Judgement Day (UPDATED)

Jittery times indeed as Bangkok prepares for the court verdict on two of its major political parties’s election fraud allegations. The military appointed Constitution Court will hand a verdict on the Democrat Party (the opposition) at 1330hours (GMT+7) while Thai Rak Thai’s (former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s political party) verdict will be handed at 1430hours (GMT+7).

Several bus have already trooped the two parties’ headquarters and around 100,000 people are expected to gather at the Sanam Luang. The king of Thailand has voiced concern on the effect of the verdict on the nation and reminded the judges that either way, they’ll be criticized. But as to whether the verdict, be pro or against the parties, would be for the best interest of Thailand–one would never know or it is still an event to watch.

A policeman uses an explosives sniffer to check all areas in and around the Constitution Court on Chakkraphet road in Phahurat yesterday. — APICHART JINAKUL/bangkokpost.com

If you happen to be here in Thailand, the Royal Thai Police has advised to avoid the following places as possible trouble areas:

• Sanam Luang, from today (30 May)
• The Royal Plaza, from 31 May
• Headquarters of the two main parties involved located at Rama VI road (Democrat Party HQ, near Chatuchak Market) and Navasorn Building at Rama III road

The police has placed various checkpoints around the areas of concern to limit the number of people joining the gatherings to a manageable level. If the situation deteriorates, a state of emergency might be declared (like the one that was declared down south), the Junta suggested.

Schools have been closed as precaution and most UN staff and foreign nationals were advised to avoid the said areas.

There’s also circulating email messages among Thais that Gen. Sonthi, leader of the Council for National Security, might do a Nepal. The email message argued that since Gen. Sonthi is a muslim, he might opt to transform Thailand into an Islamic country and scrap the monarchy. Most Thais that I talked to see the email message as crap but the email has still been widely circulated.

Related links

• The Final Countdown

UPDATE:

1750: The Constitution Tribunal found the Democrat Party NOT GUILTY of election fraud by conniving with smaller parties to lure Thai Rak Thai into illegally funding them.

22:30: The Constitution Tribunal found the Thai Rak Thai Pary (former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s party) guilty of election fraud. The party will be disbanded and its executives will be banned to run for public office for five years.

The Constitution Tribunal also found leaders of smaller parties guilty of being in cahoots with the TRT to fool the public that there were a number of parties running for the April elections last year.

The verdict marks the end to a prolonged uncertainty in the country’s political arena. What will happen tomorrow, though, remains to be seen.

Jittery times in Thailand

The September coup last year resulted in the scrapping of Thailand’s 1997 constitution. The move was in response to the alleged abuses of the former prime minister by capitalizing on the various loopholes of the constitution for his wealth gains. A new constitution is being drafted by a military appointed committee. Elections were promised in December 2007. 

Thailand is considered as one of the last bastions of democracy here in the Greater Mekong Subregion being the only country with a democratically elected government until the coup. Now most of the GMS countries are under military rule from Burma, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. The latter three are not technically ruled by the military but are socialist/communist governments.

Early this evening, I was surprised to see the king of Thailand speaking on TV. He seldom do that unless there’s a very significant event in Thailand. So I waited for the news.

Indeed, he did said something on the state of Thailand. He wasn’t happy at the course Thailand is going. However, news in Thailand showed a different angle of the news while still having the worst case scenario warning.

The political parties here in Thailand are being prosecuted after alleged fraud in the April 2006 election. The said election was boycotted by most parties and eventually was won by the former minister’s party, the Thai Rak Thai (Thai Loves Thai) Party. The election was later nullified after probable evidence of fraud (fielding ghost candidates to avoid failure of election since the opposition was boycotting it).

Individual judges are expected to issue their opinion on the case on 29 May and the constitutional tribunal will meet to hand a verdict on 30 May.

Next week is a critical time–the judgement, the absence of the prime minister (for an official trip) and the expected rallies in support of TRT party and the opposition Democrat Party. To make matters worse, rumours of elephants joining the rallies are persisting (I’m not kidding). Previous rallies by monks were marked with the involvement of these giant pachyderms, which caused traffic and confusion (and posed danger to the public).

