Some junta critics can travel, but not ideas

The decision by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to lift the travel ban on activists and politicians is welcome, but it’s hardly enough to make a significant difference in efforts to reform politics.

Under steady pressure from the international community to relax restrictions ahead of August’s national referendum on the draft constitution, the NCPO decided last week that, starting tomorrow, hundreds of activists and politicians previously barred from travelling abroad would be free to do so. Still unable to leave the country are politicians facing court trials, including former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Pheu Thai Party leaders Chaturon Chaisang and Wattana Muangsuk.

An NCPO spokesman has said the easing reflected the “improved political situation”, in which further turmoil has been deemed unlikely, rather than a response to foreign pressuring. If the situation has indeed improved to such an extent, though, the junta ought to be laying a firm foundation for democracy instead of continuing to repress citizens’ rights. 

Particularly, as we move closer to the referendum, freedom of speech is utterly essential, and yet the junta continues to summons, detain, arrest and prosecute academics, journalists, activists and politicians by the score because they are critical of the coup and the military government that resulted. Charges of sedition, lese majeste and computer crimes have flown as critics – and anyone who even agrees with them in passing – are castigated as “threats to national security”. 

More than any civilian government of recent years, the military regime has sought to cow opponents by misusing laws designed to protect the country and the honour of the monarchy, and convincing evidence is not always present when the cases come to trial. For the mother of one student activist to be arrested and prosecuted simply for acceding to a private message of complaint on Facebook is appalling. That the authorities were able to find this information in a personal online account raises further concerns about unlawful investigation and violation of citizen rights.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta chief, insists he is temporarily in this way maintaining law and order for the sake of long-term reform, and yet he allows the authorities to break the law, the ends justifying the means. And meanwhile the NPCO is attempting to subvert the country’s highest law to extend military control for years to come. Rather than ensuring justice for civilians, the law is being used to consolidate the power of the armed forces.

Article 44 of the interim charter gives Prayut far-reaching powers with no provision for accountability to the public. Civilians are tried in military courts, where there is no chance to appeal rulings. Army officers are doing police work. We are being asked to make a decision on the new constitution in a referendum August, but we are not permitted to discuss the issues freely or publicly criticise its content. Millions of copies of the draft have been distributed and no one is allowed to broadcast any worry or negative opinion that might arise.

We are now seeing a fervent campaign in support of the draft charter and a “yes” vote in the referendum, orchestrated to give the public the impression that the document is flawless and of benefit to all. Anyone who would dare point out shortcomings or items of potential risk to Thailand’s democratic future are gagged by the threat of persecution, and that includes academics and commentators in the news media. 

Allowing formerly distrusted citizens to travel abroad is a positive sign, suggesting that the government is willing to bend. It needs to bend further. The NCPO needs to demonstrate understanding that rights are still part of the equation, even under a dictatorship, and will be safeguarded by the new constitution, which ought to be a charter of rights rather than a mere perpetuation of military might.