending four text messages to the secretary of former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that insulted members of the royal family. Mallika proposed that in order to curb anti-monarchy elements, she would request the government to seek cooperation with those of other countries to close down websites that allow anti-monarchy messages. In extreme case, she wants the Yingluck Shinawatra government to totally close down all social networking sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, citing that the Chinese government has successfully implemented restrictions on these websites.
Ironically, her party has made use of Facebook in fielding the “Fight Bad Web” campaign together with the email <fightbadweb@gmail.com> to serve as a place where complaints can be lodged in regards to those who violate the Computer Act of 2008 in four areas: insulting the monarchy; threatening national security; lewd conduct; and drugs/gambling. She said,
Behaviour that can be perceived as damaging or destroying the much revered monarchical institution is now contagious, from social media to local salon, porridge stalls and coffee shops in the provinces. If the Police Chief wants to know where to find the culprits, I can take him to Payao, Lampang and Phrae.
I find it hard to believe in the seriousness of Mallika’s proposal. However, in delving into her own record and that of her party, I realise that this woman is very serious about what she has proposed. This is a party that has not won a single election since 1992. This is the oldest political party of Thailand which has long served the interests of the elite. Its ideology, or raw instinct (สันดาน), has never changed; that is, the organisation has no position in the promotion of democracy as suggested by the name of the party. In this case, it may as well change the name of the party to “Un-Democrat Party”, or indeed in accordance with Mallika’s suggestions, “Communist Party” (but comparing it in this way actually insults the actual communist party which usually had a strong stance and often challenged the establishment).
What Mallika has proposed will not be a boon to Thai democracy; it instead will undermine it. This is good example of a bad Thai politician; the brain is never put into gear before the mouth is set in motion. They never look at the broader picture of Thai democratisation. How will Thailand develop if Thai society is cloaked? How will the Thais progress if their eyes and ears are rendered ineffective? Fortunately, the Democrat Party is in opposition today. If not, there would be a chance that Thailand could become the North Korea of Southeast Asia. Even Thailand’s immediate neighbour—Burma—is now opening itself up after long years of restricting information in cyberspace. I cannot imagine how freedom of expression in Thailand could become worse than our Burmese neighbour.
Mallika should have examined the Democrat Party’s track record before offering such wild proposals. Under the Abhisit regime, Thailand agreed with the establishment of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights as a platform to promote and protect basic human rights including freedom of political expression. Perhaps Mallika forgot to do her homework. Perhaps she did not comprehend regional politics. Or perhaps she lacked an understanding of what constitutes human rights. Her proposals go against the tide of democratisation sweeping across many regions at the moment.
She must know that the problem with the Thai monarchy has deep roots. Closing down social network sites will only address the symptoms of the illness—rather than the causes. If they were shut down, then how would this impact the image of the country on the international stage? We are living in the 21stcentury where the world has become more globalised. How can we explain to our children the reason for closing down social network sites just because we want to protect the monarchy?
Mallika should look at the real causes of lèse-majesté. The crux of the problem lies in the misuse of this law as a political weapon to undermine political rivals, as often abused by the Democrat Party, the People’s Alliance for Democracy and the Army. If Mallika wants to make a significant contribution, she could propose to have the law reformed, or even abolished if she truly loves and respects the monarchy. The politicised use of lèse-majesté has led to the weakening of the monarchy. Mallika’s proposals will further weaken this institution. Therefore, from this view, Mallika is not a real royalist. At the same time, why does Mallika not try to understand that Thais, like any other citizens of the world, should be entitled to their own opinions? The affection for the monarchy must be fundamentally voluntary.
Mallika was once a news anchor and used to serve as assistant to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). But her past experience failed to provide her with a realistic view of the realities of cyberspace. A news anchor can only survive if there is an opening up of the communication space. A politician can only survive if there is an opening up of the political space. A society can only survive if there is an opening up of a democratic space. What Mallika proposes basically imprisons ideas and freedoms of those in such professions. It is laughably ironic that Mallika had to turn to Facebook in order to scratch around for an audience for her “Fight Bad Web” campaign.