If the two parties are convicted, they will be dissolved with senior party officials forbidden to run for office for five years. The military has promised an election come December 2007 but if the parties are dissolved and prominent politicians are excluded in the election, the coming election might as well be a staged one and not a true, fair and free election.

Most people here are growing uneasy with the military’s seemingly tight hold on power. As of now, let’s wait and hope for the best for this country.

Blogbastic’s Top Blogs (UPDATED)

I was meaning to do this long before but fruityoaty beat me to it. Well, she joined a writing project by Janette Toral–The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007. After reading about it, you’re now reading my take on this and I said I think this IS the time! 🙂 (feels like the tag game that I got into).

Anyway, I’m very flattered on Massa P’s nomination of Blogbastic as one of this year’s emerging influential blogs. It came at a right time when I realized the calling of blogbastic! Though inside me I was almost shouting… I’m not worthy!!! I’m not worthy!!! (with both hands up in the sky and bowing to Massa P.–eheheh! :D). Massa P. was nominated and I believe she deserves it more with the following she’s getting over at fruityoaty considering that she just started a few days after I went blogbastic!

And now for Blogbastic’s top ten, blogs that I regularly visit and read (arranged in no particular order, drumroll please!….)…

• fruityoaty, started blogging 29 August 2006
• The Comic Blurb, started blogging 26 January 2007
• jun.anteola, started blogging 21 January 2007
• nakanampucha, started blogging 21 April 2007
• Rising Sun, started blogging 29 March 2007
• Jon Cabron, started blogging 7 November 2006 
• kuro-kuro-ko-to, started blogging 18 November 2006 
• Culture Shiok!, started blogging 28 January 2007
• The Philosophical Bastard, started blogging 14 March 2007 (no, he did not beg nor did he bribe me. :), I inspected his blog and found that it’s something to watch out if not this year in the near future).
• Blog Addicts, started blogging 2 March 2007

You can read further information about this Filipino blogging project here (this is open to everybody!). Only blogs created between 1 August 2006 and to date are qualified to be nominated though. Now that feels nice to spill the beans and let you know what new blogs make blogbastic tick.

Oh yes, this is a writing project and it comes with a possible cash prize! weeeeh! 🙂

Pacquiao loses to rival and a few million pesos

Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao’s decision (to agree to the prodding of Pres. Arroyo) to join the congressional race proved to be a wrong move for Pacman. He was reportedly ‘sad,’ ‘depressed’ over poll results and was also reported to have lost some cash. Aggravating the situation is the circulating manipulated photo that went around as soon as the results became apparently clear.

Poor Pac-Man, he should have stuck to holding his gloves rather than trying to put on those dirty barong!

Google stands down

In an unexpected twist, Google recently promised Thailand that it will now remove all anti-monarchy videos from [its] YouTube.com website according to a report by Bangkokpost.com. Google.com earlier rejected repeated calls from the Thailand Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to remove the said clips saying that some clips have attacked President Bush far more harshly than the Thai king had been mocked.

The original offensive clip was eventually removed by the user but subsequent video clips were uploaded to the site in protest to what was deemed an attack on freedom of expression. There was a strong feeling in Thailand that Google and the offenders were culturally insensitive to the request that Thailand blocked access to the popular video sharing website.

The Thai government claimed that it will not proceed to filing of criminal charges against Google while it is still not known whether the Royal Thai Police will proceed with charging Google with lese majeste.

MICT Minister Sitthichai Pokaiyaudom said that Google’s vice president Kent Walker assured him in the letter that they would remove all offensive clips but claimed “that it would take time to find all the video clips uploaded to YouTube, but said the clips could be removed,” The Bangkok Post reported.

The Bangkok Post claimed that volunteers monitoring Youtube, however, were able to find the offensive video clips in seconds. They are wondering now how Youtube technicians “would need more time” in removing all the offensive video clips.

