While listening to an old Gil Scott Heron cassette today, one particular passage of Enough really made me think of the mother of all Primaries which I once observed with anticipation and hope and a sense of celebration from all the way over here in Asia. Now, as the media continues to pit black man against white woman and middle class educated white voters against "blacks" and young women voters against older women voters and Asian immigrant voters against their 1st generation children - what the hell is going on over there!
"I hope you don't think that a vote for John Kennedy took you off my shitlist, because in the street there will only be black and white, there will be no democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, moderates or any of that rest of the shit that you've used to make me forget to hate."
While I am in South Korea I am catching up on all the various anti-monarchist clips that are all over YouTube. This proves I am a big fat nerd, instead of going out and blowing Korean won on cheesy Korean funtimes, I am checking out the political dissent that my country of residence has decided to block.
The Thai government won a battle with YouTube last year giving them the right to block access to all clips defaming the King from within the country. I won't post the clips here on this blog because they actually make me uncomfortable, even though they're all just really silly, I suppose even I have suffered some level of indoctrination. I just want to post this one clip someone made about Chotisak, a political activist I had blogged about before, because his story deserves to reach as far and wide as possible.
Things are starting to get terrible for him. According to the speech delivered by a journalist friend of mine from The Nation at the peace forum held at the May 18th Foundation in Gwangju just today, Thai radio stations have been inciting Loyalists to take violent actions against Chotisak and his family, going as far as to recommend what kind of violence to commit against him while avoiding getting punished. They further go on to question his Thainess, claiming he must not be Thai because a Thai person would never offend the King like this. They even say that he is so ungrateful that he should go live in Cambodia or Burma. Chotisak is being publicly lynched for expressing his views and practising a fundamental right. Even if his case is thrown out of court, I am worried about what will happen to him outside of court. He has gone underground, choosing not to live at home in order to avoid putting his family through the grief. He was supposed to speak at a symposium at Thammasart University a few days ago but had to cancel at the last minute as a mob of Loyalists waited for him in order to beat him. The media in Thailand chooses to self-censor or paint him as a villain, though the blogosphere has been pretty supportive. Google his name and you'll find lots of foreign media have covered his story.
It's a witchhunt. It's like accusing someone of being a communist under the McCarthy regime. Check out the Prachatai website these days. Prachatai is an alternative news site that posts commentary in Thai and English and maybe goes against the grain by raising the controversial viewpoints. It has posted numerous controversial articles, during the coup and otherwise, yet the thing that did it, the thing that had them blocked, was running commentary about Chotisak.
I just don't want Chotisak to be hanging from a noose around his neck in a public place, you know? How much have things changed since the 1970s? Burberry and Jimmy Choo have stores here, but you can't even speak freely. I am bitter about Burberry. First of all, everything in the store looks like it was designed by the LTTE. Futhermore, a wallet there costs as much as my entire programme budget for the year. I'm bitter. I am also drunk on some super cheap Korean soju I got from the convenience store next door.
