BANGKOK – The men in plastic clothes appeared late at night at Thammasat University in Bangkok, threatening the residence where the student activist slept. On Thursday morning, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul went to her sociology class, called her mother and waited for her arrest. She was sure it would come.
Earlier this week, Ms Panusaya, 21, stood on a stage during a protest against anti-government at Thammasat and addressed, in order, the role of the monarchy in a country where criticism of the institution is limited by strict reading majesty laws.
“In the past, there have been statements that fool us by saying that people in the royal family were born incarnations of gods and angels,” she said during the protest on Monday. “With all due respect, please ask yourself, are you sure angels or gods have this kind of personality?”
King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, who spends most of his time in Europe, returned to Thailand on Wednesday for his mother’s birthday. By Thursday, the head of state of the nation was gone again, with his fourth wife, the Queen.
On the Thammasat campus, as everywhere in Thailand, stands a giant portrait of the king, the 10th monarch of the Chakri dynasty, dressed in gold brocade with a gloomy expression on his face.
While the absolute monarchy of the country was overthrown in 1932 by a bloodless revolution, Thailand remains bound by royal traditions. The father of King Maha Vajiralongkorn ruled for 70 years and was the longest serving monarch at the time of his death in 2016.
Thailand’s student-led anti-government protests, which have gained momentum this summer, have addressed everything from the disappearance of activists critical of the military and monarchy, to the continuing power of a 2014 coup that now serves as Prime Minister.
Over the last few days, however, they have added a new element to the mix: direct criticism of a royal institution that, through decades of street and student protests, has tried to position itself as driving above politics.
In an interview on Thursday, Ms Panusaya said that the problems of Thailand are rooted in her monarchical traditions.
“I know I’m taking a huge risk that I could go to jail or be tortured or die,” she said, “but I do not think it’s time to be scared anymore.”
At least nine activists who have fled abroad since the 2014 coup have disappeared after criticism of Thailand’s most sacred institutions. The bodies of two of them were later found on the edge of a river, with their bodies full of concrete.
Another two critics who called for monarchy reform last week were the subject of complaints about reading majesty. The crime can carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Although Thailand has largely escaped the coronavirus pandemic, its tourist-dependent economy is in shambles. Protesters have contrasted the economic hardship of millions of Thais with the wealth of the royal family, which is one of the richest in the world. In 2017, the king took personal control over the royal coffers, instead of letting go of his finances by state agencies.
“While people are hungry, the monarchy spends fame,” Ms. Panusaya said on Thursday.
Thammasat University, like Tiananmen or Tahrir, is a byword for a democracy movement that is tainted with violence. In 1976, security forces and paramilitaries stormed the campus, shooting, hanging and beating students and other protesters. Dozens were killed at least.
An iconic Associated Press photo of the massacre captured a lifeless body hanging from a tree when a man swung a chair at the body. Crowds, including children, appeared to cheer on the attacker.
The protest on Monday in Thammasat was on another campus, located on the edge of Bangkok. Arnon Nampa, a human rights lawyer accused of sedition last week, reiterated calls he made for an open discussion on the monarchy.
The king’s powers, he said, should be limited to those of a constitutional monarchy. Such talks, he stressed, were not intended to turn the institution around.
Towards the end of Monday night, Ms. Panusaya issued a statement of 10 points from a group of students urging reforms at the royal institution. Among the demands were a call to end the criminal reading majesty law and a proposal to trim the royal budget.
The student body also called on the monarchy to abstain from politics. Thailand has undergone a dozen successful coups since 1932, and the monarch has formally endorsed those changes of government.
Last year, a party critically nominated over the junta that took power in 2014, the king’s older sister as her candidate for prime minister.
The king quickly robbed his sister of his political prey. The party that nominated her was later disbanded. Forces associated with junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha won the election, in a vote that international observers said was deeply flawed. He remains Prime Minister and has named his government as one who represents the King.
Following the Thammasat protest this week, a university official said the students’ organizers did not follow an agreement on what would be discussed at the rally.
A police spokesman said on Thursday that the students’ protesters were testing the limits with their candid speech.
“To whoever goes to the protest, I believe everyone knows what can and cannot be done,” said Colonel Kissana Phathanacharoen. ‘Things you say will be bound to you. Evidence for the future will be kept. ”
Earlier this month, the Apirat Kongsompong generation, the army chief, said that although the coronavirus was a curable disease, “hatred of your own country is a disease that has not been cured.”
“If unpatriotic can not be cured, do they deserve a similar end as the students at Thammasat in the 1970s?” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch. “This link is one that everyone in Thailand will make.”
On Thursday afternoon, amid streaming currents, a brief rally took place at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok amid a large police presence. Some of the organizers said on social media that they could only continue if they did not mention the role of the monarchy in their speeches.
Sirin Mungcharoen, an activist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the 10-point manifesto imposed by Ms Panusaya at Thammasat was important because “it opened the way for the public to criticize the monarchy. “
Intimidating those who express such opinions was wrong, she said, and in Thailand, democratic debate was needed.
Still, she added, the main agenda of the protest movement continued to liberate the country from the military drafted constitution, dissolving part of parliament and ensuring that dissidents did not disappear.
“These three requirements are what we have been demanding from the beginning,” she said. “There must be respect for human rights.”
Since the coup six years ago, thousands of people who have been criticized by the government have been forced to undergo sessions at “attitude-adjustment camps” in military relations. An act of computer crime and other legislation have been used to imprison others. A state of emergency put in place because of the pandemic is being used to justify actions against student protesters.
When the evening fell on Thursday, Ms Panusaya said she had not yet been arrested. In search of safety in numbers, she had helped her for the night with other student activists. She was still waiting.
Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting.
