Pro-democracy demonstrators raise their hands with a three-finger salute during an antigovernment rally at Thammasat University in Bangkok on Monday.
Photo: diego azubel/ShutterstockBefore she stepped onstage at a recent pro-democracy rally in Bangkok, the keynote speaker said she trembled with fear. She was about to do something few in Thailand have dared to do: publicly question the nation’s powerful monarchy.
Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a 21-year-old sociology and anthropology student at Thammasat University, called for sweeping changes that would decriminalize insulting the royal family, curb its powers and make palace spending auditable.
“Someone had to talk about it,” Ms. Panusaya said in an interview. “I know that I can go to prison. I take that risk because someone must.”
The Thai monarchy is shielded from scrutiny by one of the world’s strictest lèse-majesté laws. Insulting the royal family—which wields great political influence—carries prison terms of up to 15 years. On Friday, Thai police arrested one of the democracy activists involved in Monday’s rally, Parit Chiwarak, though his lawyers said the 10 charges against him relate to an earlier protest and don’t include lèse-majesté.
Under the reign of the highly revered former King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016, the palace was widely seen in Thailand as an almost sacred institution impervious to the nation’s unstable politics, which have included coups and violent street protests.
But his son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, has a different image. Some Thai activists and academics say he is widely viewed as an absentee leader who spends much of his time overseas and leads an extravagant lifestyle. What little the public has seen of his private life has mostly come through unconfirmed tabloid reports and video and photos published anonymously online. He promoted his late pet poodle, Foo-Foo, to the rank of air chief marshal, according to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, with Queen Suthida in Bangkok on Wednesday, has a different image from his father, the highly revered former King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Photo: royal household bureau/Reuters“Deep down everybody knows the monarchy is part of the problem, some say it’s the heart of the problem,” said Nuttaa Mahattana, a prominent political activist.
She said Ms. Panusaya’s speech gave voice to many activists and may empower others to break their silence. “The Pandora’s box is already open,” she said. “Like it or not, it can’t be reversed.”
The palace hasn’t commented on the protests.
Over the past few decades, Thailand has been racked by waves of often-violent protests led by two rival political camps, with the palace serving as ultimate arbiter by endorsing takeovers and backing deadly crackdowns. Experts say the current pro-democracy movement is different from the well-funded street protests of the past, which were organized by powerful political alliances, pitting the interests of the rural poor against the urban elite.
The new protests have been likened to the youth-led, decentralized protests in Hong Kong and characterized by new strategies to sidestep rules that limit dissent. Thai activists, for instance, often use innocuous pop-culture references to allude to sensitive topics while evading strict sedition and defamation laws. The scale of Thailand’s protests is much smaller than Hong Kong’s, though it is growing. Organizers expect a planned rally on Sunday to draw 10,000 people.
A pro-democracy activist addressing a flash mob in Bangkok on Aug. 8.
Photo: patipat janthong/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesProtests in recent years have often targeted the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who led a coup in 2014 and was last year elected by Parliament following polls criticized by the opposition as favoring his military-backed party. The general election was marred by allegations of irregular vote-counting and coercion, while new rules written by the military ensured army-appointed seats that helped Mr. Prayuth secure the premiership.
The government didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Now discontent is growing in the Southeast Asian nation, a key U.S. ally in the region, amid economic frustration caused by the pandemic and what protesters say is an erosion of democracy.
“This has nothing to do with political parties or political movements as they happened in the past,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch. “These rallies are organic, this is about a fight for the future. They believe they have to address the big elephant in the room.”
Activists in the new movement are increasingly questioning the role of the palace in the nation’s troubled politics. Under a system of constitutional monarchy, in place since 1932, the royal family is theoretically disengaged from politics. But in practice, the palace has close ties with a military that has entrenched itself in government.
“He is not popular, and he continues to endorse an equally unpopular military-dominated government,” said Paul Chambers, a special adviser at the Center of Asean Community Studies at Thailand’s Naresuan University, referring to the king.
The decision to take aim at the monarchy hasn’t been formally embraced by the protest movement at large. After her speech on Monday, Ms. Panusaya was inundated with phone calls from other student leaders. Some thanked her for her frankness, but others were angry, claiming she had gone too far and endangered their wider agenda.
Student protesters at a Bangkok university on Thursday signed a petition to amend the country’s constitution.
Photo: soe zeya tun/ReutersA string of events this year touched off anger, particularly among Thailand’s youth. The popular opposition Future Forward Party—which was mired in lawsuits that the party’s supporters and human-rights groups say were politically motivated—was dissolved over allegations it mishandled party funds. Then a Thai activist living in self-imposed exile in Cambodia disappeared in June and hasn’t been heard from since.
A recession and the collapse of the country’s crucial tourism industry added to public frustration. Thousands took to the streets last month to demand that the military retreat from politics and restore more democratic rule. The arrest of two protest organizers last week triggered even more anger.
Activists are now bracing for a crackdown, possibly including arrests. Thai authorities are preparing legal action that could force social-media platforms, such as Facebook, to take down more than 100 posts related to Monday’s rally, according to the country’s minister for digital economy.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company reviews government requests on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the company’s policies, local laws and international human-rights standards.
Ms. Panusaya says plainclothes police came to her home Wednesday night and that of Mr. Parit, who was arrested Friday. The policemen stayed outside their houses until morning. “Right now is a dangerous time,” Ms. Panusaya said.
The police didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Write to Feliz Solomon at feliz.solomon@wsj.com
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Questioning Thailand’s Monarchy Was Off-Limits. Now Protesters Are Doing Just That. - The Wall Street Journal
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