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BANGKOK (Reuters) – In a challenge to Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s monarchy, protesters posted a plaque on the field next to Bangkok’s Grand Palace on Sunday declaring that Thailand belongs to the people and not to them.
The protests that have been growing in the Southeast Asian country since July have broken a long-standing taboo by criticizing the monarchy and seeking to overthrow the government and bring in a new constitution and elections.
The plate was cemented in the area known as Sanam Luang – Royal Field – shortly after sunrise. He says “In this place the people have expressed their will: that this country belongs to the people and is not the property of the monarch, since they have deceived us.”
The Royal Palace was not immediately available for comment.
Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said that the police would not use violence against protesters and that it was their responsibility to determine and prosecute any illegal speech. Police were not immediately available for comment.
At the largest rally in years on Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters applauded calls for reform of the monarchy, as well as the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former leader of the junta.
“The nation does not belong to one person but to all of us,” announced one of the protest leaders, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, at the plaque installation ceremony. “Down with feudalism, long live the people.”
The police have abstained from the protest and have not tried to intervene.
The protesters have said they will march from the ceremony site at 8 am (0100 GMT).
The plaque resembles an unexplained one removed from the outside of one of the royal palaces in 2017, after Vajiralongkorn took the throne. That plaque, which had commemorated the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, was replaced by one with a pro-monarchical motto.
(Additional information from Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Chris Reese)
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