According to the Reuters’ report, Thailand has announced its decision to block the Youtube website after the Youtube refused to take down a clip that is greatly insult and disrespect King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand which is made by Paddidda. Many critics and bloggers have supported the Youtube’s decision not to take down this infamous clip because the user, Paddidda is practicing freedom of speech. Also, the site did not find anything offensive. Therefore, he (Paddidda) has the right to post it up online. Little did the Youtube know, insulting the king of Thailand is equivalent to disrespecting the entire Thai population in Thailand and in various parts of the world.
As a Thai citizen, I feel that it is my responsibility to voice my opinion on this issue. Youtube creators and others need to understand why the Thai government is asking the site to remove this clip. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world’s longest reigning monarch. He has helped Thailand overcome many problems such as economic recession, and political crisis. During the economic recession in late 1990s, King Adulyadej was the first person who introduced and suggested Thai people to live life in a primitive lifestyle,a life style that does not require a lot of luxuries in order to survive the recession. He was also the main negotiator to the IMF to let the country lend money to improve the economy situation during that time. The king and his wife have created many social programs to ensure that the people of Thailand have the opportunity to expand their businesses and preserve the Thai traditional culture. King Adulyadej has been recognized by many international institutions such as the United Nations and the United Kingdom for his greatness and devotion to the people of his country.
The clip by Paddidda shows a woman’s feet on top of the King’s head which is ”the most offensive to Thai Buddhists [because of] the juxtaposition of a pair of woman’s feet, the lowest part of the body, above his head, the highest part of the body” (Reuters reportby Nopporn Wong-Anan). Paddidda’s clip shows that he/she has no respect to the king of Thailand, the father of the nation. In my opinion, this person should be punished.
Many non-Thai people may not understand where I am coming from, in which is totally understandable. Let me remind you that I was not born in a country where freedom of speech is limited. My country in not a communist. The King often times does not intervene with the situations in Thailand. He only gets involved when it is necessary or when a situation posts a great threat to the stability of the country. The King pretty much hands off from politics and other areas. He and his wife usually focus on the welfare of the people. However, his health conditions have been limiting him from doing what he wants to do.
Hopefully, this address the issue of Paddidda’s infamous clip. Youtube, please take this into consideration. You are pretty much busy with the Viacom lawsuit. However, take sometime to take a look at this issue seriously. It’s not about freedom of speech that I’m addressing here. I do believe that everybody has the right to express whatever he/she wants. However, when a comment becomes a “hazard,” I believe it is justifiable to remove it.
Filed under: International Politics, News, Politics, Thoughts
First I would like to say it is good to read a rational post about this contraversy. The comments on youtube about the video are sad, all swearwords.
That said I must disagree with you when you say “In my opinion, this person should be punished.”
This is a freedom of speech issue, how can it not be? You want to ban speech because you don’t like it. Clearly you don’t want speech to be free. The King is a good person, and has done good things, but why should he be treat like some kind of god? That is an insult to him to say that he some how can not take critisim.
Who gets to determine what people can be made fun off and what people can’t?
It is scary to see how many people say some one should be killed because they did something insulting. Whats next killing people because of cartoons?
You may be agaisnt free speech, if so fine. But don’t say this is NOT a free speech issue becuase it clearly is.
This is not Free speech.This clip is insulting to Thai people.
its a shame that a country has to block a website just becasue of one video.
I would love to say more on the subject and join in to this debate and discuss the issue in depth,, but for some reason I am afraid to do this…
what kind of a country is this where one is afraid to speak out? !!!!
how does this look to the rest of the world?
isnt bangkok trying to become the ‘new singapore’ for the asian economy? isnt thailand supposed to be ‘trying’ to attract foreign business and tourism? how does this help?
while I am here.. how about thailand making it easier for foreigners owning a business or buying a house here? i mean,, how can a country attract foreigners if the laws are making it harder? !!
The king is almost like god to Thai people. If you are not Thai and not raised there, you wouldn’t understand how a person can be respected like god. But that’s how we really feel. That’s why we’re offended.
But I disagree with blocking the whole web by the government.
FOOLS!
Dave and A have NO idea what they are talking about.
This is not free speech. If the person posted a video saying calmly and rationally: “I believe the Thai king is not doing a very good job at his duties, and is neglecting important responsibilities to the people of Thailand, etc, etc, etc, then for HEAVEN’S SAKE of COURSE it should not be banned. It’s an honest opinion!
