King’s insecurity

The formation of the post-election government was based around a premise that the monarchy was being protected from reformists. It was underpinned by a deal done between the palace and Thaksin Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party.

Of course, Thaksin was ousted by the military and yellow shirts in 2006 to allegedly protect the monarchy. He also has numerous outstanding lese majeste cases. But that all seemed forgotten to protect the monarchy from an even larger threat: the monarchy reform movement channeled through Move Forward.

Srettha Thavisin’s coalition government is doing its part. For example, where Puea Thai had promised constitutional reform when campaigning for votes, this was about reform that would not touch the monarchy. As recently reported, the first referendum question to voters “will ask whether people want to amend the Constitution without amending chapters relating to the monarchy.” If the people reject this, there will be no constitutional reform. The monarchy will be protected as it is.

Despite these political victories, the king still seems fearful. For us, this is made clear in Vajiralongkorn’s call to “Thais to unite …, join forces to overcome obstacles and challenges lying ahead, and steer the country towards prosperity and stability.”

Not at all very different from the tuneless babble that once emanated from his father. And that seems to be the point. The king, and presumably his closest advisors, recognize that Vajiralongkorn faces challenges. Some of these are related to his personal traits which make him unpopular. So it is that the effort is to make the link to his father and the way he is recalled by many in Thailand.

When the king referred to “several important events took place in our country” over the past year, he refers to events related to his dead father.

Royal Household photo, clipped from The Nation

He points to an event that only he and his family probably think “important”: “As you all know, Oct 13 has been declared Navamindra Maharaj Day to mark the anniversary of the passing of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great.” This “event” was arranged at taxpayer expense to unveil a statue of the late king.

He then refers to his mother, the gravely ill Queen Mother Sirikit, who seemingly influences culture from her death bed,  in “khon” performances “organised by the SUPPORT Foundation. These, he says, were “also a great success…”.

And, again, he speaks of his dead father:

May you be protected by the sacred forces and the virtues of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great from ills and perils, and may you be blessed with strength, wisdom and success in achieving your aims throughout the year and always….

It is as if the king, now in his seventh decade but still insecure, is made a child again.

This message is reinforced by the official photo and added above. He is portrayed as a late teenager, inferior to his parents. Yes, this is about showing appropriate respect, but it is more than that. Oddly not even central in the frame, his supports are his parents and his military regalia.

Such insecurity bodes ill for Thailand’s politics.

Amnesty bill inches forward

The Bangkok Post reports that iLaw has urged the Puea Thai-led government to support a political amnesty.

iLaw’s new bill would grant amnesty to “all people prosecuted or facing charges in connection with political activities from Sept 19, 2006, until now.”

Benja Apan, who herself faces a swathe of charges including under Article 112, “said the bill was aimed at ensuring legal protection for her and other activists which had not existed in the past two decades.” She explained that the bill envisaged two types of amnesty.

The first is described as “an instant amnesty for those who should not have been prosecuted in the first place…”. In this case, included are : “civilians sentenced by the military court” for violating National Peace Keeping Council, orders “and people facing legal action for violating Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the Emergency Decree or 2016 referendum law…”.

The second type of amnesty “will have to be decided on by a committee as to which of the other criminal cases linked with political violence were actually driven by a political motives…”.

The proposed committee would have 19 members, including “the parliament president, opposition leader, the chief whip, representatives of all political parties and representatives of the people facing legal action since the 2006 military coup…”.

Interestingly, former yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy activist Amorn Amornrattananond supported the proposal.

Coup vs streets

Parliament can’t meet and discuss anything much at all. It certainly can’t select a prime minister. All because of the agencies established to prevent a popular, progressive, elected government.

That’s due ti the ruling class and its military-monarchism. Their “representatives” wrote a constitution to stymie Puea Thai but used it to prevent Move Forward establishing a government. It stacked the Constitutional Court with loyalist dullards, and it seems that again everything hangs on that politicized agency.

Thaksin Shinawatra is on-off about his return, waiting for a Puea Thai government. Will he get it? It seems likely, but it may be a government that doesn’t match its electors hopes, which was to shift the old military barnacles.

Some are warning about a coup. For example, Veera Somkwamkid, a person of ultra-nationalist background and more recently worried about military dictatorship, “warned that a political conflict, if allowed to intensify, could invite another military coup. He urged the public to closely monitor political developments to avoid falling into the ‘coup trap’ and being exploited as a political pawn.”

