Crowds of protesters wearing raincoats, umbrellas, helmets, and masks; police using batons and high-pressure water cannons …… The scene before us is familiar, but not in Hong Kong, but in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
In February, a Thai court ordered the dissolution of the pro-democracy Future Forward Party, which was popular with young voters, triggering street protests that subsided temporarily due to an outbreak of an epidemic. The situation heated up until June, when the disappearance of a prominent activist living in exile in Cambodia led to renewed protests. Since the 14th of this month, protest rallies have been taking place in the Thai capital for several days. Although authorities have taken emergency measures to ban gatherings of five or more people, they have failed to stop the protests.
Demonstrators have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, who seized power in a military coup in 2014, constitutional amendments, and royal reform (“Resign, Rewrite, Reform”). The Thai royal family retains a sacred status among the elite and is protected by strict “offense against the monarchy” laws, with imprisonment for anyone convicted of insulting the royal family.
Joshua Kurlantzick, a Southeast Asia fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank, says the protests in Thailand have broken a taboo by focusing more directly on the monarchy.
Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a prominent Thai activist, also told VOA, “After so many years of the king being unpopular with the Thai people and his cruelty to those inside and outside the palace, people are now starting to raise questions and demand reform of the monarchy.”
Tyrell Haberkorn, professor of Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told VOA, “The United Front of Legislatures and Demonstrations has been a major source of concern for the Thai people. When Thammasat and Demonstration (Thammasat and Demonstration) first released its 10-point statement on August 10, it caused a huge uproar in Thai society. They spoke the unspeakable when they called for monarchy reform. Today, questioning the place of the monarchy in the polity and calling for reform has become mainstream.”
Thai political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute for Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, said that student-led protests for reform and change in Thailand have intensified. He told VOA, “What is unprecedented and far-reaching is that this has become a national uprising of young people against the established centers of power and the old political order.”
Thai protest rallies borrowed from Hong Kong model
The “be water” protest strategy, the use of social media, the preparation of umbrellas and other protective gear to ward off tear gas, and the use of hand gestures to communicate with each other, seems to have borrowed some of the tactics and methods used in the Hong Kong protests as protest rallies have intensified in Thailand.
Protesters, who once used street occupation tactics that made them easy targets for the police, have moved to a more fluid and decentralized strategy similar to the “be water” approach of the Hong Kong protests.
The inspiration from Hong Kong was evident this past weekend,” says HarperCorn. Rapid protests erupted last weekend, which were quickly organized and quickly evacuated, ensuring the safety of the protesters and overwhelming the authorities.”
Tor, a 26-year-old programmer, was at the protests from Oct. 15 to Oct. 21. He said protesters would be told to meet at 3 p.m. at a subway station and other locations, and then the actual location of the protest rally would be announced at 4 p.m., with the actual protest taking place at 5 p.m.
He told VOA that this strategy allowed protesters to arrive at the protest site and be prepared to put up defensive barriers before the police arrived. The police usually arrive with a large police force and convoy. Petch, a multiple protester, also said he was informed of the time a day or so in advance, but only learned of the location close to the appointed time so he could confuse the police.
“The protesters really adopted the ‘flowing water’ strategy of the Hong Kong model. They’re like a flowing stream of water. They are very flexible and their plans can change at any time,” said Nidnoi, who has participated in protest rallies.
The Thai protesters, mostly young people, many of whom are in universities, like the Hong Kong protesters, have taken full advantage of social media, using apps such as Twitter and Telegram to organize and coordinate protest rallies. Within days of the Thai protesters starting a major coordinating group on Telegram, it had over 100,000 members.
Eve, who has joined about 10 protest-related Telegram groups, says, “Unlike other chat applications, Telegram allows a large number of participants to join chat groups, with no upper limit on the number of participants. Telegram allows us, the protesters, to stay in touch internally when Facebook and other pages publicly announce protest times and locations.”
There are media reports that the Thai government will take emergency measures to impose restrictions on the instant messaging app Telegram in an attempt to stop the protests.
Eve believes that Telegram is safe from interference by Thai authorities. Nidnoy also told VOA that she is not worried about Thai authorities spying on Telegram because, in her opinion, the government cannot interfere with the application.
