Oh gosh, it's the new warlord!

How many no money boyz are crazy, how many boyz are raw?

How many no money boyz are rowdy, how many start a war?

Forgotten Massacres

"What is most regrettable is the fact that young people now have no third choice. If they cannot conform to the government, they must run away. Those interested in peaceful means to bring about freedom and democracy must start from square one."

Dr Puey Ungphakorn

He was referring to the 1976 massacre, but the quote is just as true and relevant today.

Today we forget to remember Hok Tulaa.

When they silenced their guns, the real war began?

First reaction: WHAAA! [goosebumps and jaw-drop and an overwhelmingly contradictory feeling of both dread and relief.]

Second reaction: Now what? After 26 years of fighting, after displacing and killing hundreds of thousands, after silencing those who dissent against both the government and the LTTE through assassinations, torture and disappearance, what now of the Tamil people?

I wish for the following for you:

Your right to self-determination

Your right not to be tortured, arrested and disappeared based on the language you speak, the god you worship and the political ideology you follow

Your right to live with freedom, respect and dignity

Your right to dissent against both state and non-state actors

Your right to not be used as a fucking human shield by people who are fighting for the above

The war might be over but maybe, in some ways, the struggle has only just begun.

Madhesi girl

I feel really out of the loop with all things Bollywood. I was at a house party last night and this song kept coming on a bunch of times and it sounded like they were singing "Madhesi girl" and in my drunken state I thought it was a song about the marginalised ethnic minority group in the Terai region of southern Nepal, also known as the "madhesi". I was totally excited at the idea that there may be a human rights connotation to a Bollytune.

And then, this morning my grandma was watching the music video on Indian satellite TV - obviously, it is not a tribute to the discriminated minority community of Nepal at all.

Another activist arrested for lese majeste

Just a link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7714798.stm

Time to self-censor!

This from the BBC, today:

"The Thai government says it is planning to build an internet firewall to block websites deemed insulting to the country's hugely popular royal family.

The Information Ministry says it has received many complaints about such sites, most of which are based abroad." [Link]

I've actually been self-censoring for a while now, but I reckon some posts will need to come down depending on what the next couple weeks look like.

Meanwhile, this also from the BBC, today:

"Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have signed a global code of conduct promising to offer better protection for online free speech and against official intrusion.

The Global Network Initiative follows criticism that companies were assisting governments in countries like China to censor the Internet." [Link]

Criminalising bloggery

The Democrats are pushing Parliament to pass a bill to criminalise freedom of speech on the www, specifically progressive commentary about the monarchy ("enemies of the state"). Commenters on forums get 3-5 years in jail while bloggers get 20 years.

Why does the 21st century look like the Middle Ages?

God's Own Country

In Kerala, it is easy to orientalise.

It is also easy to ponder Marxism and God, red flags and Syrian churches line the streets.

She had written it as so:

"Marxism was a simple substitute for Christianity. Replace God with Marx, Satan with the bourgeoisie, Heaven with a classless society, the Church with the Party, and the form and purpose of the journey remained similar. An obstacle race, with a prize at the end." - God of Small Things


An "underclass revolution", women's emancipation, and redemption from caste-based discrimination - such were the hopes, no? But now it is about the SEZs and the call centers and the development of the IT sector and the torture of human rights defenders.

As we carve out little but growing parts of India where the Constitution need not apply for the sake of foreign investment, we throw away a little bit of our sovereignty for the sake of development. We uproot and displace but legitimise by aggravating communal conflicts, "well, they were fighting anyway!" we say.

In Kerala, upon the waters at Kovallam beach, in a state so politically engaged with a strong human rights movement, it is easy to question rhetorically.

Gag thyself, pitiful newsmongerer

Delhi's bomb blasts which left nearly 30 people dead were tragic for sure, but for me not as tragic as what the headlines have been saying. The BBC reports on what the major newspapers have been writing, shockingly asking for stricter anti-terror laws and tougher implementation.

Quote from Times of India:

"At this time of crisis, some of the liberties that we take for granted might have to be curbed to ensure that terrorists, who follow no norms and rules, are effectively restrained."

Surely, they must be aware that the first thing that comes under the fist of any national/internal security act is the freedom of expression. Look at what's happening in Malaysia.

Free Chotisak

An activist colleague named Chotisak Oonsoong, who I have demonstrated with over human rights issues in Burma and Tibet during the past year, made front page news in the Bangkok Post today. Chotisak was a strong student activist some years ago, he then played an important role in the September 19 Network Against The Coup in 2005. He is currently being tried under the Lese Majeste law because he refused to stand up during the Royal Anthem at the cinema.

The law itself is designed to protect the security of the royal family, "national security" in a sense. Chotisak will be fighting the case based on the grounds that not standing during the anthem is a matter of the freedom of expression and does not in any way undermine the security of the royal family.