In the end, Mallika represents a politician without any integrity. Earlier she came out to condemn Yingluck for her non-stop crying, seeing it as a weakness that would reduce the credibility of Thai women. She, as a representative of Thai women, felt compelled to defend all Thai ladies. Yet, when Ekayuth Anchanbutr, a media personality with a dodgy past, announced that what northern Thai ladies did best —one of them Yingluck—was to be prostitutes, Mallika remained silent (even though she also comes from the north—Payao province). Thus, I believe that someone like Mallika is indeed an embarrassment for the country, not so much because of her absurd ideas, but because she is a politician who shows little faith in democratic principles.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun
[This is a revised version of the open letter that first appeared in Thai on Prachatai.]
60 responses so far ↓
1 ynot // Nov 29, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Below is a copy of my response as appeared in Prachatai per Dr. Pavin’s open letter to Mullika, one of too many appalling Thai politicians.
It is very hard to shut down the internet. As soon as one site is shut down, another will arise.
I have one proposal for you (Khun Malika) that I think might help. Why don’t we stop teaching people to read and write? It seems the main problem is that people are using their reading and writing skills to spread their ideas.
Another idea might be to ban computers. We got along very well with typewriters just a few years ago. I don’t remember having any problems with people stating their unacceptable ideas to others.
As George Orwell said in the book 1984:
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
P.S. Thank you very much Dr. Pavin for your open letter.
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2 Charles Edward Frith (@charlesfrith) // Nov 29, 2011 at 9:09 pm
The internet terrifies the power elites. This is a good thing.
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3 Georgio Mantle // Nov 29, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I can’t understand how people like Mrs. Boonmetrakul and many others like her, don’ see the absurdity and paradoxical implications of what they’re doing – which is theoretically the same as what islamic fundamentalists are doing to islam ( they say they are protecting Islam by using suicide bombers ect. but in reality they are destroying islam!), the same goes for that guy in norway ( you remember the man who went on a rampage at the school retreat) – he was supposedly protecting the Judeo Christian legacy of europe when again in reality he was doing the opposite. These are extreme metaphors, but the idea is clear. It can even be boiled down to the simple analogy of an overprotective parent – afraid that the ‘big bad world’ is too dangerous for there perfect little son, they keep him inside at all times, don’t let him go places ect.ect. and in the end who ends up being hurt the most? the child!! So, paradoxically, Mrs. Boonmetrakul is spending all this time looking for people who are ‘de-faming’ the monarchy when all she has to do is look in the mirror. ( :
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4 Nathan // Nov 29, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Great piece, Pavin, someone needs to grab the leading Thailand “Democrats” and hold them upside down and shake some common sense into them. Clearly they’ve all been crawling around on the floor and grovelling way too much for their own good.
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5 siamese sceptic // Nov 29, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Even North Korea has news anchors… they seem to be doing pretty well.
Mallika is a 21st century royalist. In the 20th, they shouted “Pridi killed the King” and lynched their enemies in public to silence them.
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6 Andrew Spooner // Nov 29, 2011 at 10:01 pm
A week ago I wrote about the start of Mallika’s pro-censorship campaign. What Pavin has missed out in his excellent piece is that Mallika announced her campaign at the exact same time as Ar Kong was being sentenced (see my piece here https://bitly.com/s9tKfi)
She also threatened to prosecute Anudith and MICT under article 157 if they didn’t prosecute every single LM case.
Yet, at the same time, pro-Democrat voices in the Bangkok Post (Voranai etc) and Amnesty’s pro-royalist Ben Zawacki are mouthing, for the first time, more liberal sentiment and condemning LM.
Personally, I sense a political strategy of pinning PT down from both sides. One pushing them towards more illiberal policies the other condemning them.
Remember that the Dems are utterly unelectable and completely incapable of forming policies that would be attractive to the Thai electorate. The only way they can ever get back into power is by destabilising the country.
I see Mallika wanting to make a name for herself, gaining coverage and attempting to set herself up as an arch defender of the “faith” and am certain Abhisit feels that there is a lot to gain from Mallika’s stance.
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7 SteveCM // Nov 29, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Abhisit is today tweeting that Ms Mallika’s proposal is not Democrat party policy – that’s fully four days after she (an official spokesperson for the party, remember) came out with it.
