Three years ago, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul was on the front lines of Thailand’s democracy movement as thousands of young protesters clashed with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets on the streets of Bangkok.
The movement shook the kingdom with its calls for reform and unprecedented demands to curb the power of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, but petered out as COVID-19 spread and Panusaya and other leaders were arrested.
Many of the young protesters are about to vote for the first time in Thailand’s May 14 election. They have not given up their calls for change, even if they know they must be patient in a kingdom where conservative elites have long thwarted reform.
Photo: Reuters
Panusaya, better known by her nickname, Rung, in August 2020 delivered a speech on monarchy reform that included a 10-point manifesto. It sent shock waves across Thailand and had her yoyoing in and out of prison.
“This election will be very important. It can change the game,” said Panusaya, who is preparing to begin a master’s degree in political science.
“If the pro-democracy party wins, we have many options to stop the selection of senators, to write a new constitution or to change various laws,” the 24-year-old said.
Millennials and Gen Z — voters aged about 40 or younger — account for just over 40 percent of Thailand’s 52 million-strong electorate.
Young Thais might be excited about the prospect of voting Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha out of office, but they are also not naive, Panusaya said.
Thailand has been hit by a dozen coups since 1932, most recently in 2014, as the military-royalist establishment squashed governments it deemed unsuitable or too progressive.
Panusaya recalls the “heartbreak” of the 2019 election, when junta leader Prayuth cobbled together a sprawling coalition to keep out Pheu Thai, the main opposition party that won the most seats.
“Authorities in this country are selfish,” she said. “Those who are in power are obsessed with their power. They want to stay in power no matter what the cost.”
The junta rewrote Thailand’s constitution after the last coup to stack the deck in its favour.
To become prime minister, a candidate must now secure a majority across the lower house as well as the Senate, whose 250 members were appointed by the military.
Panusaya is not convinced that, against such a backdrop, pro-democracy parties will have the courage to embark on the kind of comprehensive reform the protest movement called for.
“We know that all our expectations will not be met in this election,” she said.
One key demand was reform to Thailand’s royal defamation laws, considered to be among the harshest in the world and which human rights groups say are used to crush political dissent.
Panusaya faces 12 lese majeste charges, which could see her jailed for up to 180 years, but said the fact that reform of the laws is even being debated is a legacy of the protests.
It is a difficult issue for political parties.
Even the Move Forward Party, which had been the sole voice advocating change, appeared to water down its stance in March when it said it was not “the party’s main campaign goal.”
As well as a political protest, the 2020 movement was also a generational clash pitting younger Thais against their parents and grandparents.
“My dad was afraid of me being too much involved in politics,” said Pooripat Buakong, who joined the protests as a high-school student. “He said: ‘The government and politics are not for change.’”
Pooripat, now 20 and studying humanities at a university in Bangkok, said that young Thais want a meritocracy — the opportunity to get a decent education and a well-paying job no matter whether they were born in a village or a city.
Technology analyst Noppakorn Sakkamart, 24, who was a protest regular in 2020, said the hunger for political change has not curdled into cynicism.
“I don’t think the new generations will lose hope and not be voting. I think they will keep fighting,” Noppakorn told reporters.
He expected strong youth support for Move Forward, which rose from the ashes of the Future Forward party that was dissolved by a court in February 2020.
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