Sondhi

Meanwhile, the original manipulator of the yellow shirts, Sondhi Limthongkul seemed to call for a coup, when he said “the only way to stop Move Forward from winning a majority at the next election is … another military coup.”

He may well be right that nothing can stop the electoral rise of Move Forward, although we suspect most rightist money is on the Constitutional Court doing its work against the party. That said, Sondhi seems to be pointing to a trend towards progress in politics, a trend he fears, along with many in the military, palace, and broader ruling class.

If there is to be another coup, then we fancy one of our readers is right when stating: “I think it has to go to the streets yet again.”

Updated: Junta pawns and their double standards

Prachatai reports: “Attempts to disqualify Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat and block his bid to become the next Prime Minister have sparked a wave of protests during the past week in …[in at least 11 ] provinces calling for the Senate and the House of Representative to approve his nomination as Prime Minister, as his party won the most seats in the last general election.”

It has to be said that these protests are, so far, quite small. Perhaps this is because there’s a “wait-and-see” attitude being displayed. At the moment the response appears to be one of deep disappointment rather than rage.

It also reports the trending of #ธุรกิจสว, a “buycott” campaign targeting a list of businesses run by [unelected, junta-appointed] senators or their family members “along with a call for the public to sanction these businesses,” and a call to refuse service to the same senators and their families. The buycott impacted, according to The Nation, “markets, restaurants, renowned companies, gas stations and even football teams.”

The campaign has already caused the delicate, unelected, flowers to complain:

The senate in session, doing as ordered

Somchai Sawaengkarn, one of the 250 junta-appointed senators, said several members were gathering evidence to file a defamation lawsuit against netizens for the boycott. Somchai warned individuals engaging in such behaviour not to take it lightly, as senators have gathered evidence. All past incidents would be investigated and, if found to fall within the scope of defamation, legal action would be taken in all cases, he said.

Somchai exploded, threatening:

“Since you all adhere to democratic principles, don’t come apologising to me after you are handed jail sentences,” Somchai said, addressing the unnamed social-media users.

“We will not let this go. It is not a joking matter. Don’t forget that senators are mostly lawyers. We will make sure to charge you on every count of wrongdoing,” he added.

The social-media users are not exercising their freedom of speech, Somchai said, explaining that they are criminals because they are uttering threats and defaming others.

Somchai is quite a dipstick (to use a polite term). He is gleeful when children are locked up,  he supports mad conspiricists and makes up conspiracies himself, he is a mad monarchist and a dedicated rightist, he is a yellow shirt who cheered the Army’s murder of red shirts, he wants Amnesty International closed down, he’s defended his fellow junta pawns when they sleep in parliament, he’s attacked the media, he’s accused political opponents of lese majeste, and he’s one of the longest-serving beneficiaries of junta support post 2006 and 2014 coups.

We can’t think of a better junta thug to target than Somchai. He deserves all he gets. That he feels “bullied” is simply laughable. He’s spent a couple of decades bullying others and slapping them with lese majeste accusations.

Somchai was joined in complaint by other junta layabouts:

Writing on Facebook on Saturday, [unelected, junta-appointed] Sen Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan … condemned the MFP’s supporters who had harassed senators and their families as well as those who hold different opinions.

“After the vote, a campaign has been launched using abusive language [against the senators],” she wrote.

She’s expressed no concern for those accused of lese majeste who are harassed by the state: police, military and judiciary.

Another unelected, junta-appointed senator Ronwarit Pariyachattrakul worried about “his children who may meet hostile reactions from their friends who support Mr Pita.” Ronwarit wrote: “If your friends uphold the principles of democracy, they should accept and respect different opinions…”.

Ronawit, of course, cannot himself accept different opinions, declaring that the Move Forward Party must not amend Article 112.

These thugs have no shame. For them, double standards are the only standards.

Update: Thai PBS reports on another trending hashtag #เมียน้อยสว (senator’s mistress). It is “calling on people to gather information on [unelected, junta-appointed] senators’ extramarital affairs.”

Welcome back III

Further to our earlier posts, here and here, Prachatai has now reported on the events at Wongwian Yai, where several anti-112 protesters gathered and a woman broke the security cordon around King Vajiralongkorn.

