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Bangkok, Thailand – At least 10 pro-democracy activists have been arrested in Thailand because anti-government rallies have resumed a year after challenging the taboos of the country’s almighty monarchy to disrupt protests.
The famous protest leader and human rights lawyer Anon Nampa was one of the first people to surrender on Monday afternoon.
According to the Thai Human Rights Lawyers Association, the police came to his office to pressure him to admit that he once again violated the libel law surrounding the monarchy. Within hours, other activists were arrested.
The arrests were made after protesters returned to the streets over the weekend, calling on the prime minister to resign and reform the monarchy.
Sirikan Charoensiri, a human rights lawyer with the Thai Human Rights Lawyers Association, said: “Another round of national suppression of the democratic movement, especially those outspoken Thai monarchy reforms, has been restored.” She added that nine other major activists have also been imprisoned. In prison, all their bail requests, including Anon’s, were denied on Monday night.
Sirikan added that the refusal of bail indicated that other key leaders “may face the same fate.”
Sunai Pasuk, a Thai researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
“As the pro-democracy movement launched new street protests, the Thai authorities became increasingly aggressive, using public dissatisfaction with PM Prayuth’s catastrophic response to the COVID-19 crisis as a rallying point, combined with outstanding demands for monarchy reform ,” Sunai said to Al Jazeera.
“It seems that the Thai government is now adopting a zero tolerance approach to disagreements. One year after the youth-led democratic uprising, the prospect of compromise or reconciliation is now disappearing. Thailand is sinking into a new chaos.”
Last year, when students called for reform of the monarchy for the first time in their protest, they broke a long-standing taboo in a country where the monarchy has long been a respected institution and the king has almost a god-like status.
The royal family is also protected by strict royal defamation laws and can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
The large-scale protests that began on student campuses last year brought the monarchy into the limelight like never before. [File: Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo]However, the respected King Bhumibol Adulyadej died in 2013 and his 69-year-old son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, ascended the throne, sparking new discussions about the role of the royal family in public life. Some Thais believe that the palace has too much political power and private wealth.
Student Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul was an activist who read the list of protesters’ historic demands on August 10 last year.
The 22-year-old girl recalled that when she took the stage in front of tens of thousands of protesters early in the morning, she felt a chill in her back.
Before calling for the abolition of the Thai royal defamation law, Jung asked the royal family to no longer retain legal immunity. She demanded that billions of dollars worth of assets held privately by the King of Thailand be made public. Finally, she urged the authorities to investigate the disappearances and murders of critics of the monarchy-which caused an impact across the country.
A year later, she said that some Thais are still dissatisfied with the status quo.
“The Thai royal family is the most powerful royal family in the world,” Jung told Al Jazeera.
“The royal family controls everything. They control the company, the army, the prime minister, and they control everything. But they should be a symbolic institution. However, they have the right to sign a coup. This violates the Constitution.”
Student Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul read the list of requirements at a rally in August last year, breaking the long-standing taboo against the monarchy [File: Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo]In March last year, the anti-government movement snowballed rapidly on university campuses, becoming a powerful street force, and closing key areas of the capital in July.
“I feel stressed and scared because I know that once I get on that stage, there is no turning back,” Rong said. “I am afraid of what might happen to me. I am afraid that I will be arrested or kidnapped. But I know something must be done. And I know that I am the one who did it.”
The suppression continues
Democracy activist Anon also felt the tremendous pressure from the state.
A week before Rung announced the list of requirements, Anon mentioned the topic of royal reform in a speech to the protesters.
Wearing a cloak that resembles Harry Potter, Anon compares the king to the villain Voldemort in the book-the “person who does not want to be named”-and says that he will use “magic” to drive out the monarchy.
He told the crowd that the royal family possessed unfathomable wealth, great influence and absolute power over Thai society, some of whom wore Harry Potter costumes.
The speech led to him being arrested during a police raid all night, but he was still not deterred after bail. He touched on the subject again last Tuesday.
“This year will be the last year for us to discuss monarchy reform,” he told the crowd in Bangkok. “After this, what will happen will happen. We cannot stop the sun from rising, we cannot control people’s beliefs. We are here to fight for a brighter future. This year we will fight with strategy, and we will Fight with targets.”
The new arrests come as the pro-democracy movement speeds up for the first time in 2021.
Despite the rapid deterioration of the COVID-19 epidemic—Thailand reports record cases and deaths every day—thousands of protesters returned to the streets to call for the same demands.
Protesters still mainly call for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is a former general. But they also reiterated their demands for palace reform, which would limit the power of the Thai king.
In an unprecedented call for reform, the King of Thailand Wajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida held a rare walking tour in November last year [File: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]But analysts say that changing the political trend requires more than protest. Critics say that institutions supported by the Thai military have close ties to the royal palace. Supporters of the king or “yellow shirts” urge the military to protect the monarchy at all costs, even if it means breaking democratic norms.
“Thailand has been in a state of discomfort for a long time,” Thitinan Ponsudirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera. “Its self-correction mechanism can release suppressed pressure politically and a more effective government no longer works. The renewed protests are only a function of this discomfort. Unless the supporters of Prayut can be persuaded, this This kind of noise won’t get their support. This country has had enough.”
Although Thailand’s power structure remains unchanged, Jung said that the battle of ideas has been won.
She said the students’ greatest success was to open up a new way for public discussions around the monarchy-and this country will never be the same. In response to the public’s criticism of the royal family, the royal family’s public relations agency organized several public events to give members of the royal family the opportunity to greet the royal family. This is the first time in decades that the royal family has taken to the streets to meet with supporters.
“I knew I might have to face the consequences in the future,” Rung said when she recalled the 59 days she spent in prison. “And today, I have been at war with myself. I have been arguing whether to continue this sport. But in the past few days, I have decided that I will continue to fight. Because in this game, you have to win anyway.”
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