We might say that the earth moved but, in fact, in Thai terms, the sky fell. Nikkei Asia has the headline: Thailand’s young protesters turn backs on royal motorcade.
RT has it that:
Protesters in Bangkok have shown their disrespect to the Thai King by turning their backs on a royal motorcade as it passed by. People have been rallying for months, demanding the resignation of the PM and reform of monarchy.
As the motorcade carrying the king and Queen Suthida passed by they turned their backs, gave the three-fingered “Hunger Games” salute of pro-democracy campaigners, and sang the national anthem in the latest show of disaffection with the monarchy.
For video, see here:
RT and Reuters reckon there were some 2,500 demonstrators at the Democracy Monument when the motorcade sped past, but numbers grew substantially later in the evening.
This is a big deal.
Such an open display of disrespect will draw yellow shirt and official responses.
The demonstration continued, promoting various causes, with some using “ladders to cover the three-meter-tall centerpiece of the monument with a massive white cloth, that featured various insults and slogans accusing the country’s rulers of stealing the people’s ‘bright future’ and assuring that ‘democracy will prevail’.”
Clipped from Thai PBS
The Reuters story has a clip which includes the motorcade and very direct comments from Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul including on the power of the people, sovereignty being with the people rather than “one person,” and this: “Without the people, the government and monarchy will have no power…”.
At the same time, she offered the regime something of an opportunity: “Are they willing to take a step back or find a consensus that we can agree on?”
The charter was the main focus of their [protesters] attention, as Parliament is scheduled to debate amendments on Tuesday and Wednesday….
The three groups — Bad Students, Free Women and Mob Fest — are all allied with the Free Youth group, which marked its first anniversary on Saturday.
Bad Students, [are] mostly high schoolers….
Quite a day.
Update: Another video of the back turning, from Prachatai:
Political Prisoners in Thailand 
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