What to make of this belated input from the party leader? Did Mallika “go off the reservation” – or was she “flying a kite” for the leadership? One way or the other, it appears that she or it has now been hauled back in.
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8 Andrew Spooner // Nov 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Steve
Abhisit’s response is calculated and not that of an instinctive defender of freedoms.
It is likely the Dems were pushing the envelope to see what people would put up with. They can also now claim that Abhisit is some kind of defender of “freedom” when it is very clear the opposite is true.
Or maybe, and now I am getting even more cynical, Mallika’s nonsense was a smokescreen to deflect from the fact that Mark and his deputy, Suthep, have just been called in for questioning relating to the deaths of several of their fellow Thai citizens last April/May.
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9 tom hoy // Nov 30, 2011 at 2:54 am
Thank you Khun Pavin for this great piece.
But Mallika is right. Ideas are contagious and anything except a society that forbids ideas will fail to contain them.
Is that what she proposes?
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10 Jake Smith // Nov 30, 2011 at 9:18 am
Mallaka is a disgrace in Thai Parliament. A member of parliament without any brain in her head. A disgrace for the people who elected her in her province. A bad example of uncivilized and outmoded politician party like the Democrat Party. Not surprise to learn why the The Democrat Party never win any election for the last ten years. Won’t be surprise for the next twenty years for the Democrat to lose any election, if its happened. It shows clearly that people who elect the Prue Thai Party are more modernized and more democratic mind than those people who elect the Democrat.
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11 Tarrin // Nov 30, 2011 at 10:22 am
Andrew Spooner – 8
Agreed, the 4 days waiting was nothing more than to observe how people react, then he just jump on the side that people agree with, the guy got no principle.
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12 fall // Nov 30, 2011 at 11:07 am
It’s the spiraling effect.
The louder the noise, the louder one has to shout to be heard.
The more the hate (of red shirt), the harder the hardline extremist they breed.
She is just trying to compete for attention among the extremist, pro-royalist constituent (grabbing the market share that PAD left behind).
The new convert are dangerous, for they are always out to prove themselves to be more catholic than the pope.
The Dem will be better off in the long run to kick her out now, before she manage to establish a cult and have significant saying.
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13 Sue // Nov 30, 2011 at 11:25 am
I often wonder if there are any decent human beings ,had ever been or are MPs of this ironically named “democrat party’.
Would highly higly appreciate if anyone could give me even one name.
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14 Jayzee // Nov 30, 2011 at 11:36 am
Take comfort that she has been silly enough to state all this as a matter of public record – at least you know where she is. Better these people are out in the open where you can see them…
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15 anon // Nov 30, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Re: Jake Smith, I don’t think Mallika is an MP. She was never elected nor she was on the Dem’s Party List.
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16 Fanta // Nov 30, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@Jake: Mallika is not a member of parliament. The only official title that she has is deputy spokeswoman for the Democrats party.
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17 leeyiankun // Nov 30, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Seems that she now welcomes a 11yr old to the crusade of ‘reporting bad webs’(aka. Fight bad web), means that the kid will have to actively surf looking for porn and LM cases and such.
‘Don’t discount how resourceful the kid is’, she says. No, the only thing I’m discounting is that she had any braincells in the first place.
Shocking. Truly shocking.
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18 Jake Smith // Nov 30, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Hi Fanta and Anon,
Thanks for reminding me that she is not a MP. But I am sure she is a member of the Democrat party. Let me say it clearly, only the Democrat Party can produce such a brainless spoke woman.
