Lese-majeste law being grossly misused

What would our beloved King have wanted? In the recently released “King Bhumibol Adulyadej: A Life’s Work” (Grossman and Faulder, ed, page 313), the authors say Thailand’s law of lese-majeste has one very prominent critic: King Bhumibol … In 2005, after an increase in politically inspired lese-majeste complaints, King Bhumibol used his annual televised birthday address to convey three concerns: (a) ‘The king… is a human being and as such should be subject to criticism, (b) Charges against those accused of lese majeste should be dropped, and those held in jail for lese majeste should be released, and (c) The use of the lese-majeste law ultimately damages the monarchy.”
How did the Democrats apply the lese-majeste laws? Before the 2006 coup, there was an average of five such court cases each year, but since 2006, the courts have seen more than 400 cases. That goes completely against the spirit of His Majesty’s wishes, as expressed in (b) and (c) above.
PM Yingluck’s outdoing the Democrats, who, during their two years in power, only managed to block 73,000 URLs. The current ICT minister reports that in three months, he’s blocked 60,000 URLs, as well as sentenced Uncle SMS to 20 years’ jail – all of which is hardly in keeping with all three of HM’s concerns. Now, Deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung wants B400 million so he can block even more websites. He’s behaving as if people hated our monarchy, when the opposite is true.
If the Democrats/Pheu Thai believe that our King is right in his concerns, they should apply the law sparingly – on only those who act with malice, not out of ignorance. This is because, as His Majesty noted, using the lese-majeste law ultimately damages the monarchy – as in the Uncle SMS case.
Burin Kantabutra