Americans have forgotten that freedom of speech does not give them the right to insult other people and make significant breaches of another culture. In a sense, freedom of speech makes THEM feel like gods, to quote the ever-ignorant ‘dave’
“what kind of a country is this where one is afraid to speak out? !!!!”
Yeah right, ‘DAVE’ you have NO idea what you are talking about. There is virtually NOBODY in this country who does not love our current king like a father. He is the kindest and most caring ruler we have ever had and has NEVER done ANYTHING to take advantage of the Thai people. He even used to do manual labor alongside Thai villagers in rice paddies when he was still able to exert himself that way.
Ah, America, America, the land of the free and the blissfully ignorant. You think your culture is THE culture, that your standards of living are THE standards of living, and you impose yourself onto everyone else in the most self-righteous manner imaginable.
FOR ONCE. Look at something from other than your own perspective. I know my words will go unheard by no more than a few people on this blog, but I don’t care. I’m Thai AND I’m American, and im becoming less proud do announce the latter, given the words and actions of people liek YOU TWO who tarnish our reputation worldwide.
Thank you and good night.
-Narit Alexander Trairatnobhas
Honolulu, HI
Once again this is a free speech issue.
Your arguement is because the video is insulting then it should be banned. So you are not for free speech. You are only for allowing speech that is not insulting. So who gets to decide what is insulting or not?
Freedom of speech does give one the right to insult people. Look I am not saying the video is good, but I sure don’t want someone telling me what I can or cannot see. If you removed everything that is insulting to someone or group there would be not that much left to see. So you think we should ban cartoons that make funny of Islam, Christianity, etc? How about movies that make fun of something?
It is also dumb how the gov’t responded to this. If they would have done nothing, almost nobody would have seen this video. They ban youtube, now everyone wants to see the video. It is being passed around in thailand also.
Narit Alexander Trairatnobhas -
Your interpretation of free speech is incorrect.
Free speech does allow for people to insult each other and make significant breaches of another culture. Tasteless speech is not against the law or a violation of free speech.
Now, is it a break in etiquette? Yes. Does the poster have no respect for the Thai culture? That’s clearly a yes. But is it a violation of free speech? No. Even by UN standards of free nations, it is not a violation of free speech. YouTube is in the United States, and hasn’t broken any American laws, so they are not obliged to remove the video.
The downside of accepting free speech is that you have to allow people to express themselves, whether you agree with it or not. There are no barriers on religious, cultural or race. Does that make their comments acceptable? No, but you cannot arrest someone for calling a black person a “n-word” for example. It’s racist, and society will probably invalidate that person and any future statements by him.
The best policy when it comes to someone using free speech to be disrespectful and insulting to someone is to ignore the individual and make him/her insignificant. The person is expecting someone to act, and when you act, you play into the person’s arena. You give them power over your emotions.
It would be in the best interest of the Thai people to recognize that the video is the creation of a single person, and that person deserves the disdain and anger of the Thai people. But YouTube is only upholding the rights of free speech. If they start making exceptions, soon they will be severely limiting free speech. So to take it out on YouTube is not really fair. Banning YouTube isn’t going to fix the issue – it only makes the one person feel like he won by controlling the emotions of Thailand.
I’m sure he’s sitting there laughing right now, going, “OMG GOOD RIDDANCE FOOLS!”
[...] Okay, I get you are angry at the videos. I can undestand why – it’s totally disrespectful, it’s totally religiously inappropriate for Buddists, and it’s culturally insulting. I also understand some of the bitching about the porn on the YouTube. I get your anger. I understand what it’s all about. [...]
In Saudi Arabia it is illegal to own a bible as it shows disrespect towards islam.. does that mean everybody in the world should remove their online copies of the bible so to avoid offending the Saudi laws?
I feel very bad that such one stupid person has managed to hurt Thai people and Thailand which I rever so much. I think the best thing to do is to ignore this person. Frankly, this person is doing more harm to the land he comes from, re-inforcing an attitude that is fast becoming popular about US. If anyone has to ban such people it should be the US – for more and more such people are causing harm to the ‘land of freedom’. Very different from how we used to see US just about over a decade ago? But then its a catch 22 – how does US censor and ensure US is US? The only way out is for the more and more good people to return and speak with awareness and sensitivity to others…
Freedom of speech, or even ‘liberty’ as a whole, does not exist independently of cultural and moral considerations. Liberty is meant to allow society to achieve better things, not to offend other people like what you’re doing. Liberty is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Even J.S. Mill, the most celebrated writer on liberty, set out clearly several limits on a person’s liberty for fear that serious conflicts would arise if liberty was abused. So, the point i’m trying to make is that liberty has its limits.
