Next month Thailand’s Supreme Court will decide whether to hear petitions against the seizure of 46 billion baht in assets. The court has set a date of Aug 11 to announce their decision.

The other day we reported about an ad that the censors banned in Thailand. Well, now that the story has hit the press and the PM has said he finds nothing offensive about the ad, the censors are backpedaling. Now the censors are saying that they simply wanted the ad “corrected” before allowing it to air. They say that some of the clips used were inappropriate and could be against the law so they asked the producers to recut the commercial.

According to the Bangkok Post, problems that the censors had focused on:

Scenes to be removed include those of protesters torching public property [on May 19], security officers holding weapons and getting ready to fire them, some pornographic images, some deemed offensive to religious institutions, images of protesters [both yellow shirts and red shirts] gathering in political rallies in a way that might trigger a state of unrest or affect national unity or internal security.

The cabinet agreed to lift the state of emergency in three provinces today. The three provinces are Lampang, Sakon Nakhon, and Roi-et. The emergency decree still remains in effect in the following provinces:

Ayutthaya
Bangkok
Chaiyaphum
Chiang Mai
Chiang Rai
Chon Buri
Khon Kaen
Maha Sarakham
Mukdahan
Nakhon Ratchasima
Nong Bua Lamphu
Nonthaburi
Pathum Thani
Samut Prakan
Ubon Ratchathani
Udon Thani

A very interesting opinion column in the Bangkok Post regarding the divide between the amart and prai in Thailand. Voranai Vanijaka makes a case that reconciliation is not just about wage gaps and public handouts but has to be addressed as an attitude between rich and poor.

You see, when a man crawls to serve another man – what does that do to his spirit? But it’s tradition, and society has been so conditioned to it for so long. We see nothing wrong with it. We don’t even realise or recognise it. It’s just the way things are.

But what lies underneath is an amputated spirit, and unlike a lost arm or a lost leg, there’s no prosthetic for it. Imagine a society, where the majority has an amputated spirit.

He says that things like the income gap are merely symptoms of this amputated spirit.

In the past or in the present, the masses, the populace, just doesn’t know any better and doesn’t want to know any better. Whenever they protest, it’s never to demand a better education. It’s never to demand healthcare. It’s never to demand civil rights and liberty. But for subsidies and fixed prices – things that can only help them to be comfortably poor, temporarily.

It’s a very different take on what’s happening in Thai society and is something that needs to be considered going forward.

A television commercial title “Thailand, We Apologize” has been banned by the censorship board despite receiving an enthusiastic reception at an event called “Ignite Thailand” held in Lumpini Park. Prime Minister Abhisit says he has seen the video on YouTube and has asked the censorship board to reconsider their decision as he saw nothing wrong, politically motivated, or offensive about the commercial.

You can see the video here with English subtitles.

It looks like one of the two foreigners arrested over their involvement with the Red Shirt protests has had a moment of clarity and pleaded guilty to the charges of violating the emergency decree. Jeff Savage, the Brit who appeared in a video seeming to encourage protesters to burn down Central World and do as much looting as possible, was given a 90 day sentence but the judge cut that in half because he pleaded guilty and was a foreigner. Since he’s already served at least 45 days in Thailand’s jails he was to be released and immediately deported back to the UK.

The other foreigner arrested for violating the emergency decree, David Purcell, has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial.

Fresh off a stinging rebuke from the US, Thaksin may now be sailing into a totally different type of problem. According to The Daily Monitor in Uganda a watchdog committee has been set up to investigate exactly how former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shiawatra was issued a diplomatic passport from their country. A whistle blower says that the diplomatic passport issued under the name of Takki Shinegra was used as a way to entice Thaksin to invest in their country. The Uganda government appears to want to maintain good relations with Thailand though and may be seeking to revoke the passport in an effort to patch things up.

A post over at Connecting the Dots makes a case that Thaksin’s resounding rebuke by the United States is causing him to shift tactics. Red Shirt supporters might not like CtD’s tone about Thaksin but he seems to have the same harsh criticism across all Thai political parties. Mainly I think it comes down to what he says here about Thaksin:

Thaksin is no doubt finding out that the rest of the world is not as gullible and easily lead astray as his lesser educated Thai supporters. Hearing him try to explain things away to educated people from other countries using the same words and reasoning as he does with his Thai supporters is sadly amusing. For the most part he can not even produce the illusion of telling the truth never mind seeding doubt in the actions of the people he sees as his enemies.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that this is pretty much the state of politics in Thailand in general. Sure, we have our politicians who lie, cheat, and steal too but at least they usually go to the trouble to provide a believable alibi. In Thailand it seems that from police officers to politicians there isn’t even a need to offer a semi-convincing cover story.

Actually, it’s very much an experience one sees even in their day to day life in Thailand. I love the Thai people but they’re horrible, horrible liars. By that I mean that because of many of the social taboos in Thai culture people aren’t used to being called out on a lie so they don’t put much effort into it. Conversely, in most Western cultures it’s not only acceptable to point out flaws in someone’s story but in many cases you have an duty to do so. That means we develop airtight stories before we tell a lie. We think through all the possible angles, questions we might be asked, and so on.

That is why for many Westerners reading the daily Thai paper requires the same sort of suspension of disbelief as does watching a cartoon. Reporters just report. They don’t seem to ask hard hitting questions or probe too much. If some MP explains tells reporters that he got a sunburn from walking on the beach at night they report that. Nobody questions it. The truly gullible start covering up at night for fear they’ll get dark skin from the moon.

And as CtD points out, Thaksin is finding out the hard way that many of his arguments don’t hold up to Western scrutiny.

An appeal court has turned down the bail applications for ten red shirt leaders and guards being held on terrorism charges. The court ruled that considering the seriousness of the crimes they’re being accused of and the possible penalties (death penalty) they were a flight risk.