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19 SteveCM // Nov 30, 2011 at 7:03 pm
c17
In case anyone thinks the “11-yr-old” bit is made up:
2 tweets by Democrat Party deputy spokesperson on 11-year-old “cyber warriors” 30 Nov 2011 -
1) TR @MallikaBoon “Welcome little 11-yr-old cyber warriors. Here come the youth with strength of the heart. Spend no more than 3 hour a day on the Net, alright?” Original tweet: http://t.co/vmlYH5fL (she has deleted this tweet following swift criticisms on using 11 year olds in inappropriate work -> see next TR)
2) TR @MallikaBoon “Change from playing [computer] games to surfing the Net, and help reporting illegal websites, including [national] security, porn, gambling, drugs & insulting the institution. Get moving.” Original tweet: http://t.co/phKdA1WI
Hope not only the 1) was scrapped but the whole idea of using 11-year-old kids in such work is also scrapped. Child rights advocates should monitor the development.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ef4l0n
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20 johninbkk // Nov 30, 2011 at 7:34 pm
For a spokeswoman, she certainly has an affinity for cursing and misspelled words on her facebook/twitter pages:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=180900638666546&id=137530553003555
https://twitter.com/MallikaBoon
(if you can’t read that, let’s just say her ‘opinions’ on MP Karun are like that of a woman for her boyfriend after a very bad breakup)
She seems to be on a political rant right now, posting anti-PTP hate messages on average every 3 minutes for the last half hour.
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21 Moving closer to North Korea « Political Prisoners in Thailand // Dec 1, 2011 at 6:09 pm
[...] the post at New Mandala on the outspoken deputy spokesperson for the Democrat Party, the increasingly notorious Mallika [...]
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22 misanthrope // Dec 1, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Actually the best thing that could happen to democracy in Thailand would be the blocking of YouTube, Facebook and the like.
Apathetic, consumerist Thai youth would be up in arms in no time. They would start to realisethat freedom of speech is precious and censorship obscene. Now they don’t care much as long as their shopping malls are open and social networks let them grow virtual crops and post pictures of their handbags or shoes.
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23 Marteau // Dec 2, 2011 at 1:45 am
Of course this is childish rubbish from Khun Mallika but her party is not in power and not in a position to implement any of this stuff. So it is irrelevant.
What is more relevant is what is the Yingluck government going to do to reform Section 112. They have the power and popular mandate to go for significant reform. Let’s see how they do.
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24 Andrew Spooner // Dec 2, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Marteau
What is interesting about Mallika’s comments are that they reveal the mindset of the Democrats as being profoundly anti-liberal, anti-freedom of expression and anti-democratic.
But we already knew that.
What is also of interest is that a party supposedly aspiring towards being electable would even attack the freedoms loved by many of their own voters. It’s like they just don’t care about establishing any kind of meaningful and principled political platform. Again this is not now. For me all this just further reveals how out of touch the Dems are, how little they care about the democratic process and the ongoing danger they represent to Thailand’s attempts to democratise itself.
These scary and completely unelectable people, epitomised by Mallika, are waiting in the wings and would be more than willing to take power, by hook or by crook whilst using excessive violence and threats in order to do so.
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25 John Smith // Dec 2, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Andrew Spooner #24 says:
Marteau
What is interesting about Mallika’s comments are that they reveal the mindset of the Democrats as being profoundly anti-liberal, anti-freedom of expression and anti-democratic.
Which is an amazing response Marteau’s actual comment:
What is more relevant is what is the Yingluck government going to do to reform Section 112. They have the power and popular mandate to go for significant reform. Let’s see how they do
Why did Andrew direct the discussion to the Democrats and not comment on what the PTP is going to do?
Could it be because the PTP is made up of people with exactly the agenda to “attack the freedoms loved by many of their own voters and don’t care about establishing any kind of meaningful and principled political platform.”
But to do that, he would have to admit what type of people he has been backing.
There is little doubt that the western liberals who think the PTP share their views are in for very sad awakening over the next few months.
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26 johninbkk // Dec 2, 2011 at 7:45 pm
@John Smith
The people responsible for the last coup are very pro-monarchy. PTP no doubt realizes they risk non-democratic power plays if they push the issue too hard. It’s a very politically sensitive topic and likely to backfire no matter which way they go. At the moment, there are more pressing issues – ie resolving the flood situation and enacting the promises from the election.
I think it’s too early to really judge PTP if they will ‘nullify’ 112, which is what I hope will happen. The new PTP government has so far not used 112 to silence the opposition, so it’s still one step forward.
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27 Andrew Spooner // Dec 2, 2011 at 7:45 pm
“John Smith”
I didn’t direct my discussion to the Democrats. This entire thread, in case you didn’t notice, is about their deputy spokesperson, Mallika with the opening article written by Pavin on a site hosted by the ANU.
