A Thai student advocate yesterday vowed to continue to protest against the government and demand reform of the monarchy after being detained overnight on charges related to a demonstration last month and released on bail.
Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, 22, was arrested on Friday and charged with contravening internal security rules and the regulations to stop the spread of COVID-19, among other charges, by co-organizing a protest on July 18.
Since that protest, university and high-school student groups around Thailand have rallied almost daily, demanding for the removal of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first took power in a 2014 military coup, and an end to the military domination of politics.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Some students have also demanded reforms to the powerful monarchy, once a taboo subject.
Parit told reporters at the court that he had been ordered not to re-offend as a condition of his bail, but that the director-general of the court had agreed that he could take part in a major protest planned for today.
“My arrest must not be wasted, people must talk more publicly about the monarchy,” Parit said after reciting a 10-point call for monarchy reform issued earlier this week by one of the student groups. “We have lifted the ceiling, there is no lowering it now.”
Student-led groups are expecting a crowd topping 10,000 people to rally today after they released their demands. They include revoking strict lese majeste laws, allowing criticism of the king, separating the monarch’s properties from the Crown Property Bureau, banning the sovereign from expressing political opinions and prohibiting the monarchy from endorsing any coups.
The protests are breaking deeply entrenched taboos in Thailand, where openly criticizing the monarch can lead to long jail sentences and worse. Prayuth on Thursday said that the majority of Thais disagreed with the protests as calls grow from the royal establishment to stop them.
“Lock up 10 people, lock up 20 people — it won’t stop the movement,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, professor of Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The range of support for the changes young people are calling for is quite broad. It crosses class, it crosses region, it crosses age. It’ll be very hard for them to be silenced.”
On Wednesday, Parit and another leader, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, posted on Facebook that they noticed plainclothes officers around their residence.
Panusaya said Friday that she would continue to speak out about the monarchy even though she expected to be arrested in what might be a violent crackdown.
“Eventually it will happen, yes, but if I can I will try to not lose everyone in violent protests,” she said by telephone. “I don’t want violence so I will try to focus on peace.”
Other leaders of the July 18 demonstration — Panupong Jadnok and Arnon Nampa — were arrested on Aug. 7 and were released on bail.
Today’s rally is being organized by Free People, an umbrella group that includes several student organizations as well as gay, lesbian and transgender youths. Labor groups have also said that they would also join the gathering at Democracy Monument, which commemorates the 1932 revolution that ended absolute monarchy.
The government should look to engage in talks with students on how the monarchy can evolve instead of just declaring any discussions on the matter illegal, said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University in northeastern Thailand.
“The government can’t turn a blind eye on the movement,” he said. “This is nothing like the past.”
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