SPECIAL REPORT: Junta grapples with reborn student movement

By KAS CHANWANPEN 
THE NATION

 

File Photo

 

ATTEMPTS TO SNUFF DISSENT HAVE FUELLED NEW GENERATION OF DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS

 

THE MILITARY’S return to power with the 2014 coup has also seen the reawakening of a political force that had lain dormant during more than a decade of colour-coded political conflict.

 

 

The previous coup in 2006 saw the launch of the pro-Shinawatra camp, whose red shirts have painted one half of the political spectrum over the past 12 years. With the yellow shirts occupying the other half, the result was a country apparently sharply divided into two camps. But the advent of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) triggered a seismic change in the political landscape.

 

The arrival of the junta unexpectedly poked the student movement, which had been shelved after “Black May” crackdown in 1992, back to life again.

 

In 2014, the coup-makers were quick to snuff dissent, summoning and detaining political activists from all sides under the pretext of keeping the peace and “returning happiness to the people”. But that suppression gave rise to a new group, who described themselves as the “innocent force” independent of a red-yellow divide that is anchored in established political factions.

 

The yellow shirts were viewed as representing the elite, middle-class establishment while the red shirts were mostly linked to the Shinawatra camp.

 

With both factions’ prominent leaders safely locked up in military barracks, the NCPO was instead faced with an unknown group: young people who gathered peacefully and in small numbers but were firm in their defiance of the non-democratic regime. They used public places such as large department stores, the Skytrain, and crowded skywalks to conduct symbolic activities such as reading banned books, wearing black, even eating sandwiches or merely standing in silent vigil.

 

The informal campaign was first led by students from the League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy (LLTD) and the now prominent pro-democracy activist Sirawith Seritiwat (Ja New) who was studying political science at Thammasat University and a key member of its Sapha Na Dome (Dome Front Agora) student club. The name was borrowed from a student group involved in the 1973 uprising against dictatorship.

 

Ja New spread the call through social media, using his Facebook page to urge others to join peaceful activities to demonstrate opposition to the coup. The group have since dubbed themselves Resistant Citizen, whose leaders also include human rights lawyer Anon Nampa.

 

The latest student uprising has seen activists arrested and charged by order of the ruling junta, which enjoys a tight grip on power. The students quickly became familiar with offences ranging from computer crime to sedition – a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

 

But their spirit of dissent has spilled out beyond Bangkok, as more people emerge in solidarity with their pro-democracy message and against the NCPO.

 

Less than six months after the coup, junta chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha got his first taste of youthful opposition to military rule during his visit to Khon Kaen. A group of seven Khon Kaen University students calling themselves the Dao Din (Star and Earth) Group showed up at a reception for Prayut and flashed the three-finger salute made famous by Hollywood blockbuster “The Hunger Games”. The film’s protagonist uses the gesture to express defiance against tyrannical rule.

 

The students were arrested on the spot. The junta, meanwhile, was making headlines around the world for locking up people for holding up three fingers and eating sandwiches.

 

Despite its absolute political and military power, the NCPO has faced a constant challenge from these minor and scattered student groups. Intolerant of criticism and dismissive of foreign concerns, the junta has done all it can to silence them, ranging from lawsuits to intimidation via visits to activists’ homes or offices by military officers.

 

But the NCPO has also suffered blowback from its actions against activists. What some called a game-changer came with the arrest of 14 students for demonstrating against the coup on its first anniversary in 2015.

 

The protesters were mostly “unknown” members of the Khon Kaen-based Dao Din Group and LLTD. But the imprisonment of Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, or Pai Dao Din, and Rangsiman Rome turned anonymous students into celebrity figureheads for the campaign against the military-led government.

 

 

The students went on to form the New Democracy Movement (NDM), which has spawned several other pro-democracy groups as the momentum against the coup-installed regime builds.

 

This network also includes independent activists such as Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Parit Chiwarak, political science students from Chulalongkorn and Thammasat University respectively.

