Started back in the end of February 2020, the Thai protests are still in continuation. Thousands of protestors are out on the streets demanding for reforms and is the dismissal of the monarchy. The dissolution of the Future Forward Party led to the initiation of these protests back in February. The series came to a halt for five months following the pandemic of COVID-19 but came back into force on 18th July.
Apart from the dissolution of the Party, there were many more reasons for the triggering of protests. They include Political Corruption, scandals along with 1MDB( 1Malaysia Development Berhad), Legal inequality, LGBT discrimination, the decrement in the economy because of the pandemic, and the Human rights abuses. The protesters demand the dissolution of the House, the abolition of the Senate, changes in the constitution, and providing more civil, political & economic rights.
The February protests initiated in the academic campuses but came to a stoppage because of the pandemic. The protestors were mainly university and school students, who with the help of hashtags and social media platforms like Tik Tik and Twitter spread the fire of their motto. On 17th July, around 2500 people came onto the streets and started protesting at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok. They demanded for three things – First, the dissolution of the House, then drafting a new Constitution and lastly ending the intimidation the people. The protesters considered themselves under the name “Free Youth”. One of the protesters made it clear that they just want those three demand to be fulfilled and do not wish to over throw the monarchy.
After this, the protest spread across the country like wildfire starting from Chiang Mai province and Ubon Ratchathani Province on 19 July. On 3rd August, a lawyer Anon Nampa gave a speech criticizing the monarchy in front of at least 200 people. This was the first time in the Thai history that a common man was openly criticizing the Thai monarch in from of the police standing there, listening. Following this, Anon Nampa was arrested along with another Free Youth leader on 8th August. The protests kept on increasing with the increasing number of individuals getting involved in it.
With the increasing protests, on 15th October the Thai Government claimed Thailand under the State of Emergency and stated that gathering of more than 5 persons is not allowed. The protestors clearly defied the Emergency as approximately around 5000 protesters gathered at the Pathum Wan intersection. 3 police officers were transferred to inactive posts as they failed in clearing out the protesters off the road for the royal motorcade a day before.
It’s been 2 months and 29 days since Phase 2 of these protests and these are considered to be of large scale since the 2014 Thai coup d’état.
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