Strange as it may seem to you but all of that is nothing to do with me.
In the last months I’ve been compared to Stalin, Goebbels and the Nazis, called a communist, terrorist and an extremist.
Now I’m being called a “liberal”?
What’s next? A Tory????
God forbid.
I would also say that I would welcome and support a Thai Democrat Party which outflanked PTP from a social democrat position. They choose not to, instead going for an extreme rightwing and even more anti-democratic position than PTP.
Abhisit managed to achieve the impossible a long time ago in making Thaksin look like a progressive, justice-loving democrat.
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28 Charles Edward Frith (@charlesfrith) // Dec 2, 2011 at 7:52 pm
John Smith.
All politicians are lizards though some are more reptilian than others. However it’s only common sense to address stated attacks on freedoms against the hypothetical ones down the road you warn against.
Logically the incumbent will be listening to the rightful howls of protest and factor those in to any decision making.
One might even conclude it’s killing two birds with one stone.
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29 SteveCM // Dec 4, 2011 at 7:10 am
Worth looking at an interview conducted with Mallika (aka “Cyber Warrior 001″ – her term) that appears in today’s Bangkok Post: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/269157/cyber-warrior-001-says-free-speech-a-hostage-to-nefarious-net-movement
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30 bunny // Dec 4, 2011 at 5:35 pm
paranoid Democrats.
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31 bunny // Dec 4, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Or maybe it’s lese majeste fundamentalism?!
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32 Andrew Spooner // Dec 4, 2011 at 10:18 pm
SteveinCM
The whole Mallika thing seems designed to deflect from the fact that someone very very very close to Abhisit basically put Ar Kong in prison for twenty years.
People should be asking Abhisit – did you have any input into the decision by Somkiat to report Ar Kong to the police?
Mallika is a smoke screen (and Voranai is a very poor interviewer – talk about weak questions).
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33 johninbkk // Dec 4, 2011 at 11:39 pm
@Andrew
I don’t think the Malika incident deflected the involvement of the Democrats, I think it highlighted it.
Voranai is a yellow leaning author, and as such has strong motivations to not put the Dem party in too bad a bad light. The subject matter isn’t exactly safe territory, either.
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34 Andrew Spooner // Dec 5, 2011 at 3:01 am
john
You missed my point a bit.
The attention has all been on Mallika.
It should be focused on Abhisit.
It was his personal team of snitches, after all, that helped put Ar Kong in prison.
And then both him and Suthep are being called in by police investigating the killing of unarmed Thai civilians.
And what is everyone talking about? Mallika….
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35 Jan Nederveen Pieterse // Dec 5, 2011 at 7:10 am
This is a Thai equivalent of Michele Bachman in US. Totally vacuous and totally rightwing.
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36 johninbkk // Dec 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm
@Andrew
>It was his personal team of snitches, after all, that helped put Ar Kong in prison.
It was AV’s personal secretary who received the SMSs and reported it, no team of snitches needed . . .
Here is another article about her:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/269032/comrades-fight-bad-web
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37 Roberto // Dec 6, 2011 at 3:09 am
re: comments
This banter of ‘right and wrong’, even the shallow (if not oriental-istic) and sweeping note on ‘radical Islam’, the paternalism to judge that the people are “…cloaked… or their eyes and ears are rendered ineffective” (this is rich, coming from us cadre of unelected, all-knowing, all seeing, and largely anonymous online pundits to judge what is best for ‘the people’), –makes me uncomfortable.
As for my unsolicited two cents: I do not see in the above a cry against “lese majeste fundamentalism”, as would have it ‘Bunny’–What I see here is a load of liberal fundamentalism (‘monism’…to drop this oh-so-contentious ‘F’ word) and I think the majority of the commentators here would benefit from some ontological plurification (pluralism).
Thanks,
R.
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38 Andrew Spooner // Dec 6, 2011 at 4:22 am
John
Cyber Warriors… launched by the Democrat Party.
https://bitly.com/s9tKfi
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39 Charles Edward Frith (@charlesfrith) // Dec 6, 2011 at 6:53 am
Roberto
Pluralism is a de facto leitmotif of liberalism. Use your full name if anonymity pisses you off.
