Thailand's Record on Human Rights is a Blind Eye That Will Lead to Blows by Phairath Khampha 19 December 2002 Commentators on Thailand's poor human rights record on December 10, 2002 warned that violence in the country would increase if the government continued to ignore Thai people's rising demands for fundamental rights, which are currently nearly non-existent. Five panellists who took part in the discussion Expectations on the National Human Rights Commission to celebrate International Human Rights Day agreed that the establishment of the commission had increased the public's demand for its rights. "If the government continues, as it does today, to ignore the people's complaints, violence is bound to increase," warned Kittiphob Suthisawang, a grass-roots leader. The Kingdom has a good constitution, which has given hope to the people, but the government has not yet played by the rules, he said. The government, he added, had used various measures to destroy public trust and confidence whenever rights are demanded. "Anybody who makes a noise, particularly against the actions of the economic and political elite, will suffer," Kittiphob said, adding that disadvantaged groups in rural areas were likely victims. Dr Nirun Pitakwatchara, a senator from Ubon Ratchathani, agreed and said that disadvantaged groups in Isaan [Thailand's Northeast Region] suffered whenever they pursued their causes. He urged the NHRC to adopt proactive strategies to network with other independent mechanisms and civil organisations to protect the human rights of the Thai people. "The government must respond to pressure. Otherwise, abuses by bureaucrats and politicians will continue unabated," Nirun added. Dr Kritaya Achavanitkul of Mahidol University called on the NHRC to eliminate bureaucratic red tape in the filing of complaints by victims of rights abuses. In the first 11 months of 2002, an astonishing 400 complaints had been filed with the NHRC. "All of them involved abuses by government officials," she said, adding that the commission must give equal attention to all cases. By its nature, the NHRC will be bogged down by bureaucratic polity because it is a government organisation, she said. Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of the Nation Multimedia Group, said the NHRC remained the only mechanism mandated by the Constitution that was genuinely independent. He said he hoped that the NHRC would be the vanguard of democracy, ensuring that the government follows the Constitution. The country's report on human rights due in March 2003 would be an historic record, Kavi added, as it would be Thailand's own assessment of its human rights and not a foreign survey employing foreign standards. One might wonder what it really would mean, given that Thai people's sense of human rights is quite primitive to, say, western European standards.