And in this case, this video has breached the limits by insulting the symbol of a whole nation.
America often acts with an air of “moral superiority”, which only comes across as totally hypocritical when things like Abu Graib and Guantanamo litter the front pages of foreign newspapers.
Its amazing that people are acting like America as a whole is insulting the HM the King. 1 guy out of 280 million makes a dumb video and some how it is America doing it. Most Americans don’t know who the King of Thailand is.
George Bush sucks, some of the things his administration have done are terrible. Al Gore would have never invaded Iraq. All true but really nothing to do with this video and free speech.
Thais think this video is insulting BUT not all of them think that youtube should censor it.
Again as I asked earlier who should make the decision on what should be banned? Some of the things that Buddhists do in Thailand offend Muslims. Do you think that it should be censored? Have you seen the crap on Thai tv?
This is the year of the pig, do you know that some muslims find that offensive, so much so that in indonesia they don’t have pictures of pigs to celebrate the year? (there are pictures of pigs ofcourse but not on things that celebrate chinese new year)
Who determines what should be banned?
Again had the Thai gov’t not blocked youtube almost nobody in Thailand, the US, or the world would have seen this video. Now a lot of people have seen it and more want to.
I agree with Bunny that we need good people to tell americans about the sensibilties of other countries and work to improve the US’s image. It is just sad to see that people some how think that America endorse this video. It is 1 guy out of 280 million. I wish the guy had not made it but I am not going to start censoring because 1 guy made 1 stupid video.
A, you bring up a lot of good points. The question is how are we going to educate the Americans about the sensibilities of other countries? In my opinion, they are going to tie everything into freedom of speech. Yes, I have seen some of the things that Thai Buddhists did to Thai Muslims. Should it be censored? I think that’s up to the people. However, as far as I know, the gov’t hasn’t taken any action on it. The situation between the Thai Muslims and Buddhists is another issue that we can talk about.
I also think the Youtube users are the ones that’s making the big deal out of this. Once Paddidda is removed, there are bunch of new users creating a similar clip in which insulting the king. I’m getting the sense that Thai people want these clips to be taken down but not banning the site. Now, it’s up to the Youtube now.
Who determines what should be banned? In the Paddidda’s case, the people and the government but usually it’s the gov’t because it has the power. With that being say, I am not saying that Thai gov’t is controlling every aspects of Thai people’s lives because it doesn’t. When it comes to this kind of issue, the gov’t feels that it has the right to step in and send the message to others (non-Thai) that this kind of message is offensive.
This may go off the topic..as far as I can remember, I learned in 5th grade in Thailand, the king of thialand has limited power and the people of Thailand create the law to protect the king becuase of his devotion and his work for the country.
Just think about it.
ok,, try this:
“george bush is a dickhead”.
“tony blair puts his penis in the queen of englands arse”.
now.. i can sleep tonight and feel safe that slome police wont come to my house and put me in jail!!!!
THATS FREE SPEACH!!!!
now,, if I said the same about the thai king and if I lived in thailand, I wonder what would happen to me??
————
thailand does NOT support freespeach. its a dictatorship.
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freespeach can hurt and offend people, races or creeds, BUT, its the job recieving person to consider that its freespeach and that everyone is entitled to an opinion or make a joke.
——–
I heard MANY thai people make jokes about the malaysians. I have heardMANY racist anti-muslim coments from thai people.
so,, ok,, it seems that thai people are just as bad as westerners when it comes to riddiculing other societies.
dave
I dont like American people not all of them but most of them! thanks
Thailand supports free speech. Maybe not the government but what I know is that Thai people do support for free speech. WE just don’t like people to insult the person who has done great thing to the country, period.
John Stewart Mill mostly made comments about the restrictions of liberty in the sense of physical violence done upon a person. “You’re freedom to wave your arms ends at the time of my nose,” type of liberty.
From what I’ve read of J.S. Mill, he’s not saying, “Limit people’s speech to improve society and prevent animosity,” as much as he’s saying, “Individuals should learn to limit their own freedom of speech to prevent adverse reactions upon themselves.” That leaves it up to the individuals to take responsibility for their own words, and not leave it up to the rest of society to clean up the words of a few who are obviously insensitive morons.
The best course of action would not be to censor Youtube, but to downplay the individual’s actions and make him ineffective. Right now, by trying to fire upon YouTube, the offended people are stirring up people who are going to continue to make these movies whether they are on YouTube or not. Thailand has just empowered those who love to insult Thailand by giving them a leg to stand on and a weapon to use. Tomorrow, someone will be hosting these videos on MySpace, then Newsgrounds, etc.