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40 Roberto // Dec 6, 2011 at 11:44 am
Hi Charles,
Sorry, that was specifically ‘ontological pluralism’ I was referring to (off-hand, it’s a paradigm something along these lines, http://www.enotes.com/topic/Ontological_pluralism). Liberal pluralism is probably the most frequent reference to pluralism I’ve heard of, but it’s not the one to which I was referring.
Thanks,
R.
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41 Nodoubt // Dec 6, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Roberto (37)
When one can’t make a proper argument for or against an issue, the best way is to put a hat on their opponents, rather than make a case for your beliefs, opinions, or position. So “liberals”, “nazis”, “commies”, are all rather reductionist, simplified labels that frankly doesn’t help move the discussion forward. So if your intention was to challenge the so-called monolithic “liberal fundamentalism” on this forum, you have only failed miserably to contribute to the discussions and frankly demonstrated your own “shallowness” regarding such important (yet publicly censored) issue as LM/112. If you were a true pluralist, you would only welcome this rare and few dissenting voice available in new mandala and few other selective sites, which is becoming more and more under attack by mainstream “cyber warriors”.
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42 Andrew Spooner // Dec 6, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Roberto
“Ontological pluralism”, much like moral relativism, is attractive if you think history is an irrelevance.
Thailand’s “ontology” has been struggled over and forged through the application of power as much as anywhere else.
Just ask Pridi, Jit Phumisak or the 1000s who’ve died at the hands of the various juntas over the decades.
Even dominant Thai ontologies have, within national borders, been far less than monolithic. But the dominant one didn’t achieve that position by “winning arguments”. It did so down the barrel of a gun.
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43 johninbkk // Dec 6, 2011 at 7:26 pm
@Andrew
>Cyber Warriors… launched by the Democrat Party.
Yes, but the Cyber Warriors did not report AhKong. It was AV’s personal secretary who received the SMSs and reported it. And probably Dem Party members that followed through on it (no evidence to support this last claim).
Culturally, the Dems and the Cyber Warriors share very similar political ideals. But I do not believe the Cyber Warriors had anything to do with AhKong.
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44 johninbkk // Dec 6, 2011 at 7:36 pm
@Andrew
>Cyber Warriors… launched by the Democrat Party.
Yes, but it was AV’s personal secretary who received the SMSs and reported it. I don’t think there was any team of snitches involved. Just the secretary, and those who arrested/prosecuted the old man. Were they Dem Party members/supporters? Perhaps. Or just people in the bureaucracy blindly/poorly following orders, as is the culture here.
Culturally, the Dems and the Cyber Warriors share very similar political ideals. But I do not believe the Cyber Warriors had anything to do with AhKong. I’m not entirely sure Mallika was even aware of AhKong until the news broke.
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45 TU // Dec 7, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Mallika is on the rampage again — of course she is a smooth talker because she is a former TV reporter. She gave interesting answer when asked why she decided to join Democrat party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SZf0tdJ959s#!
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46 Andrew Spooner // Dec 7, 2011 at 7:13 pm
John
Yes, I know the Cyber Warriors didn’t have anything to do with Ar Kong.
My point is that Abhisit is the leader of party. He has fostered and allowed to take root this culture of snitching stalkers.
It’s all part of the Democrat Party’s nasty and malicious ambience.
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47 SteveCM // Dec 9, 2011 at 7:27 pm
More from Mallika….. Transcript of Channel News Asia’s interview with her (interview at Democrat Party HQ on 6 December):
http://blogs.channelnewsasia.com/anasuya-sanyal/2011/12/09/transcript-interview-with-mallika-boonmetrakul-deputy-democrat-party-spokeswoman-and-activist/
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48 Srithanonchai // Dec 10, 2011 at 4:10 pm
And this woman claims that her actions are based on her being “educated”… Incredible.
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49 Robin // Dec 10, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Watching the interview on Thai television on YouTube, this woman comes across as a complete nutter. The interviewer seem a little incredulous at times at this crazy woman before her.
A few snippets:
- She joined the most “democratic” party !!!!!!!!!
- When you negotiate with foreigners you need to have “a sword in your pocket” !!!!!!