In addition, the use of umbrellas also appears to be something that Thai protesters have borrowed from the Hong Kong protests. Umbrellas in the hands of the Thai people are no longer just a tool to protect themselves from the weather, but a powerful tool to protect themselves.
One 16-year-old protester who attended last weekend’s protest rally told the Wall Street Journal, “We learned from Hong Kong how to protect ourselves,” such as “using umbrellas to protect ourselves.”
According to Reuters, the Thai protesters used some of the same hand gestures as the Hong Kong protesters, and the Thai protesters also pioneered some new hand gestures that are now commonly used, allowing protesters to communicate more easily with each other.
One 19-year-old protester told Reuters, “Everyone is helping each other. At first, we had to figure out what people were saying, but it was easy to figure it out through hand gestures.
Sitthiphon Kruarattikan, an associate professor of history at the University of Politics and Law in Thailand, said, “While Thai protesters have learned some protest tactics from Hong Kong, the root cause of the current protests by the younger generation is the continuing chaos in Thai politics itself over the past 15 years. The younger generation believes that the Thai elite has been trying to maintain their dominant position in society without listening to the demands of the younger generation and other disadvantaged groups.”
Future direction of the situation
Some experts say the future of the situation in Thailand may be different from that of Hong Kong. Joshua Kurlantzick told VOA, “I think in Thailand, if the protests continue to grow, there will probably be a quick crackdown – that’s the way the Thai military has handled things in the past.”
“The protests in Thailand are far more likely to succeed, at least in part, in their objectives, but there is also a high likelihood of a government crackdown and a new round of repression and unrest,” Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told VOA.
Thai officials said Tuesday (Oct. 20) that the country’s parliament will hold a special session next week before it resumes to ease current tensions.
Punchada Sirivunnabood, an associate professor at Mahidol University in Thailand, said the Thai government’s willingness to dialogue and respond to the protesters’ demands may ease the current tensions.
They will discuss how to resolve the protests and how to negotiate with the younger generation,” she said. So we will have to wait and see if the government agrees to accept some of the demands of the students and the younger generation and the protesters. I think the situation could be a little bit better than it is today.” She said that if the government rejects the protesters’ demands, more people will join the protest army.
Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tweeted a few days ago calling on current Prime Minister Prayuth Bayu to take appropriate measures to calm the country down as soon as possible. Yingluck referred to the massive protests that erupted in Thailand six years ago when then army commander Bayu asked her if she could continue to lead the government. In the end, she chose to dissolve the lower house of parliament and hold early elections. She added, “Today, Bayon is facing the same scenario,” and hoped that Bayon would “make a quick decision so that the country can calm down and move forward.
On Thursday (Oct. 22), Prime Minister Bayut lifted the State of Emergency Decree and related bans issued last week, effective from noon Thursday.
Support Thai Protesters
Members of the Milk Tea Coalition and some Hong Kong activists took to social media to show their support for the Thai protesters and said they would stand in solidarity with the protesters.
“The Milk Tea Coalition (named for the specialty milk teas from Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) was originally formed on Twitter in response to the online “keyboard war” sparked by Thai icon Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree in April of this year, but has since grown to speak out on behalf of democracy and more political issues.
One Twitter user used the hashtags Stand with Thailand and Milk Tea Coalition and tweeted, “Let me say a big thank you to Thailand! Let’s support each other and win this victory together!”
Others tweeted, “The #Milk Tea Coalition supports the Thai people’s demand for democracy.”
Hong Kong activist Wong Chi-fung even posted a number of tweets expressing his support for the Thai protesters. He tweeted, “The brave Thai people, considering the dangerous consequences of continuing protests declared illegal by the government, have decided to fight for the restoration of freedom of thought, speech and assembly. The government of Thailand has been working on the reform of the Thai government.”
In addition, Huang Zhifeng and legislator Raymond Hui Chi-fung, among others, held a protest outside the Thai Consulate in Hong Kong on October 19 to show support for the Thai protesters demanding reform. In an interview, he also called on the world to stand with activists and protesters.
Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po said Huang Zhifeng was using the Thai protest to make a big deal out of it, adding that some netizens asked, “What does Thailand have to do with you?” when Huang Zhifeng and others came out again to brush up on their presence. It is also a good example of how these people turn around and engage in crowdfunding.
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