Tens of thousands of people gathered in Bangkok for a major rally on Saturday, demanding the resignation of Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and reforms to the monarchy – an institution until recently considered beyond direct, public criticism.
A grassroots pro-democracy movement led by students has swept across the country, upending decades of convention within months. Protesters have called for a range of democratic reforms, with some groups, including the organisers of Saturday’s rally, demanding the king’s powers and budget be curbed.
Authorities have responded by charging student leaders with sedition, ordering Facebook to block people in Thailand from viewing content that is critical of the royal family, and instructing universities to stop young protesters from demanding changes to the monarchy. On Saturday morning, police seized tens of thousands of booklets from protest leaders, reportedly because they wanted to determine if the leaflets, which discussed the monarchy, contained illegal content.
Saturday’s gathering, which is due to last through Sunday, attracted the largest turnout for an anti-government protest in years, with older protesters from the “redshirts” group – which was at the forefront of protests against the Thai government in 2010 – joining the student-led movement. Organisers said there were 50,000 people present, while police said there were at least 18,000.
The protesters gathered at Sanam Luang, an area near to the Grand Palace, which translates roughly as “Royal Ground”, but which student leaders said they would call “People’s Ground”.
They have said they will sleep there overnight before marching to another location, which has not yet been announced.
“Today is a historic moment. No matter what happens, I can confirm that Thailand will never be the same again tomorrow,” Parit Chiwarak, one of the prominent protest leaders, also known by the nickname Penguin, told crowds on Saturday.
Speaking to the Guardian before the protest, Parit said he already faces 18 charges for his involvement in recent demonstrations. Protesters want a true democracy, he said, and to end a cycle of violence and coups that has dominated Thailand’s political history.
“Six years ago, the dictatorship announced the war to the people, and this is a time when people will fight back,” said Parit, referring to the 2014 coup in which the military seized power. “This time I would like to fix the root of the problem,” he said.
He added that he believed the role of monarchy should be openly discussed. “I want this to be a phenomenon across the country where Thai people can freely talk about the monarchy.”
Thailand’s royal family is shielded from criticism by a strict lese-majesty law that carries a sentence of up to 15 years, though Prayuth has said the king requested that nobody be prosecuted under the law.
Sixty-one people have been charged with various other offences after taking part in protests over recent months, according to the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
Q&A What are Thailand’s lese-majesty laws?
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Strict lese-majesty laws make it a crime to criticise, defame or insult members of Thailand’s royal family.
In practice, this means open discussion or critical reporting about the royal family is considered illegal.
The military junta, which seized power in 2014, has been criticised for using the law – which can see people jailed for up to 15 years on each count – to stifle opposition.
In 2015, a man was jailed for 30 years over six Facebook posts and the local printer of the New York Times refused to publish an edition with a story on the king.
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“I hope the people in power will see the importance of the people,” student leader Panupong Jadnok, also known as Mike, told the crowd on Saturday. “We are fighting to put the monarchy in the right place, not to abolish it.”
Prayuth, a former army chief who first came to power during the 2014 coup, has said previously that he will consider some of the students’ demands for democratic reform, but urged protesters to leave the monarchy out of their debates. In a televised address this week, he added that by holding rallies, the protesters are “creating an enormous risk of new [Covid-19] infections”.
Critics accuse him of politicising the virus. “It’s nonsense,” said protester Pimpaporn, 25, who attended with friends. “They have told us there is no Covid in Thailand,” she said. Thailand reported two local cases of Covid-19 in September.
“Our country right now has no freedom – especially [no] freedom of speech. We cannot speak our thoughts,” she said, adding that protesters are tired of a government that they believe has mismanaged the economy and undermined people’s democratic rights.
The pro-democracy movement has called for Prayuth to stand down, for the dissolution of parliament and for an end to the harassment of dissidents. They want the constitution, which was written during military rule and has consolidated the power of the army, to be reformed.
The United Front of Thammasat, which organised Saturday’s protest, has previously issued 10 demands for reform of the monarchy. These include calls for the king’s budget to be cut and for a separation of his private funds from the crown assets. They have also called for an end to the lese-majesty law.
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