 

Criminalised for their actions to restore democracy, the students |continue to receive strong media attention both at home and abroad. With them has come the rebirth of a movement now once again considered a significant challenge to the military junta.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30346485

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-29

58 minutes ago, webfact said:

Despite its absolute political and military power, the NCPO has faced a constant challenge from these minor and scattered student groups. Intolerant of criticism and dismissive of foreign concerns, the junta has done all it can to silence them, ranging from lawsuits to intimidation via visits to activists’ homes or offices by military officers.

The paragraph quoted above sums things up nicely.

 

The Junta simply cannot stand on the grounds of legitimacy, morality or ethics based on the method they attained power; this is a flaw that cannot be corrected unless they get some sort of mandate from the people in an election, but they cannot win an election fairly as they do not have real, majority support. If they try to rig an election (as they are doing), then it backfires as the process of rigging negates the legitimacy desired/required.

 

Political parties- you have a great deal more power than you realize (or perhaps you do...). Like games in the school yard when we were all kids, the truest 'foul' occurred when a member of your own team called it; it was beyond dispute. In Thailand 2018, the only way for the Junta to achieve legitimacy is if it is endowed by their political opponents; claiming it themselves won't cut it. Thus, there has to be a process which is fair to a point (it was NEVER going to be completely fair) and parties need to decide if they will grant legitimacy to the process or not. Political parties, you don't have guns or tanks, but because of the actions of the students, you do have power. 

 

Use it wisely.

 

The students, few in number but GIANT in courage and bravery, have created conditions whereby the political class can achieve results; I sincerely hope that the parties show themselves worthy of the gift bestowed by these brave students.

 

I always told my wife that when Thailand finally decides enough is enough it will be young people that decide it.

 

It is because the old ones in Thailand are too trained for too long not to question authority.

Not to bite back respect politicians,cops,military,monks even if they are proven to be corrupt POS

 

But young folks still have the ability to bite. Still have rebellion for just cause in them.

 

1 hour ago, meechai said:

I always told my wife that when Thailand finally decides enough is enough it will be young people that decide it.

 

It is because the old ones in Thailand are too trained for too long not to question authority.

Not to bite back respect politicians,cops,military,monks even if they are proven to be corrupt POS

 

But young folks still have the ability to bite. Still have rebellion for just cause in them.

 

It's usually always students that revolt....smart, intellectual students can see past the lies and corruption of oppressors

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The junta, meanwhile, was making headlines around the world for locking up people for holding up three fingers and eating sandwiches.

While it's true what they locked people up for, I don't really see it has really made that much of an impact around the world, irrespective of making headlines.

 

The worm is slowly turning

Failed state


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Hopefully they won't end up lynched, hanging from trees like their predecessors in 1976.

In Asia follow student.

Students are good!

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The yellow shirts were viewed as representing the elite, middle-class establishment while the red shirts were mostly linked to the Shinawatra camp.

"...while the red shirts were mostly linked to the Shinawatra camp" ---- and the poor and disenfranchised members of Thai society, especially the rural Thai farmers of the North and Northeast.

It needs to be described as it really is.  When the wheels come off the buggy, what I'd rather not hear from the PTB or the media is, "We never saw this coming." 

This regime is over. Stop the talk. Every Thai l speak to is voting NO

Very hard to try to kill the scent of freedom in the hearts of those who are new to the fresh air of knowledge...change happens

 

11 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Hopefully they won't end up lynched, hanging from trees like their predecessors in 1976.

 

Not this time around.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Hopefully they won't end up lynched, hanging from trees like their predecessors in 1976.

that is possible, unfortunately it should never been allowed to get that far and  one word would have negated the problem - but alas  …...

14 hours ago, meechai said:

I always told my wife that when Thailand finally decides enough is enough it will be young people that decide it.

 

It is because the old ones in Thailand are too trained for too long not to question authority.

Not to bite back respect politicians,cops,military,monks even if they are proven to be corrupt POS

 

But young folks still have the ability to bite. Still have rebellion for just cause in them.

 

hopefully a few older and wiser heads just might give then some clear direction and structured guidance …… misguided rebellion just won't cut it .