BANGKOK – The opposition Democratic Party has asserted its love for the King and nation with their most sweeping update to the lese-majeste laws yet. Under their new “War On Slander” bill, the government will divert 20% of its existing military budget, or almost 30 billion baht, to commission a new Department of Majestic Security and build a new offshore holding facility for those accused of violating Thailand’s lese-majeste laws.
“These actions are necessary to protect the Thai Motherland from dangerous people who would destroy our way of life,” explained Democrat MP Piraphan Saliratviphak. “They are not normal criminals like murderers or rapists; they are far more dangerous. For what they threaten is the very perception of the monarchy upon which our current culture is built.”
Under the new bill, those accused of lese-majeste would be designated not as ordinary criminals, but as “Verbal Combatants” whose status exists outside the known Thai legal criminal justice system. They would be denied legal representation or any outside contact with family, friends, and in the case of foreigners, embassy counsel. According to the Democrats, these draconian measures of isolation are needed to protect the Thai people from their influence.
“If you let a ‘lese-majestist’ speak to lawyers and reporters, he may say things that are against lese-majeste laws,” Piriphan explained.
To address the danger of the verbal combatants committing further lese-majeste terrorism while alone or in their private thoughts, the bill calls for the creation of a massive offshore military facility to be built on an uninhabited island near the Cambodian coast. Although Cambodia is currently considered an enemy of the Thai state, they have tentatively agreed to a lease of part of a rocky outcrop 34km from the southern shore of Ha Tien. While the facility has not yet been named, the press corps have begun referring to it by the name of the nearest uninhabited Cambodian island of Kwan Than Ahmo.
According to the detailed 388-page proposal, those accused of lese-majeste by “credible sources” will be immediately arrested and sent to Kwan Than Ahmo for processing, via a series of “rendition” flights that will pass through Laos in order to erase any legal connection between the Thai government and the Kwan Than Ahmo facility. There, the verbal combatants will be subject to “intense interrogation methods” in order to extract any information that would be useful in the War on Slander.
“We just can’t take any risks by letting these ‘lese-majestists’ use the normal legal processes,” Piraphan explained. “They are like live bombs, which must be kept safely away from normal, law-abiding citizens.” As examples, he cited some recent arrests. “Take this woman who calls herself Da Torpedo [pictured]. Do you want a torpedo in your jailhouse? In your courtroom? Of course not. A torpedo must be kept behind concrete walls, away from schools and temples. It’s common sense.”
With its broad support among PPP house members, the proposal is expected to pass Parliament by a large majority, after which the fast-tracking of construction could have the facility ready for prisoners by March of next year. The first occupants have not been named by the army, but it is widely speculated that they will include the aforementioned Da Torpedo, academic Sulak Sivaraska, cinema patron and anthem-sitter Chotisak Onsoong and the failed Australian novelist Harry Nicolaides.
