Thousands of protesters attend a demonstration against the government at Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Thailand in August
Credit: Jack Taylor
Thailand is bracing for another mass student rally on Wednesday as pro-democracy protesters escalate their push to demand a new constitution, oust the prime minister and reform the Southeast Asian nation’s powerful monarchy.
"The demands are not meant to overthrow but to make Thailand become a democratic country,” said Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, from the Students Union of Thailand, ahead of the event where crowds will gather at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument before moving to the prime minister’s offices to camp outside overnight.
The Thai protests, which have lasted three months and drawn up to 100,000 people onto the streets, have added significance in October, a month which marks the grim anniversaries of two bloody crackdowns on student democracy movements in the 1970s.
Wednesday’s rally echoes another mass protest at the Democracy Monument on October 14, 1973 when 77 people protesting against military dictatorship were killed in clashes with security forces.
“14 October is a historic day. It was a day when students gathered against dictatorship, so we use this as our symbol against dictatorship as well,” said Anon Nampa, 36, a human rights lawyer who is one of nine activists recently charged with sedition for openly questioning the role of the revered monarchy.
Thai pro-democracy leaders (seated from left) Panupong "Mike" Jadnok, Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul, Tattep "Ford" Ruangprapaikitseree
Credit: Jack Taylor
Today’s movement has so far remained peaceful but the spectre of past state-sponsored brutality still looms in the background.
"I am worried and I think the government may use the violence toward us because they don’t want to get out of power” Ryo, a 22-year old student, told the Telegraph during one of many smaller daily rallies being held in Bangkok, this time at Ramkhamhaeng University.
Last week General Narongphan Jitkaewtae, the newly appointed army chief, told the local media that all “parties concerned” had “pledged that they will not resort to violence,” but he admonished protesters to calling for the reform of the monarchy, telling them to first reform themselves.
The army’s role was to protect the nation, religion, the King and the people. "I will do whatever it takes to ensure their security," he said.
John Winyu, a comedian running a popular political satire show, said he remained concerned about the safety of student protesters.
“I feel like the government, or the people who support the military government… are looking or waiting for some reason to have a bloody outcome,” he said, adding that the defence of the monarchy, a deified institution protected by strict lese majeste laws, could be used as the pretext for a crackdown.
At the heart of the current protests was a longing for a genuine democratic system, he said.
“The younger generation don’t see a future in front of them because the Thai people have been lied to for a very long time about being a real democracy,” he said.
Thailand has known generations of political unrest and activists have at times paid a heavy price
Credit: Jack Taylor
Fuelling the current protests is disillusionment with Thailand’s political system after the dubious dissolution in February of a popular opposition party, Future Forward, whose charismatic leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, garnered the third-largest share of seats in last year’s election and was particularly popular with young, first-time voters.
Many accused the military of taking unfair measures to entrench its political role and reinstall Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general who led a 2014 coup, as prime minister.
The protests moved up a gear in June when a prominent Thai pro-democracy activist went missing from his home in Cambodia, triggering demands to stop harassing government critics.
Wanchalearm Sataksit, who was living in exile, was reportedly grabbed off the street in broad daylight and has not been heard of since. This led protesters to suspect the Thai state of orchestrating his disappearance — a claim the authorities deny.
Thailand has known generations of political unrest and activists have at times paid a heavy price.
Last week, demonstrators paid tribute to the victims of a horrific massacre at Bangkok’s Thammasat University on October 6, 1976, when security forces opened fire on students protesting the return of the exiled former military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn.
Ultra-nationalist militias and vigilantes also moved in on the unarmed students who had been increasingly portrayed as enemies and disloyal to the monarchy. The victims were beaten, sexually assaulted, shot, and burned alive.
Corpses had wooden stakes driven through their chests, while one of the most gruesome pictures of the aftermath shows a lifeless body hanging by the neck from a tree as a man from a crowd of onlookers prepares to hit it with a chair.
Justice was never served and the campus attack, which officially slaughtered 46, but may have claimed more than 100 lives, remains an open wound.
Thongchai Winichakul, then a student activist, escaped with his life but was imprisoned for two years afterwards.
Now a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he said that while 1970s students talked about “demolishing the establishment,” students today were more moderate, “pointing to the way out” by supporting reforms through parliamentary means.
Today’s generation were taught little at school about the tumultuous 1970s, but it has not quelled their political activism
Credit: Jack Taylor
Today’s generation were taught little at school about the tumultuous 1970s, but it has not quelled their political activism.
Protesters in 2020 have been more radical than their predecessors in breaking societal taboos by challenging the absolute authority of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
“I have a dream that I want to have the institution of the monarchy being truly under the constitution.” Patsaravalee “Mind” Tanakitvibulpon, 25, an engineering student and one of the protest organisers, said.
Her activism began after the 2014 coup.
“I saw students get arrested. It made me wonder and start to question on how much freedom people have to express their opinions and feelings in this country which is claimed to be a democratic country,” she said.
“Our demands are quite clear that we want to have a new constitution in order to fix the problems in this country and it’s clear that we don’t want to do sedition. We protest in peace.”
The majority of protesters are students, but their demands span generations of activists who still hold out hope for change.
Surachart Bamrungsuk, now a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University, also narrowly missed the 1976 bloodbath.
“As a former student leader who was in jail from 1976-1978, I always feel that I have an obligation to support young generation to fight for a better society,” he said.
“As a former political prisoner, I have committed myself to the democratic struggle for my country since democracy grants us freedom to choose who will run this country.”
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