APSN | Manoeuvres around the amnesty bills: A smoke screen to deflect from real issues

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Manoeuvres around the amnesty bills: A smoke screen to deflect from real issues

Red Thai Socialist - August 10, 2013

Thai lawmakers start debate on amnesty bill - Associated Press. August 8, 2013
Red Shirts put Thaksin, government on notice as amnesty bill heads to parliament - Irrawaddy. July 31, 2013
Thailand's 'game of bodies' - Red Thai Socialist. June 16, 2013
Amnesty bill to reignite tensions in Thailand - Sydney Morning Herald. May 20, 2013
Three years after bloody crack-down: No illusions in Yingluk or Pua Thai - Red Thai Socialist. May 18, 2013

Giles Ji Ungpakorn – All the protests, rumours and confusion that are surrounding the amnesty bills are a golden opportunity for the anti-democratic conservatives and the Pua Thai government to divert attention from the real issues surrounding the 19th September 2006 coup and the killing of Red Shirts in 2010.

For the conservatives, who wish to place Thai society in a "deep freeze", all the usual talk about Taksin, the street mobilisations, and the call for another military coup, are a wonderful way of avoiding the discussion about State Crimes committed by the military and the Democrat Party while in government. The manic jumping around is also an excuse to bargain and pressurise Pua Thai, so that the Red Shirt prisoners remain in jail for as long as possible, Taksin's return is delayed and nothing is done about the draconian lese majeste law which protects the military.

For Pua Thai and the UDD leadership, the usual tiresome rumours of coups and the submission of many different amnesty bills helps to sow confusion and fear among Red Shirts. It is preparing the ground for another nasty compromise with the military. Lese majeste will not be amended and the lese majeste prisoners will not be covered by any amnesty. Not only that, the military will not be prosecuted for its crimes of staging a coup and killing civilians and the cases against Abhisit and Sutep and the Yellow Shirts who closed the airport will be quietly dropped or delayed indefinitely. Pua Thai hope that when an appalling version of the amnesty law is passed, Red Shirts will breathe a sigh of relief and say "well at least we got an amnesty law".

Such an outcome will continue the dreadful state of a lack of basic human rights and justice in Thailand. The Democrat Party politicians and the military generals who murdered people will stay free, enjoying their riches, while people like Somyot, Da Torpido and Surachai, who are in jail for merely criticising the dictatorship, will rot in prison.