Coup Diaries: Life in Thailand since the 19 September 2006 coup
Tyrell Haberkorn is the AIUSA Country Specialist for Thailand
and has been engaged in Thai human rights work as a researcher, an NGO
worker and a translator since 1997. She is currently finishing her dissertation
about histories of farmer-student alliances and Thai state and para-state
violence, entitled The Knowledge of Violence: solidarity, repression,
and historiography in northern Thailand, in Cornell University's
Department of Anthropology. In September and October 2006, she traveled
to Thailand for six weeks of research - and witnessed the 19 September
coup and its aftermath. She can be reached at:tch23[at]cornell.edu
Although the Thaksin government (January 2001 – September 2006) had a horrendous and well-documented record of violations of human rights violations, I stand with other observers who note that his ouster by military coup has deepened, not solved, Thailand’s crisis. What follows are my observations on daily life in the month since the coup and the emergence of alternatives to military rule.
One month later (19 October 2006)
Today, 19 October, marks one month since the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM), seized power in a military coup. Martial law remains in force, press freedoms remain curtailed, and opposition is growing.
Yesterday, Interim Prime Minister (General) Surayud announced that the ban on political gatherings of more than five people would possibly be lifted – at least for indoor political gatherings, including intellectual discussions. Outdoor gatherings will still be banned. What is striking is that although those participating in actions of the 19 September Network and similar groups in other parts of the country have been acting in defiance of the orders of the coup group, no arrests have been made. Activists and their supporters have faced intimidation at the hands of intelligence forces who photograph and record them – but no concrete action has been taken. And yet I wonder how long this will hold – and if, or at what point, and how, the information gathered by the intelligence forces will be used.
Since Monday I have been spending my days at the Thammasat University Archives hand-copying declarations, letters, and other documents related to arrests of eight farmers and one student on trumped-up charges in August 1975. In response to a string of brutal assassinations of farmer leaders between March and July 1975, people across the country held protests in early August 1975 demanding that the Thai government take action to arrest the assassins and protect farmers’ lives. However, rather than arrest the assassins, nine of the colleagues of the farmers’ were arrested for crimes that they did not commit, or to put it another way, actions that they committed that suddenly became crimes a few months after the fact. Those who had been protesting and calling for state action regarding the assassinations then began demanding the release of the nine. The protests for their release turned on the issue of the need to uphold the law and apply it equally across the citizenry. At that moment the law was emptied of its meaning as part of the structures in place to protect people – how can it again become heavy with meaning and effect?
This evening as I left the Thammasat University campus to cross to Sanam Luang to catch the bus, I paused at the memorial to the students killed during the 6 October 1976 massacre. Around the base of the monument is a quote from an essay written shortly after the massacre by Dr. Puey Ungphakorn, the rector of Thammasat at the time who was forced to flee into exile on the night of the 6th. Dr. Puey wrote: “What is most regrettable is the fact that young people now have no third choice. If they cannot conform to the government, they must run away. Those interested in peaceful means to bring about freedom and democracy must restart from square one.” The conditions today are drastically different from those in 1976 in many ways. There is a space, however limited and tenuous, for people to advocate a third way. What perhaps has recurred, however, is the necessity to start, again, from the beginning, to build a democratic and just society.
Growing protests (15 October 2006)
On Wednesday, 11 October, which would have been the ninth anniversary of the 1997 Peoples’ Constitution, I went to a protest and a press conference organized in memory of the constitution by the Campaign for Popular Media Reform. In the morning, a small group of people all wearing black gathered in silent protest at Democracy Monument. Funeral wreaths from supporting organizations with the message “In memory of the constitution,” and “In memory of democracy,” were placed in the center of the monument. The monument, which is a substantial structure, sits in the center of a multi-lane traffic circle. As many people have noted, it is slightly ironic that it is very difficult for people to across cross the fast-moving traffic in order to view Thailand’s monument to democracy – one runs, quickly, when there is a break in traffic. For ninety minutes, we stood at the monument. Not only was the protest completely peaceful, but at the end, uniformed police actually helped everyone present for the event cross the traffic back to the sidewalk. The police observed the protest – but did nothing. The friend I was with asked one of them at the end why they were so unconcerned, and he replied that he wanted to stay neutral. As we crossed back to Thanon Ratchadamnoen with the funeral wreaths and other supplies, the policeman actually said to all of us, “Good luck na.” It was a very surprising experience. Yet perhaps to keep me from becoming too complacent, during the afternoon press conference and seminar the many forms of explicit and less explicit forms of censorship which remain in place were discussed. The Midnight University website remains shut down – the IP address has literally been blocked by the Thai government. Although there is not a censor board reading every piece of print journalism, soldiers remain in proximity to some major news outlets, and some journalists reported censoring themselves.
