About 2,500 Thai protesters on Saturday evening demanded the resignation of the government and the dissolution of parliament, defying a COVID-19 ban on gatherings in one of the largest street demonstrations since a 2014 military coup.
People at the student-led rally near Bangkok’s Democracy Monument cited a litany of complaints against the year-old civilian government of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the former army chief who ousted an elected government six years ago.
Organizers issued three demands: the dissolution of parliament, an end to harassment of government critics and amendments to the military-written constitution that critics say virtually guaranteed victory for Prayuth’s Palang Pracharat Party in elections last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“How can we be OK with the lack of democracy like this?” student activist Tattep Ruangprapaikit told the crowds.
There were also some veiled public references at the protest to the powerful Thai monarchy, despite a law forbidding criticism of the king. Such references would once have been unthinkable.
Police were on standby, but did not move to stop the protest.
The monument was cordoned off with signs reading: “No entry without permission. Maintenance in progress.”
The protests started with student groups, but during the evening hundreds more arrived to join, swelling the numbers to about 2,500, according to organizers and estimates by reporters on the scene.
Organizers said they would disperse at 8am yesterday, but would return to the streets in two weeks if their demands were not met.
Public opposition to Prayuth has been growing in recent months.
Since last year’s election, a court has dissolved the second-largest opposition party, giving his ruling coalition firmer control in parliament.
Prayuth also saw several Cabinet members resign on Thursday over internal disputes.
Prayuth’s party campaigned on a vision of traditional Thai culture and loyalty to Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Thailand is officially a constitutional monarchy, but insulting the king is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and many conservatives view the monarchy as sacrosanct.
Some signs and speeches at Saturday’s protest made veiled references to the monarchy.
“This is our country, but whose home is in Germany?” said one of the student leaders on a small stage set up on the street.
Vajiralongkorn has an estate in Germany, where he spends much of the year.
A protest sign read “Lost faith is definitely not a crime!!! #Thiwakorn,” a reference to a protest on Friday in the northeast in support of a man who was committed to a psychiatric hospital after he wore a T-shirt saying he had lost faith in the monarchy.
Another banner said “The People’s Party Isn’t Dead” — a reference to the party whose revolution ended absolute royal rule in 1932.
Prayuth last month warned political activists not to risk their futures by criticizing the monarchy.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS