RE: Stopping the prosecution
Ref: Sulak Sivaraksa’s letter to the Prime Minister dated 14 December 2006 and the reply letter of the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister dated 29 December 2006
Dear Prime Minister,
I thank Mr. Prime Minister for asking the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office to reply to my letter referred to above and for directing the national police chief to give my appeal a careful consideration.
Furthermore, on 18 January Mr. Prime Minister presided over the opening ceremony of a seminar on the development of the Thai police system. Thai Post newspaper reported on 19 January that “The Prime Minister criticized the inefficiency of the police, their inability to adapt to social changes. The whole system needs to be revamped. All the police care about is catching thugs at the expense of other considerations and with disregard for the consequences. The police are used to the patron-client system and are prone to abuse the freedom of others. The Prime Minister is determined to set in motion police reforms in an open and honest manner to regain the trust of the people. ‘Chirmsak’ does not believe that revamping the police system will solve the problems of bribery, kickbacks, and extrajudicial killings since the national police chief still monopolizes power.” Thai Post headlined its news column thus: “Breaking the Police State.”
It’s highly unfortunate that some agencies under the Royal Thai Police are acting like a state within a state, turning a deaf eye to the wishes of Mr. Prime Minister.
The coup was four months old on 19 January. A seminar was held at the Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, on that day. Please see the enclosed material. Someone brought along copies of Fah Diew Kan to sell. The police arrested the seller for supplying prohibited books. The seller was ultimately charged with lese majeste. As mentioned in the previous letters, the king stated that any charge of lese majeste filed would hurt him and undermine the monarchy. It seems that Thai police officers are disloyal to the king.
As for my case involving Seeds of Peace magazine mentioned in my letter to Mr. Prime Minister dated 14 December 2006, I’d like to add that the magazine primarily focuses on nonviolence and Buddhism. The police alleged that a volume of Seeds of Peace contained articles that defamed the king. I would like to point out that that volume in fact contained articles attacking the then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, demanding him to return democracy to the people. Additionally, none of the charges of lese majeste filed against me in the past was based on materials written in the foreign languages. Pursuing the charge against me requires that materials be translated into the Thai language, which will make them more accessible to society at large. Moreover, the officer(s) in charge of the translation job will have to be responsible for it—as in the case of former police chief Pol. Gen. Sawat Amornwiwat who translated prohibited materials and published them in the Royal Gazette. Likewise, the monarchy will be negatively impacted if the materials in my case are translated and published in Thai. Pursuing the charge against me to the end will not be beneficial to the reputation of the monarchy and the spirit of national reconciliation in the present.
If my case is brought to the attention of international organizations such as Amnesty International and International Jurists Commission, they will likely mobilize an international protest on my behalf since it is a case that involves the freedom of thought and belief. The image and credibility of the kingdom will be undermined. Thus far I haven’t asked these organizations to mobilize international support for me since I trust in the impartiality of Mr. Prime Minister. I am confident that you will help put an end to a trouble created by the former prime minister by ordering the Royal Thai Police to drop the charges against me.
At present, the Royal Thai Police still hasn’t dropped the charges against me. I face two charges: one involving Fah Diew Kan magazine, the other concerns Seeds of Peace magazine. The latter is the latest charge filed against me.
I thus have high hopes in Mr. Prime Minister—not only for my sake, but also, and more importantly, for the sake of the monarchy. It seems that many high-ranking officers in the Royal Thai Police do not understand this latter point. They are only blindly enforcing the law, by pursuing both charges against me without taking into consideration that they were the actions of the Thaksin Shinwatra government, which had often used the law to silence its critics.
Yours sincerely,
Sulak Sivaraksa
(The alleged offender)
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