Thai Generals Applying the Gags

Since overthrowing an elected government in May, [Thailand’s] military rulers have jailed opponents who dared speak out and silenced the rest with the threat of prosecution. They have censored the media, dispersed protesters and forbidden open debate over the nation’s fate.

So when roughly 150 people attended the latest in a series of talks Thammasat University called “Democracy Classroom,” one weary student reminded all those present they should only discuss failed regimes — “please repeat after me, OVERSEAS.”

A few minutes after the event began, however, it was cut short by police — triggering a rare public uproar from university professors nationwide over the expanding reach of junta censorship. The incident, the first of its kind on a college campus here since the coup, also underscored the fact that the deep societal tensions that have fueled a decade of political upheaval here are not being healed, but suppressed.

 

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