Chotisak is incredibly intellegent and a politically engaged young activist. Chotisak is setting a precedence with this case, other young people like him who dare to challenge authority are important figures for the future of democracy in this country. Support Chotisak by signing this petition (scroll down for English) and following his case.

On Tibet and protests

The demonstration at the torch relay this past Saturday the 19th has been much blogged about, see the official Free Tibet Network blog, Agame's blog and this Thai blog which has great photos. I am shamefully late with my account of the events. I apologise that this post is long, boring and poorly structured.

For the first time, I fully understood what it means when they talk about the plurality of civil society. It was difficult to, along with the coalition of 12 Thai and international NGOs, come up with a statement of demands. I am proud of my Free Tibet Network team for working hard to make the entire thing bigger and better than we could have imagined, especially in the face of threats from Bangkok Metropolitan Police about arrests, threatening phone calls from Chinese embassy officials and of course the antagonism from pro-Beijing supporters on the day of the rally itself.


10 Tibetan people living in exile in Taiwan flew to Bangkok for the torch relay specifically to attend the protest. On the day of the demonstration, we had to split them up into groups between myself and 3 of my friends. The taxi ride on the way over to the UNESCAP building (outside of which the demo was to take place) was an anxious ride as roads had been blocked and police were everywhere. We had to stop 3 blocks away and walk to the UN as individuals on opposite sides of the street, hoping no one would search our bags and find our Tibetan flags, posters, press statements, passports of questionable nationality and pepper spray. Once we got to the UN, it was smooth sailing. Around 250-300 people showed up, a good number for a city like Bangkok. There were Thai activists there from every generation, showing that human rights is fundamental and universal, no matter what one's "cause" is. There were tourists there too, and many many people who had spent time in Dharamsala and had met with the Dalai Lama and were angered by the Chinese spin on the term "Dalai Clique".

Eventually, the pro-Beijing supporters showed up with their uniforms and their state-sponsored placards so obviously supplied by the Chinese embassy. There was a confrontation, 250 pro-Tibet activists and 150 pro-Beijing sheep shouting at each other. The other organisers and I had to make a "human chain" dividing the two sides so that no one would throw any punches. However, the human chain itself was pushed and tussled with and eventually the police decided to do their job and led the pro-Beijingers to the other side of the street. The barricades went up, steel fences and a road divided us and our ideology.



Soon after, an additional 150 pro-Beijing demonstrators showed up, by the end of the day I would estimate that their group was larger than ours. I would like to state here as an eyewitness to all of it that I was surprised and upset with the arrogance and aggression of the pro-Being group. They were all young: students rounded up by the embassy and told to demonstrate and make their country proud. I believe that civil society organises itself, and I view state-sponsored demonstrations as illegitimate.

About 5 minutes before the torch was due to arrive, a group of Chinese activists broke their barricade and ran up and down the street shouting racial slurs against Tibetans. It is important to note that pro-Tibet demonstrators had maintained simple human rights-centered slogans and had to work extra hard with the media to refute that we are anti-Chinese. At no point were Chinese people attacked either in words or physically. So the anti-Tibetan racial slurs upset us all, but mostly they upset our friend Tashi who was standing next to me. He tried to climb the barricade and it took 4 people to restrain him. He was shouting and crying at the same time and on his face was an expression of the deepest pain and hurt I have ever seen in my life. I knew that if he managed to jump that barricade then all his Tibetan friends would follow. And if they followed, then the Thai activists would follow. And in that moment of intensity and looking at Tashi face, I was dying to claw out the eyeballs of the guy that upset him, I was ready to jump in there if he jumped in there. Unfortunately, he was successfully restrained.



The torch passed and there was much frenzy, the energy level escalated to something I have never before witnessed at any other demonstration I have been to. The pro-Beijing supporters got too rowdy, the riot police closed in on us though I wasn't sure if it was to protect us or to contain us until I heard the lieutenant over the loudspeaker saying that the other side only had Chinese people while the pro-Tibet side had Thais, so the police must protect the Thais. The pro-Beijingers were told to disperse and leave, but of course many of them came over on to our side and tried to instigate more fights.



At the end of the rally, I noticed all the Tibetans were sitting on the sidewalk with Tashi, quiet and subdued which was a stark contrast from how they had been earlier. I saw that they were all crying. Worried about what might have happened, I went over to see if everything was all right. "We've been waiting for this moment for years" they said. "I can taste the blood at the back of my throat, my blood is boiling." I realised at that moment, that in the battle between Western and Chinese media, it has been the victims that lose out. There remains no justice, no remedy or reparation. At the end of the day, we protest because we oppose the treatment of people living within China and Chinese Occupied Tibet at the hands of the government of China.