It recounts that “[t]hree activists, one a 17 year old, were arrested on Tuesday night (28 December) for holding up banners with the message ‘abolish Section 112’ at Wongwian Yai, where a crowd of people were waiting to see King Vajiralongkorn and his entourage.” In fact, five were detained by police. Two were released while those charged were “Sainam, Baipor, and Tawan (last names withheld) – [who] were taken to the nearby Bupharam Police Station.” It is stated that “police released the other two activists as they were only taking pictures of the protest, not shouting or holding up banners.”

Explaining the protest,

Tawan, 20, said that they arrived at Wongwian Yai around 16.00 and were planning to raise their banners when the royal motorcade reached the scene to communicate directly with the King. Although concerned that they might be attacked by royalists, she said that they still wanted to exercise their right to express their opinions.

Tawan added that the woman who ran towards the king “was not part of their group and that they never approached the royal entourage.”

Baipor said that they planned to stand on the footpath but while waiting, were approached by a plainclothes officer who appeared to recognise Sainam. According to Baipor, they told the officer that they were only holding banners and did not intend to cause harm. Unidentified men in yellow shirts then surrounded them. In footage of the incident, formally clad police officers receiving the royal motorcade took part in the arrest.

Tawan added that the men in yellow shirt[s] surrounded them for around an hour. Once the Queen appeared, they lifted up their banner, but the men immediately pulled it down. She said that they were not planning to make noise, but when the men snatched their banners away, they began shouting “abolish Section 112.”  They had earlier decided to do this if they were assaulted. The men dragged them away, putting their hands over the activists’ mouth and choking them in the process.

… A video clip of the incident shows the activists being surrounded by men wearing royal volunteer service yellow shirts and scarves.

These “volunteers” include many police and military officers. They are sent to bolster crowds at royal events.

According to Tawan, when the men sought to physically silence her by placing their hands over her mouth, they knocked her contact lenses out of position, pushing them deep inside her eyelids.  She was later able to remove them but Sainam and Baipor both suffered injuries. Baipor was cut on the lips.

She said “the activists demanded to know what crime they were being charged with. Instead of answering, the officers ordered them to sit down and pushed them to the ground.” Only after the royals had left were they taken to the police station.

The activists were “charged with causing a public commotion and failing to comply with police orders. Each received a 1000-baht fine. Following their release, they said that they were going to a hospital to make a record of their injuries and would by pressing charges against their assailants.”

Wages and sin

Suporn Atthawong was once a red shirt. He was once charged with lese majeste. But about the time that the junta was hoovering up possible allies in the northeast, his 112 case was dropped after Suporn gave his support to the junta party and was rewarded by being made an “assistant minister.” The wages of sin, treason, and grassing-up your former comrades. He also changed his name to Seksakol, apparently meant to whitewash his bad karma.

His “job” as turncoat, weasel, and snitch has been to bribe former allies across to the post-junta side and to run regime legal errands such as making complaints that lead to charges of lese majeste and more. He’s not a person with morals or scruples and presumably his chameleon qualities are not recent. Some on social media reckon he was a regime stooge when a red shirt.

Adding to his rubbish reputation, according to the Bangkok Post, “Seksakol” has run another legal errand for the military-backed regime, targeting red shirt “Nattawut Saikua over his role in Sunday’s car mob rallies.”

Weasel

The complaint he filed with the Crime Suppression Division “accused the red-shirt leader of violating the emergency decree, the communicable disease control law and Section 116, the provision for sedition.” It seems “sedition” is that “Nattawut had plotted to instigate unrest, noting that the red-shirt leader urged the anti-government protesters to join the rallies even though the recent demonstrations have been marred by violence.”

Seksakol said he would also “ask the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) to examine Mr Nattawut’s financial transactions since 2010 because he was suspicious that the protests could be sponsored by people overseas.”

The claim is a repetition of deep yellow shirt social media accusations that Nattawut is in the pay of Thaksin Shinawatra. It is also a claim that the yellow shirts directed at Seksakol when he was a red shirt. Now he’s in the pay of the authoritarian regime that is populated by those who murdered his (supposed) comrades in 2010.

Updated: Jatuporn, Nattawut and the protests

Today, the recently erratic official red shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan is tentatively rallying his supporters to oppose Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha. This is surprising and somewhat difficult to understand.