I also love how some people are blaming this on all of America as a whole. “I HATE AMERICANS. YOU ARE STUPID. STOP BEING INSULTING *insert gripe here*” Hello, Kettle, this is Pot. You are absorbing all light frequencies, over.
End of first paragraph should read, “Your freedom to wave your arms ends at tip of my nose,” type of liberty.
OK…
“Your mother is an idiot fucker.”
“Your father is a freakin’ ugly ignorant redneck babarian stupid asshole mother fucker.”
“You are the defect result of your parents”
Above would probably be the freedom of speech approach to respond.
How far does freedom of speech go? For physical liberty, “Your freedom to wave your arms ends at tip of my nose,” ? Unfortunately, the the vdo clip, the idea of insulting clip already punctured through my brain – and perhaps 60 million others. So, it has extend BEYOND the tip of my nose.
Also, “Individuals should learn to limit their own freedom of speech to prevent adverse reactions upon themselves.” we are just trying to show that he will get adverse reaction as a consequence of his freedom of speech act.
There wouldn’t be war had we only learn to respect the others.
I like the analogy of “In Saudi Arabia it is illegal to own a bible as it shows disrespect towards islam.. does that mean everybody in the world should remove their online copies of the bible so to avoid offending the Saudi laws?” In reality, you wouldn’t take the Koran or allah and torn it or spraypaint it would you?
This has nothing to do with religion nor monarchy — IT IS ONLY ABOUT RESPECT FOR OTHERS.
“Unfortunately, the the vdo clip, the idea of insulting clip already punctured through my brain – and perhaps 60 million others. So, it has extend BEYOND the tip of my nose.”
Well, metaphorically. Yet, the amount of physical damage done to you is none. Your liberties were not hampered by someone else exercising their liberties.
As is evident, not everyone feels the need to respect others. It would be a perfect world if everyone did respect others. Reality, however, doesn’t exactly follow the principle of a perfect world, and probably will never do so. So how do you operate in a world where disrespect is common?
The answer is not to give disrespectful people the spotlight, nor to continue to empower them. This entire media circus centered on this one person committing this one very offensive act has basically catapulted the individual into celebrity status. Now, people like this person will find a billion ways to continue to propagate this offense to maintain the spotlight.
It’s not just YouTube. Sure, YouTube may decide to remove the video, but now the video is on Google Video. Then it moves to a myrad of forums and servers, in 20 or 30 different countries with different laws and different opinions. All because once they were empowered by the anger of thousands, they were able to conveniently push their agenda as far as they wanted.
For example, Don Imus here in the States. A media outlet here fired a racist radio personality because he actually caused a fervor over a racist, sexist comment. That’s where it should have ended. But it didn’t – instead, now vengence is required, and they blew the entire thing out of proportion. And now he’s an even bigger celebrity who is considering taking a larger contract with a satellite media outlet run by a India-based corporation to make twice as much money while being allowed to spew even more racist and sexist crap on the radio.
I feel that the people responding to me are thinking I’m in favor of his video. I am not in favor of this offensive, reprehensive act. However, I also understand how anger pushes people to do things they regret later. If you remove the right of free speech, tomorrow you will regret it if an opposing party grabs power and uses your precedent to limit your ability to express yourself. And if you put too much of a spotlight on the act of one idiot, 10k idiots march in to exploit the fame.
The best way to deal with people who use their power of free speech to offend people is to downplay the significance of their ignorance, and warn others not to partake of the offensive material. Even fire people from their jobs.
Just don’t OVERDO it.
……… WE LOVE MY KING……
…………. WE LOVE AND LOVE MY KING
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Why I do got the feeling that this YouTube ban and the reports about it is merely just an advertisement on YouTube?
I don’t support free speech because I hate insults and I have seen free speech used to commit horrible things (the same goes for human rights, democracy, etc), I support responsible speech.
The problem isn’t perverted free speech, but instead the concept of free speech itself. Even most of the promoters of free speech themself agreed that there got to be boundaries, and the enforcers of free speech regulary allowed some things while in the same time blocked others.
And personally, the Thai government have the right to limit what’s coming into their country.
I mean that if there’s a book that defame a member of the household, then it’s entirely in the right of the head of the household to not allow it to enter the household.
I mean your home, your rules, your business. What right an outsider had for forcing his/her things on you?
I find it hard to believe that in a society that claimed to be intelligent, that insults aren’t only tolerated, but they’re even encouraged.