Thai Authorities Seek to Censor Student Protests
Thai protestors giving the 3-finger salute, a symbol of defiance adopted from “The Hunger Games,” a popular novel and movie series. Source.
Inspired by the protests in Hong Kong, citizens of Thailand have begun their own popular uprising. What started as protests run by students at campuses steadily grew into a movement that touches on deeply-rooted problems in Thailand’s government, monarchy, and constitution.
The story begins in 2014. After a military coup in 2014 that ousted a democratically-elected government, Thai Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha became the Prime Minister of Thailand. Today, Prayuth continues to rule over Thailand. In 2019, Thailand resumed democratic elections. In the 2019 election, a new Thai political party emerged: the Future Forward Party. In this election, all of Future Forward’s candidates were first-time entrants; in fact, the party had not even existed a year before the elections. Yet, it managed to capture 81 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives. Prayuth and the military were, for the first time since 2014, facing competition.
In February 2020, the Thai Constitutional Court forcefully dissolved the Future Forward Party. According to Thai courts, the party was found to have violated a law governing political parties by accepting a loan from its leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, to fund an electoral campaign. In addition to the dissolution, the Constitutional Court’s ruling means that Future Forward's senior executives will be banned from politics for 10 years. The party believes that the approximately $6 million loan was legitimate and that other parties use loans as well without ramifications. The Thai Court may consider this upholding the law, but critics call it judicial harassment aimed at smothering democracy.
This sparked the protests, which began on college campuses. For example, students at Chulalongkorn University in central Bangkok laid out a funeral wreath labeled with “RIP Democracy” as hundreds gathered and made speeches condemning the court decision. Hundreds more students gathered at Kasetsart University and chanted “Prayuth get out” in support of the censure motion.
A brief pause in protests occurred due to COVID-19. But have now resumed with as much furor as ever.
The protestors take the streets nearly each day to fight for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the overhaul of a Constitution he pushed through that took power from citizens and created an appointed Senate, and bringing the monarchy under the purview of the Constitution. Regarding the constitution, Prayuth pushed for a new constitution that allowed for an appointed Senate and ensured continued military influence over the government. The leader of the Future Forward Party himself believed that the constitution must change, and protestors agree.
Earlier in October, the government attempted to hamper the protests by issuing a decree that banned gatherings of more than four people and by arresting about 20 activists. Some of the arrested activists are key leaders in the protest, such as student activist Parit Chiwarak - widely known by his nickname "Penguin.”
However, thousands have defied the decree and protested. With this, the government began using force; riot police fired water cannons at protestors.
Besides physical force, the Thai government has relied on censorship to quell the protestors. Thailand has a long history with censorship. Since 1908, lese-majeste has been in effect. Lese-majeste - French for “to do wrong to majesty” - is an offense where those who insult Thai royalty will be criminally punished. It is one of Thailand’s most controversial laws. Prayuth defended lese-majeste in 2014, claiming that it was required to protect the monarchy. Between the 2014 military coup and early 2018, at least 98 lese-majeste charges were filed. Human Rights groups believe that many of those cases were used to persecute opponents of the military-backed government.
In the latest developments, Thai protestors gave Prime Minister Prayuth 3 days to resign. This 3-day period passed without any resignation. Protests, in turn, have resumed in Bangkok.