On Saturday, 14 October, the thirty-three year commemoration of the 14 October 1973 struggle democracy was held. In the afternoon, there was a discussion about the temporary constitution. The invited speakers represented various interest groups – local governance, children’s rights, agriculture … Some of the speakers did not address the coup directly at all, and just requested that the new constitution include provisions relevant to their specific group. One woman, representing a network of slumdwellers, spoke with a clarion voice. She was critical of the 1997 “Peoples’” Constitution and its failure to truly be of the people. For her, the crisis is one of participation. People, especially poor people, do not truly participate in politics, cannot truly participate in politics, and therefore do not truly have a role. If people did participate, if there was a space for participation, then the coup would have been unable to happen. As I listened to her, I was struck by the urgency her call – and yet the difficulty of making it real. Those currently with power – whether official state-sanctioned power or the perhaps more insidious influence, or itthiphon -- will have to let go of their stranglehold on public life. Participation is a favorite word of development experts – yet its growth cannot be written into a national plan.
Shortly after the commemoration ended, I walked from the 14 October 1973 monument up Thanon Ratchadamnoen and then across Sanam Luang to the Thammasat campus. The 19 September Network Against the Coup held their eighth, and largest protest against the coup. Nearly 400 people massed on the campus of Thammasat University in defiance of martial law banning political gatherings of more than five people. For three hours the meanings of democracy and participation were debated, the coup was critiqued, and a mock election was held (one day before the real elections were scheduled to be held, prior to the coup). The organizers announced that a similar public gathering was taking place in Nakhon Si Thammarat province as well. The 19 September Network organizers are mostly very young – many are current students. One of the speakers was a 17-year old student from Ramkhamheang University – the demonstration was the first time she had spoken in public. For this group of organizers, the protests of May 1992 are the historical events which they cite as important to the development of democracy in Thailand. It is exciting and humbling to witness the birth of a new generation of activists. At 7 p.m., a large number of those present marched from Thammasat around the oval of Sanam Luang, to the Democracy Monument. I was with two friends close to my age and we laughed that because we are 10-15 years older than the organizers, we are almost like aunties – we are already old. Uniformed police showed up only to direct traffic between Thammasat and the monument – they made sure that we could walk in the street without being hit by cars or trucks. At both Thammasat and once we reached the Democracy Monument there were men who were clearly intelligence – they photographed and videotaped everyone present. At the monument, each of us present lit a candle in support of democracy and sang songs about justice, struggle, and hope. The events were not covered by the mainstream press – but photographs and other information were posted at prachatai.com. View the photos »
Commemorations and the urgency of more than two options (8 October 2006)
On Thursday (5 October) I left Chiang Mai for Bangkok, in order to attend the events surrounding the thirty-year commemoration of the 6 October 1976 massacre and coup. Following a mass uprising of students, workers, farmers, and citizens in October 1973 that ousted the ruling dictators at the time, Thailand experienced a three-year period of open, democratic politics. However, a variety of factors led to a right-wing backlash to the period of open politics – which culminated in a massacre and coup on the morning of 6 October 1976.
