Thai Alliance for Human Rights – Australia. 82 Kent St, Minto, NSW 2566
Ph: 02 96037638 / 0418 720 097 Email: s_rachso@hotmail.com
The Hon. Julie Bishop
MP Minister of Foreign Affairs
414 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, WA, 6008
Dear Minister,
We the undersigned are democracy-loving Thai people who have come to live in your beautiful, free country Australia.
As you are aware, in recent weeks a military junta has taken control of Thailand through a coup d’état. It is currently ruling by decree, with the intent of forever stamping out democratic tendencies and independent thought in Thailand. Those caught resisting, or even criticizing, the coup-makers are being arrested and detained without a fair trial.
Hundreds of public figures have been summoned over the past few weeks and bullied into silence through the implicit threat of violence against themselves and their families, and thousands of more have been “visited” by armed soldiers at their homes, which were then ransacked.
Although there has been no major bloodshed as of yet, this is owing only to the restraint of the former government and pro-democracy movements in Thailand. The fact is that options for peaceful resistance are fast running out.
On the streets of Bangkok, peaceful protesters were hauled away for holding up signs denouncing the coup. Later, they were hauled away for holding up three fingers, a symbol of resistance inspired by the fictional Hunger Games series. Later, students who decided to silently distribute sandwiches as a form of harmless dissent were threatened with arrest as well.
Make no mistake- the military is reshaping the country at the barrel of a gun, at a speed and with a disregard for human rights that we haven’t seen since the bloody dictatorships of the 1970s.
We are afraid of the future of our country.
We are afraid because of stories we hear about the midnight knocks on the door by armed men all across the North and Northeastern provinces, or of women being dragged into taxis and taken away on the streets of Bangkok.
We are afraid because they have instructed the Thai people to “forget about everything that happened before the May 22 coup,” and is rapidly rolling out a program designed to achieve exactly that.
We are afraid because democracy is in trouble across all of Southeast Asia, and that the longer that Thailand is not a democracy, the smaller the chance that it will ever be a democracy again becomes.
In what is recognized as one of the most succinct descriptions of the totalitarian agenda ever written, the dystopian speculative work of fiction 1984 (which has been unofficially blacklisted in Thailand), eminent British novelist George Orwell wrote:
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
This is not the future we imagine for Thailand. We know that Thai democracy is not perfect, and that no democracy is. But we also know that our country will not move forward if we are not able to make and learn from our mistakes. We will not improve if we are not able to think for ourselves. We will not grow unless our future is our own.
For that reason, we would like to thank you and the Australian government from the bottom our hearts for your righteous action in downgrading relations with the military dictatorship in Thailand, and calling for the immediate restoration of democracy.
We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that, as per an agreement that was in place prior to the coup, Australia is conducting repairs on a helicopter and other military hardware. We humbly request that the Australian government seeks the most robust possible assurances that this hardware will not be used to constrain or erode the human rights of the Thai people before it is returned to the coupmakers.
Finally, we would like to celebrate Australia’s democratic tendencies, and extend our most heartfelt solidarity to you as Foreign Minister in maintaining Australia as a vanguard for democracy in our shared region.
We are certain that Thailand has a greater chance of restoring sovereignty and self-determination to its people with your support than without it.
Thank you, Minister Bishop, and thank you to the Australian Government and the Australian People.
Please accept, Madam, the assurances of our highest consideration,
Respectfully yours,
Somsak Rachso
on behalf of the Thai Alliance for Human Rights – Australia (part of the Free Thai Movement).