- It’s only a tiny minority who are dissatisfied with the institution – “khun pen khon Thai reuplao?”….
Talking of being a Thai, fortunately I find her completely unrepresentative of “khon Thai” in general, the challenge for Thailand is to ensure extremists like her are dismissed to the margins like, for example, the British National Party are in the UK.
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50 johninbkk // Dec 10, 2011 at 8:16 pm
A relevant article that fans of PTP will probably not like:
Does he actually mean this, or is it just raising a false flag to disarm the royalists? If he means it, will Yingluck and the UDD actually allow him to go through with it? I think he means it . . . but I don’t think he’ll get his way.
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51 Asia Unbound // Dec 13, 2011 at 2:14 am
[...] the Thai government should simply shut down sites like Facebook in Thailand (for more on this see New Mandala). The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, which came into office in July seeming [...]
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52 farmer son // Jan 5, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Thanks to my English teacher, 40 years ago at amall,outclass school in the remote North Eastern part of Thailand, a son of poor farmer had a chance to learn A,B,C , now I had a chance to read what never appear in our mainstream newspaper. I had quietly follow up your work in many case and for a period of time, Good done Dr. Pravin.
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53 R. N. England // Jan 5, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Johninbkk (50). First Newin and now Chalerm have been pressed into the service of the yellows. Probably part of a deal which keeps them and their families out of prison, or in the land of the living. Their odour has rubbed off on both sides, but it is not yet clear where Chalerm’s will linger longest.
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54 Thailand is the world’s first government to endorse Twitter’s censorship feature | TechDiem.com // Jan 30, 2012 at 7:10 pm
[...] claiming that the Chinese example was a good model to follow, as Southeast Asia politics blog New Mandala explains. Thankfully, the campaign fell flat but there are likely many royalists in Thailand who would [...]
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55 Srithanonchai // Mar 5, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Another episode with Mallika:
NACC asked to probe PM, ICT minister
• Published: 5/03/2012 at 03:38 PM Bangkok Post
A petition was filed with the National Anti-Corruption Commission on MOnday, asking it to investigate Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Information and Communications Technology Minister Anudit Nakornthap for alleged negligence by failing to close down lese majeste websites.
The petitioner, Mallika Boonmeetrakul, deputy spokeswoman of the Democrat Party, also gave the NACC a list of websites alleged to have run content deemed to offensive to the monarchy.
Ms Mallika said she had submnitted a petition seeking action in this matter to the prime minister and the ICT minister about two months ago, but no action had been taken. Their negligence was a violation of Article 157 of the Criminal Code, she said.
As a result, the number of websites with lese majeste content had since increased from 203 to more than 400, she said.
Witthaya Akompithak, deputy secretary-general of the NACC, said the petition had been taken for consideration. The NACC would have to decide if it fell within its jurisdiction.
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56 Nick Nostitz // Mar 5, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Mallika, by the way, was also a speaker at last Friday’s Siam Samakkhi seminar at the Lumpini Park auditorium.
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57 Stuart // Mar 5, 2012 at 8:54 pm
The really frightening thing is about people like the appalling Mallika Boonmetrakul is that, bloated with self-righteous smugness, they believe they are doing the right thing. I would hazard a guess that even Stalin would admit he was basically an arsehole. Self-deception was never his weakness. I can at least fathom someone like him.
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58 Ralph Kramden // Mar 5, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Nick: I wonder if the odious Mallika joined with those thanking the twins who bashed Worajet? Of course, the media said their thanks was a bit of a “joke”, but it is clear they meant it.
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59 laoguy // Mar 6, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Srithanonchai #48. These accusations could also have the beneficial effect of helping concentrate the mind of PM Yingluck on the lese majeste law. This accusation is the semantic equivalent of that which was pursued against Chiranuch Premchaiporn of Prachatai fame. That is, she didn’t delete lese majeste comments on the web boards fast enough.
I, however, feel that they have missed the best target. Chalerm. The eruption of stupidity would have been spectacular.
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60 Srithanonchai // Apr 15, 2012 at 2:23 pm
News from Mallika:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/288887/thousands-of-reds-greet-thaksin
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