After 2 a.m. on the morning of 6 October 1976 state and para-state forces began a sustained period of violence against students and other activists massed inside Thammasat University in Bangkok that did not end until the declaration of martial law and the announcement of a new ruling body, the National Administrative Reform Council (NARC), at 6 p.m. The NARC reported that 3059 people were arrested, 46 people were killed, and over 180 injured. In contrast, the Chinese Benevolent Society reported that they carried and cremated over 100 bodies out of Thammasat after the violence ended.
On the morning of 6 October 2006, I went over to Thammasat University early in the morning for the commemorations. The morning was spent with religious ceremonies and opening speeches. This year the award of “October person,” the person who most fiercely represents a spirit of struggle was awarded in honor of Charoen Wat-aksorn, who was assassinated on 21 June 2004. Charoen was one of the eighteen human rights defenders assassinated during the first term of Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai government. Charoen had been at the head of a long-standing fight in to keep a coal-fired power plant out of his community of Bo Nok and Baan Krut in Prachuab Khiri Khan (The power plant was a project of Thai and multinational investors – Greenpeace did an excellent short report, Edison Out, on the proposed plant and the struggle against it. The struggle against the power plant was successful – but soon large shrimp farmers began encroaching on the same protected land that for which the power plant had been destined. Many of the same influential figures who had been behind the power plant project were behind the encroachment project. Charoen led the fight to oust them as well. On 21 June, he was on his way back from testifying before a Senate environment panel in Bangkok about the detrimental effects of the encroaching. As he was getting off the bus, he was assassinated. On 6 October, his wife spoke about his life, and the struggles that continue in Bo Nok and Baan Krut. Many villagers came up to Bangkok with her – and they sold green T-shirts with Charoen’s picture on them, and the text “One has died, but hundreds of thousands will be born; only the body has been killed, the spirit and ideals remain; hundreds of thousands of Charoens will be born across Thailand.”
In Defiance: Courageous Voices (29 September 2006)
Since the coup, groups in Bangkok have been organizing in defiance of the no more than five people in any given public meeting decree. Under the name of the “19 September Network Against the Coup,” they have staged public protests in shopping malls and on the Thammasat University campus, an institution famous for its involvement and support of democratic struggle. On 28 September at 5 p.m., students at Chiang Mai University organized their own public debate on the current situation of the coup in defiance of the decree. Over a hundred people – mostly Thai but with international friends (including me) -- gathered in a circle on the lawn in front of the Faculty of Social Sciences and talked about the current crisis of life under a military dictatorship without a constitution. The santiban [intelligence] were there and ostentatiously photographed everyone present and made audio recordings of those speaking. The student organizers opened the floor by explaining the purpose of the conversation was to foster the open exchange of ideas, an action prohibited in the present moment. The students posed a challenge to their (absent) colleagues and the (absent) university administration to make the university into a site of vigorous debate and analysis. After the first hour and a half, uniformed police arrived. They didn’t arrest anyone, but stayed on the periphery of the circle. The organizers invited them to sit down, but they chose to remain standing.
Then, on the morning of 29 September, the Midnight University (the Midnight University is a network of progressive academics who organize various public events) held a press conference. The professors, all wearing black, sat together at the front of their open-air building in Chiang Mai. They made two declarations -- one on the coup group, and one on the temporary constitution. Their message was simple: the current coup group has one purpose, to set up elections. Once they have done this, they must disband and remove themselves from politics. Then the task of the elected government is to foment genuine political reform. As regards the temporary constitution: it is not transparent, it is not participatory, and there are no plans for it to be passed by referendum. They held up pieces of paper which read “temporary constitution,” and tore them in half in front of the cameras. They called again for elections as soon as possible, and only then the drafting of the new constitution. I sat in the small audience of press and supporters and translated for another colleague. I felt incredibly moved -- for reasons that I don't really know how to explain. See the photos »
The website of the Midnight University was shutdown by the coup government shortly after their press conference and tearing up of the temporary constitution.
One of the first statements of the CDRM was that they wanted student input
about politics. After the Midnight University press conference I walked
through the Chiang Mai University student union canteen. There are wooden
boxes for students to write their suggestions to the CDRM. Blank paper is
there, waiting. It really boggles my mind. A suggestion box? To a military
junta?