It is not yet clear whether Thailand would eventually allow access to Youtube in the country.

Tong, tong, tong

Here’s a version of my children’s (and a colleague’s kid) rendition of sexbomb’s tong, tong, tong during our recent weekend outing. 🙂

INQUIRER.net Blogs

Although not as fancy as gmanews.tv’s blog network page, you can find all of INQUIRER.net Blogs in one site. From one, they now have 11 blogs covering almost everything from technology, entertainment, money to current events. 🙂

• Joey Alarilla‘s @play blogging about technology.
• Inquirer.net blog team’s Blog Addicts blogging everything about blogging. 
• Salve Duplito’s Money Smarts blogging about “personal finance, business, financial independence, the economy and [how to give] the rat race a kick on the butt.”
• Inquirer.net’s Eleksyon 2007 blogging the Philippine 2007 election
• Babe Republic, Joey’s blog about the hottest babes, nope not the pig, but the gals! 🙂
• Manuel L. Quezon III and John Nery‘s Current blogging about current events. 
• Hackenlash blog about gaming.
• Ruben Nepales’ The Nepales Report blogging about the entertainment industry.
• Inside Science blogging about science.
• Vox Populi is the collective blog of Inquirer.net readers, where they can write their minds.
• Soundtrip blogging about music.

Now we have more than one choices in one roof.

When newsmen become the news (UPDATE)

The last thing that any journalist would want to end up with is being the news themselves. So, when I’ve learned that the Philippine Daily Inquirer issued a statement regarding a reported slay try on my former colleague, Mr. Delfin Mallari, Jr., it took me a while to believe what I’m reading. 

I met Ka Jun during one bureau meeting in Lucena City back when I was still with the PDI as a correspondent sometime between 1999 and 2000. I remember that my first impressions of him was that he’s a kind person, humble and seem to be a principled journalist add to that he’s quite a funny guy, too. His slay try came just a day after another newsman was found dead, apparently killed because of his chosen profession.

If you’re a journalist in the Philippines and your in a critical area covering a critical beat especially politics, drugs or illegal gambling, expect the worse to happen anytime you hit a sensitive spot of the industry. So, this would mean that your closest family member should be prepared when the time/day comes for you to be the news. I remember covering the news on the illegal numbers game or Jueteng in Laguna. One of my stories was published. A few days after, suspicious-looking men began surveying our house and was asking for me. It was pretty scary to think that I haven’t written, yet, a critical or explosive story. Suddenly, covering the games of the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association became interesting. 🙂

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Chairperson Joe Torres described the events this week as another dark period for Philippine Media. He cited a number of cases of harrassment against journalists in just one week all over the country.

Ka Jun might have survived the slay try and I’m pretty sure that he’ll continue what he loves best but the bullet that almost took his life is still lodged in his body. A grim reminder that his chosen profession is anything but safe.

Ka Jun, second from left, during a rally in August 2004 in front of Camp Crame. They were condemning unresolved killings of journalists in the country. Three years after, he was almost one of the statistics. (From Prof. Danny Arao’s site)

DATESTAMP: 23 April 2007; 10.14pm, Bangkok time

Most of my Filipino readers might have read it over the Philippine Daily Inquirer but here’s an excerpt of Ka Jun’s thoughts on his slay try:

I now realize that being a part of a big national media entity, like the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and being a responsible media practitioner no longer guarantee one’s personal security.

I used to read in various articles about the Philippine media industry being under siege and about journalists being abducted, maimed, tortured and killed by enemies of press freedom.

After condemning the attacks, my naïve, provincial journalist frame of mind just brushed them off as part of the hazards of the profession. I thought that I would never be physically harmed as I had been circumspect in all my writings, no matter how explosive the topic was.

But these justifications seem not valid anymore.

Inquirer.net & CNN.com blocked in Thailand??? (UPDATE)

(I originally posted this at around 8.30pm, Bangkok time, 11 April please read my update on this post below) 

I usually surf the news on the Internet after office hours, however, I was surprised of what I’ve discovered tonight. At about 8.06pm, Bangkok time, I typed Inquirer.net and this is what I’ve got.  

