Nakhonratchasima, Thailand — “From abroad they surround Thailand, from the countryside they surround the cities.”

This was the remark of angry media baron Sondhi Limthongkul on ASTV recently, describing what he perceives as efforts by enemies of the monarchy to gang up against the royal family and destroy its image.

Sondhi’s remarks about being surrounded reflect his personal frustration at not being able to silence opposition to the way things have traditionally been run in the country. Sondhi believes that destruction of the nation and the imminent collapse of Thai society will result should the public not conform to his version of how to pay homage to the king.

Many who publicly oppose this view are either in jail, facing jail or have fled to other countries. Many others are quietly critical – those whom Sondhi and others would say are not “real Thais” – and believe that two paradigm shifts are needed: first, a shift away from false adoration of an illusion created by powerful interests, and secondly, a shift away from trying to put in prison or bring social disgrace on everyone whose opinions differ from those of the fundamental traditionalist hardliners.

Sondhi is also understandably frustrated at the lack of meaningful arrests over his attempted assassination last April. Some of the police involved have been identified, but not those in higher positions who apparently instructed them.

This is not unusual in Thailand. The higher-ups that order such killings or massacres are usually forgiven or pardoned – they are never cited by name, and never really punished. They don’t feel remorse, either. There is no need to. All they need to do is to issue denials on one hand and warnings on the other. This has been the Thai Way for a long, long time.

Thailand’s so-called divisiveness is more a reflection of wrongful interests attempting to circumvent needed change than it is a phenomenon created by those who wish ill to the monarchy, the country or the people. Many Thais are fed up, ashamed, fearful or apathetic to the extent that they do or say little or nothing political, let alone maliciously using the monarchy to promote their personal interests.

Charging people, Thai or foreign, with five, ten or more years in prison for violating the country’s “lese majeste” laws might be legal, but from a human and civil rights view it cannot be justified. Those who support it vociferously are only prolonging class separation and hatred of new ideas.

The Thai monarchy can be loved and protected without enforcing rules of social behavior from early childhood on. Such regimentation is not democratic and cannot be justified with the words, “We are different.”

It is difficult to overcome centuries of authoritarian control and institute civil rights-based democracy in Thailand, as has been observed time and time again. But ever since former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra came to the stage, people have been asking questions about taboo subjects and even taking taboo positions.

When the leadership saw that this was beginning to snowball, they began to fight back with legitimate and illegitimate means. The Thai government has closed or blocked in excess of 16,000 websites, to the surprise and shock of free speech advocates. Many of these blockages and shutdowns occurred without legal documentation, in the interest of “national security” – though without any proof to justify this.

Unless the Thai state’s claims pertaining to national security are challenged in the courts by a concerted effort of honest and committed people determined to achieve justice in the kingdom, the misuse of this term – to intimidate, coerce, inhibit, criminally charge and imprison people – will continue ad infinitum.

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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)