liost Australians know very little about Thailand except that the King plays a satophone, that the Queen devotes most of her energies to looking "lovely" and that in June of this year Australian troops were sent there to defend what President Kennedy calls "a bastion of freedom," ;
However most people aren't aware that in Thailand there is: (a) no FRERDOM of SPEECH; (b) no FREEDOMof the PRESS; (c) no FREGDOM of ASSOCIATION 5 (d) no FREEDOM of OPPOSITION; (e) no FRUZDOM.
The present government is in fact a military dictatorship led by liars hal Sarit Thanarat, which seized power in October, 1958, abolished the Constitution. dissolved the National Assembly, and banned all political parties. Llartial law was declared and sweeping arrests were nade of former Assembly representatives, newspaper editors, writers, labour leaders, teachers, students, and businessmen who were accused as Commnists or fellow-travellers..cecsece
Under the 'interim' consititution of January, 1959, a Constitutional Assembly was established -~— but all its members are governnent appointments, But even so the Government does not trust its owa followers, and neither the Prime Winister or his Cabinet are answerable to the Assenbly.
The Constitition is supposed to be an ‘interim! affair, but is still in force today, four years later. Moreover Iarshal Sarit has declared that the Thai people cannot have a permanent constitution until they have achieved "nation— al discipline", and that "political freedom’ and "hunan rights" will not be tolerated if they jeopardise "the national security."
Under Article 17 cf the interim constitution the Prine ilinister has the power to take ANY steps he deems necessary "for the purpose of repressing or supp=ressing actions might threaten the national security, or the throne, or subvert or jeopardise law and order." In other words the Prine liinister has absolutely unlinited power.
Nor has the Government failed to make use of this —- all political parties except the government party, have been banned, as have been the trade unions, The country remains under martial law, and anyone suspected of the slightest sympathy towards communism or opposition to the regine, is subject to immedi-ate arrest.
But dictator Sarit does not always bother with the wearisome procedure of a court martial, He "has returned to tae practices of the 19th century absolute monarchy by arbitrarily me ting out punishment without recourse to law or the courts. In 1958 when a series of fires were attributed to a group of Chinese, Sarit personally conducted a brief investigation and ordered each suspect to be shot immediately. In July, 1958 sinilar action was taken against a Thai national (Supachi Srisati) who, as leader of an allegedly pro-conmnist Group, was executed without trial, after a bricf interrogation, also conducied by Sarit,"
(Pacific Affairs, Dec. 1960 pp355/6)
; The visit of Thai royalty is not just a good~will mission. I+t is designed to blind the Australian people to the realities of Thailand, and to pre~ pare them for further military intervention in Jouth—Jast Asia by SBA. 7.06 Obviously the colonial peoples of Asia will not tolerate these curruption~ridden oligarchies for ever. The Australian people mist refuse to support military dictatorship in southiast Asia by demanding the withdrawal of Australian troops firon THEI Lavids.s seaes daisies owe SUPPLELOZIT: We have appended a copy of the leaflet given out by supporters of the Fourth International at the Helsinki Youth Festival.
ea ae