I’m not sure what’s happening but apparently after Youtube, Inquirer.net and CNN.com got the ire of the Thai Government for some reason.  

This is hot news, I informed Joey and Erwin re the possible blockade for their info. I said to myself, this might be an error on my computer, I refreshed my laptop but the same window.

I tried to check Inquirer Bloggers, to my relief, I can still view the site. 

I surfed CNN.com. Surprise, surprise, this is what I’ve got.

The small English script reads as follows:

ict.cyberclean.org

( Sorry! the web site you are accessing has been blocked by ministry of information and communication technology )

I lost my contacts in CNN so I’m not sure how to inform them but I’m sure they’ve already noticed as they have a regional office here in Bangkok.

They usually do this for pornographic sites but Inquirer.net and CNN.com?? Their news might be too sizzling for the Thai government, well I hope I’m wrong. I tried to key in other news media addresses. Al-Jazeera and BBC are still up, so I might probably be wrong and this might be a simple case of technical mistake???

****

Time stamp: 11.43pm, Bangkok Time, 11 April 2007 

I’m really puzzled of what happened early this evening it’s like I entered a Twilight Zone! When I surfed the internet just to check on the latest on Inquirer.net there was this announcement from Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. Good thing there’s print screen, so I have an evidence of what I saw and that I’m not just hallucinating.

After blogging about this apparent blockade, I tried to access the Tagalog site of WordPress. Guess what? I was directed to the cyberclean webpage again. I tried to access wordpress.com, while I was able to access it it was in its naked glory. I tried to access Chuckie’s website, it was also blocked!??? (hmm, is it because of Antoniella??).

I’ve received an inquiry from Yuga as to what ISP I’m hooked on, I was on True, which is a private company here. I took his lead and tried to ask my friends based here in Thailand to further confirm the possible blockade. A friend, who’s served by TOT, said the sites that I claimed to be blocked were fine (CNN, Inquirer.net, Tagalog WordPress, A Day In The Life, and yes even my blog), she can read all the news and all my blog entries! (by that time, I couldn’t access or update my blog on Blogbastic! as in only that site, I still have access to my other blogs on wordpress though).

Alas, when I asked two other friends, one confirmed that Inquirer.net was blocked the other confirmed that my blog was blocked, they were also on True. In the process of confirming the sites that they are surfing, one of them told me that she can now has access to part of my blog! I was puzzled and then after a while she can read most of the entries on my blog.

When I checked on my laptop, typed CNN, then Inquirer.net on one tab, then Chuckie’s blog on another, then WordPress Tagalog on another then my blog on another tab–I can see, I can see all of them (sigh…).

It made sense to me now, that last year, I started a blog for a network of communications officer here in the region and even before I could populate it with entries, it got blocked also by the MICT for some reason. When I emailed them for an explanation, no reply was made, I guess if this block was eventually for a longer period, my inquiries would have landed on deaf ears, too.

It was a great relief (to know I still have access on this blog in Bangkok, THAILAND!), puzzling but a bit scary. I’m supposed to be on a blogging hiatus because of an office work load and, have to admit this, because of the contagious moods of Massa P. and Shari. But this event was too good to pass not to be blogged.

Sayang I thought I had a scoop already, but that’s fine at least I have access to my blog again. Now, I can really relate to people having a site and then censored for no reason at all–I mean really no reason or provocation. Enough said.

Lastly, many thanks to Abe, Erwin and Joey for having the time to look into this info. Thanks to Liza and Danny, Mel and Ligh for helping me confirm this event.

Thai Youtube blockade sparks video wars

Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology got its wish from Google and Youtube. Traces of the offensive video have been removed, however, the issue sparked a number of protest and triggered an onset of attack on the Thai monarchy online.

So, brace for a prolonged battle of videos online. But nobody’s retaliating against the offensive video, but how are they going to hit back? This is just like Thailand’s battle down south–they don’t know who the enemies are.