Just as the sun rises every day, the Royal Thai Police and its Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) were predictably quick to pounce on the flash-mob popularity of song sensations Rap Against Dictatorship (RAD).
The group's blunt Prathet Ku Mee (What My Country's Got) has taken social media by storm. It had racked up more than 21 million views and counting on its official YouTube channel by Tuesday morning. After being quick off the mark last week to frown on and announce that the rappers, production crew and viewers who clicked "like and share" could face prosecution, the police on Monday took a step back.
National deputy police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said the song is deemed legal for now given that the police still have insufficient evidence to suggest otherwise. Viewers can click "like" and share it. The police have not summoned the rappers, he said.
However, he still hasn't let them off the hook and has told the TCSD to conduct what amounts to a forensic examination in an attempt to ascertain whether any lyric or line involves, as the Computer Crime Act (CCA) terms it, "putting false information into the computer system". The TCSD has also been asked to investigate the background behind the making of the song and to extend its probe into other songs recently made as parodies of Prathet Ku Mee.
The police department, with the power to prosecute under the CCA, could easily make a misstep in this probe. The TCSD's Pol Col Siriwat Deepo and Pol Gen Srivara made an error last week by publicly threatening, not just the 20 or so artists and technicians involved in the making of the popular video, but the millions who have viewed it approvingly.
And the would-be censors should consider some of those who are among the millions. Most members of the government -- actually targeted by Prathet Ku Mee -- have kept largely silent. Not so the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Grisada Boonrach, who rather likes the song. He said it reminded him of his own youthful days as a student immediately after the Oct 14, 1973, revolution. "We had songs like that, against the establishment," he said.
The leaders of the Pheu Thai, Democrat and Future Forward political parties said publicly they see no legal violations by Rap Against Dictatorship, and find the song uplifting. And the hundreds of thousands of "likes" speak volumes about the public's acceptance of the music.
The lyrics are a shock on first hearing. Interspersed with the titular chant of "this is what our country's got", the song consists solely of 75 itemised accusations against the elite. These include but are not limited to the current military regime. One would be hard pressed to imagine a broader indictment of the social, political and economic structure, dubbed by many as the ammart, or elite.
None of this presents an iota of evidence that the RAD group has broken any law. Pol Col Siriwat and Pol Gen Srivara do not have a leg to stand on in this regard and they must not waste their officers' time by pursuing an "investigation" into this song and its parodies.
It's a given that many of the elite will find this rap song offensive. But that is because it is blunt and undeniably crude in places. Every word of every line is either a fact or entirely opinion that breaks no law. The "potential offence" in the eyes of police, though thankfully few others is the mass of evidence of malfeasance and offences against the people.
It is also ironic that until the police threatened to pounce on RAD, Prathet Ku Mee was barely puttering along on the sidelines of popular internet memes. Within hours of the first warning by Pol Gen Srivara, the song hit one million views on its official YouTube page. There is now no way to stop it. Police and government would be wise not to even try.