Phuket News Analysis
PHUKET: The hunt was on this afternoon for the killers of a Phuket journalist, shot dead today on Phuket's main street in a savage, murderous act that said much about the island's present condition.
The lawlessness on Phuket is what shocks people from afar - and also from other parts of Thailand - when they come close enough to see Phuket's underbelly, the opposite side to the tranquil holiday island projected in brochures.
Colleagues who knew Wisut ''Ae'' Tangwittayaporn had no choice except to record his final moments today, taking photographs the way he would have done if this assassination had been a day earlier and involved some other victim.
The premeditated murder of a journalist noted for his outspoken reports strikes at the heart and soul of Phuket and of Thailand.
When a journalist is killed, there is usually a reason that goes beyond the conventional and that reason in Khun Ae's case can be summed up in one word: silence.
Khun Ae was noted for his refusal to be silenced. The exact motive for his killing will only become plain once his assassins and their paymasters are caught.
Yet his legacy is likely to be not enduring silence, but a Phuket where more people speak out, and where more people refuse to accept a Phuket where bullets replace words.
A tragic day for this mans family, a very sad day for Phuket. A day when freedom of speech has been met with a hail of bullets rather than a hail of ideas.
Posted by michael on January 12, 2012 13:57