A Smiling Face

General Prem Tinsulanond, current Prime Minister, has adopted the tactic of disguising repression with a democratic image.

His policies have led to a more relaxed political atmosphere, more intellectual freedom at the universities, more freedom of the press (one newspaper "The Nation" carries round table discussions about peaceful versus violent means of achieving real democracy!) and the withdrawal of the Labour Act which prohibited strikes.

But the students I me are not fooled. Sucheela, one of the Bangkok 18 (the 18 student leaders who were arrested on October 6, tortured, beaten and detained without trial until 1978), said she had no doubt that she was being closely watched, and that a change of wind in military circles could mean arrest again, or worse. Quite recently three student leaders 'disappeared'.

With the appointment of Major General Sudsai Husdin as a minister of Prem's office to control student and labour movement, the wind could change for the worse. Sudsai is the reputed 'God father' of the illegal ultra-right armed movement that invaded Thamassat University on October 6.