'Change' Thai director: Everybody can be an activist

[webfact]

'Everybody can be an activist'
Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation


Tul: Hoping for more members

BANGKOK: -- Change.org, a US-based online platform for social activism, is hoping to increase its number of supporters and users in Thailand from the current 500,000 to a million by the end of this year, Tul Pinkaew, campaigns director of the organisation's Thai chapter, said recently.

"Five years from now, we want [change.org] to be the Facebook, the YouTube of social change," the 33-year-old said, adding that in the United States, the site already has more than 20 million users. The site has "sister" organisations in 20 other countries such as India, the Philippines and here.

It was launched in Thailand in July last year. Its success here had proved so far that Thais were not a subservient people and willing to push for change, Tul said.

"At the beginning, people living overseas were concerned whether Thai culture was conducive to challenging the big and powerful, and if it allowed for activism to rectify problems in society," he explained.

But as more people in Thailand gain access to the Internet, Tul believes that social activism generated by change.org and other online platforms will dramatically rise in the years ahead.

He said the Thai chapter of the NGO had helped people launch non-political campaigns and successfully touched on issues ranging from regulating films shown on long-haul bus rides to ensuring that drains in the capital don't trap bicycle wheels.

The platform is now being used to help Bangkokians talk the State Railways Authority of Thailand into giving up 500-rai of land in Makkasan so it can be turned into a public park. The petition has gained more than 23,000 signatures.

More recently, it launched a campaign to have the Highways Department plant saplings along Thanarat Road leading to Khao Yai National Park. Decades-old trees had been cut down in order to expand the road a few years ago, but 6,000 signatures have been collected to help the People's Network for the Protection of Khao Yai's Biodiversity fight against the action.

Change.org announced on Thursday that the Highways Department was receptive, though an appeal case is ongoing at Administrative Court.

Tul said the Internet helps link people with a similar mindset, and change.org provides them a free platform to voice their concerns, fight for their rights and play a role in making tangible changes. He said the website also helps link rural people who have no IT know-how with the urban middle-class so they can jointly fight for a common cause. It gives rural people the chance to see that not all city folk are arrogant and self-obsessed, as some may have thought. At least 240,000 users in 10 provinces, including Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Chon Buri, have signed at least one petition on change.org.

"We advise them, coach them so they can build a campaign. We're not an advocacy organisation. We're an open platform that is driven by users," Tul stressed, adding that anybody can suggest a possible campaign on change.org and the four-member team will consider its feasibility before deciding whether it should be launched.

Tul said change.org/th has been able to transcend the social divide as it has steered clear of politics.

"We must bridge the gap between political values, between genders and classes," Tul said, adding that many Thais have a problem with respecting the basic rights of others, which can cause difficulties. For instance, he said, motorcyclists think nothing of riding down footpaths, perfectly able drivers have no problem parking in the space reserved for the disabled and officials don't care about building garbage incinerators near people's homes.


-- The Nation 2013-07-13

[theblether]

Anything that's going to wake up people in this country to World and domestic affairs has to be welcome.

Change.org could maybe run a quick education class about Hitler, that would be a start.

[NongKhaiKid]

Hope he remembers Big Sister is watching with defamation suits at the ready and the ICT Minister is always ready to act and use his powers.

[Bellweather]

Change ? Is the man mad ? Change a system that works well for some people will be opposed all the way.

[drdoom6996]

Anything that's going to wake up people in this country to World and domestic affairs has to be welcome.

Change.org could maybe run a quick education class about Hitler, that would be a start.

+1

[manfrommanteo]

Isn't George Soros supposed to be one of the masterminds behind the Thai Baht crash of 1997, making the leader and mastermind behind change.org an economic war criminal who damaged the Thai economy? Do we really want his organization leading change here?

[Thai at Heart]

Very nice.

But in Thailand's case, change what?

[lungmi]

Isn't George Soros supposed to be one of the masterminds behind the Thai Baht crash of 1997, making the leader and mastermind behind change.org an economic war criminal who damaged the Thai economy? Do we really want his organization leading change here?

In my memory Soros was one part of the crash, the more important part was Chawalit (Big Jiew).

[Thai at Heart]

Isn't George Soros supposed to be one of the masterminds behind the Thai Baht crash of 1997, making the leader and mastermind behind change.org an economic war criminal who damaged the Thai economy? Do we really want his organization leading change here?

In my memory Soros was one part of the crash, the more important part was Chawalit (Big Jiew).

Soros didn't mastermind the crash. He just looked at what the Thais and other Asian countries were doing and realised it wouldn't work.

[NCC1701A]

is it possible to block web access to change.org in thailand? maybe the military will block it?

[Bagwan]

Didn't Thailand try to block YouTube - and promptly brought the website down Worldwide?