Bye-bye democracy. Farewell to freedom of expression through public gatherings.
Protests such as this November, 2013, march by the Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand are effectively banned, after the junta's National Legislative Assembly passed a new Public Gatherings Bill. (Bangkok Post photo by Taweechai Tawatpakorn)
Thanks - but no thanks - to the National Legislative Assembly for its final endorsement of the new public gatherings bill which will restrict the right of the people to meet en masse as never before, once the bill is published in the Royal Gazette and becomes law.
No longer can we take to the streets at will to air our grievances or make demands in front of a government office. The bill requires that we have to seek permission 24 hours in advance from the chief of a police station in the district where a protest or a demonstration is to be held.
Protesting without permission is against the law and is liable to a fine, imprisonment or both.
If the police station chief says no, we have the right to appeal to his boss. And if the boss says no too, his judgement will be deemed final. But we can still appeal to the court against the ban.
By then, I expect many affected groups which want to have their voices heard through protest will become frustrated and may scrap their planned expression of discontent. Another scenario is that a planned protest will lose steam because instead of protesting, the people involved will be forced to waste their time in courtroom battles.
Also, which police station chief - who will likely be of police colonel rank - will say yes to a protest in his area of jurisdiction at the risk of being reprimanded by his boss? So, there is a likelihood that rejection will be the norm.
Under the bill, protests must not be held within 150 metres of Government House, parliament or royal palaces. As an example of the difficulty involved, a protest at Government House could not be held within 150m of the seat of power, yet that would mean trespassing on the road, which is prohibited by the bill.
Chulalongkorn University political scientist Prapas Pintobtaeng says public gatherings should be considered a key mechanism of democracy. In his opinion, the public gatherings bill should be tailored to enable public gatherings and not restrain them, as well as to ensure the safety of those involved.
Yet despite the bill's harsh restrictions, Mr Prapas does not believe it will be able to stop public gatherings or protests, particularly if an issue involves a major political conflict.
One weird thing about the bill is that it bans activities at night. Many activities such as concerts and speeches are held at night as seen from past experience.
People prefer to join a protest in the dusky hours simply because it is hot during the day, not to mention that it allows office workers to join the activities. So it can be assumed that the writers of the bill are thinking of more ways to discourage people from joining a protest so it will end sooner rather than later.
When public gatherings cannot be held, or can barely be held, how can we, the people, voice our grievances and get heard?
Or do we have to file a complaint through the Damrongtham Centre and go through a bureaucratic maze before we can speak out publicly?
I just don't get it. Why is this basic right being taken from us?
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post.