Together with an interested reader, PPT has been trying to understand this video clip from the recent Thammasat-Chulalongkorn soccer game there were several anti-112 protests, many of which were reported in the media. Yet we think there is room for interpreting that there was something more going on that engaged the crowd.
We haven’t been able to work it all out, although a reader has tried to explain it all to us. So let’s see what other readers think.
The first point to note, as expressed by our correspondent, is that while politics is often parodied in these events, the annual game back in 1983 was special. During that game, students put up a banner as shown on the left of the photo here. The Free Somyot photo is from the recent game.
The images on the left are about “Father.” Now everyone knows who “Father” is, yet these students say their “father” is Pridi [Phanomyong], a good man that “Thailand” didn’t want.
The video itself has a bunch of political and university plays on events and words, with the theme being who is “north” or above others. So Chalerm [Yubamrung] has Somjit above him [we think this is a reference to Somjit Nawakruasunthorn]. Abhisit [Vejjajiva] has his draft dodging case above him, and so on until “Above the cabinet” and the response is: There’s someone looking over it [probably meaning Thaksin Shinawatra].
A little later there is a reference to the banned/withdrawn Channel 3 soap opera Nua Mek. In this stream it means: “above the clouds?” The response is: “above the clouds there isn’t anything,” followed by the question: “Why is that?” The answer is: “There is nothing above the clouds…. Because no one is brave enough to speak the truth.”
It seems a critical comment to us, but maybe PPT is guilty of “anti-royal fundamentalism,” and so we ask readers for other interpretations.
Thanks to the reader who went to considerable effort to link all of this.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 