Hello friends!

I’ve been very busy with non-newsletter life lately — it’s gone back to side-hustle status, why is coffee so expensive in Canberra! — and have had to drop the freebie edition for most of August. But what is coming out of Thailand is so staggering I’m happy to stay up late on a Monday and get typing. 

As always when it comes to Thailand, today’s explainer on the recent protests come with the caveat that while Bangkok is home to some of Thailand and the world’s best journalists and reporters, we’re also dealing with a tense press freedom situation. Also, the Nation’s website was down again for the whole time I was compiling this; hence the reliance on Bangkok Post and internationals. 

What I’ve done here below is connected the dots between the many moving parts and characters that have gotten us to Sunday’s 10,000-person strong demonstration in Bangkok. It is still very much developing, please jump on the #whatishappeninginthailand on social media to catch the latest. 

If you’d like to join us on the premium list, you can do so here for $6 a month or $60 for the year:

Students from an Asean member state or Timor are eligible for an annual membership, just hit that reply.

Thanks,Erin Cook

Loved this one from Instagrammer @suppmmk, doesn’t get much more succinct than that

The Students.

Free People and the Student Union of Thailand are at the helm of the movement. Small sprouts of anger at the status quo were seen earlier in the year during protests following the forced disbandment of opposition upstarts Future Forward in February, with demonstrations in Bangkok and, crucially, campuses across the country. Those protests foreshadowed what we see now — calls for greater democracy and rolling back the 2017 constitutional reforms. The earlier protests were the largest in the country since 2014 although that record was smashed this weekend. 

Free People laid out their demands last week amid some very heated controversy which we’ll get in to in just a moment. Specifically, the group and its supporters want a dissolution of the House of Representatives, which is controlled by pro-junta parties, constitutional reforms and freedom of speech protections for critics of the government. The first two demands are self-explanatory and reflect longer-term ambitions of progressive Thailand. The latter demand is in direct response to a horrifying uptick in (alleged) forced disappearances and (alleged) murders of pro-democracy advocates. 

High schoolers across the country have joined their older brothers and sisters, wearing white ribbons to school and raising the salute. 

The Salute.

If you think this is a lil Hunger Games, you’re bang on. The salute became a symbol during opposition to the May 22 coup back in 2014 — the peak of Katniss Everdeen love. Thai authorities banned the salute amid the 2014 protests. "If a single individual raises three fingers in the air, we are not going to arrest him or her. But if it is a political gathering of five people or more, then we will have to take some action. If it persists, then we will have to make an arrest," a spokesman for the junta told Associated Press in 2014.

Happily, the three fingers line up well with the three demands of most generations of protest. 

The King.

Then there’s the monarchy. Famously, the country has a very heavy-handed lese majeste law. While King Vajiralongkorn, who came to the throne back in 2016 after the death of his ultra-popular father, has been keen to step away from the baggage associated globally with the law, it’s largely been rebranded into a more one-size-fits-all sedition charge. 

Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a spokesperson for the Student Union of Thailand, has stuck mostly to the Thammasat Campus since last week. She delivered a speech which called for the monarchy to stay out of politics, reduce public spending and not pull strings in the military, according to this excellent BBC look at the developments. The piece notes that this would be a big call to make in most countries under monarchies, but in Thailand, it’s history-making.

Still, no regrets. “Someone had to talk about it. I know that I can go to prison. I take that risk because someone must,” she said later in an interview.

Panusaya has not yet been arrested on the lese majeste violations (as of writing this Monday) but she seems to be expecting it. And for good reason. She’s not the only one breaking the taboo of questioning the monarchy in public and the police have moved quickly.  

The Penguin.

Student leader Parit ‘Penguin’ Chiwarak, just 22-years-old, was arrested in Bangkok by local authorities Friday on a range of charges. Footage of the arrest show plainclothed police grab the Thammasat University student by his arms and legs and carry him into an unmarked police car. The allegations date back to a student rally held July 18. A gathering of supporters cheered him on at the Samran Rat police station. He is also alleged to be facing lese majeste charges, but the Bangkok Post reports it was not part of the initial list. 

Parit was bailed out Saturday and under strict orders not to re-offend. Al Jazeera reports Parit was told by the director-general of the court he could take part in Sunday’s demonstration. "My arrest must not be wasted, people must talk more publicly about the monarchy. We have lifted the ceiling, there is no lowering it now,” he said. 

The Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Prayuth Cha-o-cha is calling for calm. During Sunday’s demonstration, he told authorities to deescalate any potential confrontation and asked protestors to be respectful of others. Sure, Jan. In my view, the legitimacy of Prayuth’s leadership is so deeply poisoned there’s nothing he can say here that will convince many to abandon the ‘dissolve Parliament’ reform. 

He had previously extended the government’s emergency decree until the end of August, ostensibly a move which was solely aimed at the virus response and would not interfere with civil liberties. I’m curious to see where this goes next, given the cases themselves appear to be under control at the moment.

Prayuth has in the past had a very short temper when it comes to both activists and questioning over his responses, so I’ll be paying close attention to him over the coming weeks. 

Where’s this going?

I do not know. Thailand often feels impenetrable to me and I do think mostly all we outsiders can do is watch, read and make sure whatever comes next doesn’t happen in darkness. Thailand has a perfect storm right now of economic and political upheaval and, of course, the pandemic. The whole region (the whole world!) are dealing with the same three prongs. Still, in Thailand, the political situation had already been heated, the world-topping income inequality is exacerbated by the economic stressors and deepening the line between the everyday population and the elite. 

In a year full of protests across the world, Thailand’s specific set of circumstances give it the potential to be on par with some of the biggest. This is probably preaching to the choir, given who reads this!, but it’s ultra-important the world pays attention to this even if (or maybe especially because) we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next. 

• The Story of Thai Democracy: Octobers of Tragedy (Ken Lohatepanont)

This is an older one published in 2017 but was all over Twitter over the weekend. It looks back at the Thammasat University massacre and protests surrounding the 1971 democracy movement. I find it challenging to get my head across the numerous coup, violent protests and upheaval, which typify Thailand in the last century. This piece is a fantastic primer in one of the country’s darkest days. Ominously, it’s found a new popularity in recent days with the legacy of the Thammasat massacre, in which dozens of students and protestors were killed, weighs heavily. 

• Opinion: The world must keep its eye on Thailand to help ensure the safety of student-protesters (Thai Enquirer) 

• Protests Take On Thai Monarchy, Despite Laws Banning Such Criticism (NYT)