Part of the reason why this is a surprise is that, as we observed back in January, United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship leader Jatuporn had been saying some odd political things and seemed to have had a political meltdown, as enthusiastically reported by Thai PBS. Part of the meltdown involved a dispute with Thaksin Shinawatra over local elections.

Jatuporn

As everyone knows, Jatuporn has a long pedigree as a political activist dating back to the 1992 uprising against another military power grab. For his leadership of red shirts, he had faced numerous criminal charges and several arrests and served 19 months in jail when a court found him guilty of defaming the reprehensible former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who led the regime that murdered red shirts in 2010. Jatuporn’s defamation was to aptly label Abhisit “a murderer” who “order[ed] the shooting dead of the protesters.”

Despite his history of political activism, his recent outbursts saw Jatuporn labeled a “traitor” and “lackey of the military.” There was muffled cheering from royalists when Jatuporn suggested that the UDD be disbanded and that the student protesters should refrain from calling for reform to the monarchy.

All of that had observers scratching their heads when Jatuporn urged the public to join a political forum at Santiporn Park to “kick-start a campaign to find ways to end Gen Prayut’s prolonged stay in power.”

According to Jatuporn, “the forum is organised by a support group for relatives of the Black May 1992 victims,” and he hopes it leads to a sustained campaign against Gen Prayuth. He even called on former political opponents – yellow shirts – to join if they opposed Gen Prayuth.

Thai PBS reports that Jatuporn “is proposing to bring Prayut down as well as write a ‘people’s constitution’.” He is cited:

Jatuporn blames the prime minister for the current aggressive deployment of the kingdom’s draconian lèse majesté law against activists, which just worsens the political crisis. He reiterated that this is all the more reason why Prayut must go.

To avoid more violence and casualties, as seen in recent demonstrations, Jatuporn said that either Prayut must step down or the coalition parties must withdraw from the government.

Jatuporn says that his “new group of political activists is called Samakee Prachachon, which literally translates as ‘the people united’, to support an end to the current divide and rule strategy, wherein the Prayut regime exploits political division to hang on to political power.”

Today’s event has led to much speculation.

Thai PBS reports that Jatuporn is responding “to the call, by Adul Khieuboriboon, leader of the relatives of the victims of the ‘Black May’ event in 1992, for mass protests.”

On the right, there have been mixed responses. Some thought that an anti-regime movement that did not attack the monarchy might have political traction, whereas other rightists thought that Jatuporn remained Thaksin’s puppet.

One of the mouthpieces of the anti-Thaksinistas, former ideologue at The Nation and now writing op-eds for Thai PBS, Tulsathit Taptim, describes Jatuporn “ unpredictable” and asks: “Who is Jatuporn working for?” He promotes the idea that Jatuporn “has patched things up with Thaksin…” and that Thaksin wants to move now to prevent the regime further embedding itself through the (rigged) election processes:

The Thaksin-Jatuporn theory means Prayut will face a two-pronged attack. The current youngster-led campaign will go on, dealing with all kinds of sensitive subjects such as Article 112. Jatuporn’s army, whose size remains to be seen, will deal with the prime minister directly and push for relatively less sensitive constitutional changes like the origin and powers of the Senate. One of rare positives for Prayut in this case is that a Thaksin-Jatuporn combination would keep the Democrats more firmly in the fold.

Thaksin’s name will return to the center stage, according to this popular theory….

Meanwhile, pro-democracy protester leaders told Thai Enquirer that while “the student-led movement have not yet to discussed whether or not it would join a rally called by Jatuporn,” ousting Gen Prayuth was also one of the movement’s goals. However, the students said there “should be no division [between the groups]…”.

In other words, the students insisted the attention to the monarchy to remain. Benjar Apun, a protest leader from the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) said:

We will not interfere with what they are doing…but our goals are aligned, with or without the demand to reform the institution….

However, the UFTD will continue to demand for the reformation of the royal institution and Jatuporn’s movement also do not have the right to interfere with this demand….

She said her group would consider joining the rally but would never drop their demands to reform the institution [monarchy].

In line with that, it is interesting to observe that Nattawut Saikua, another UDD leader, just out of jail and just this week off electronic tagging, said that he “had no plans to reunite with Mr Jatuporn…”.

Nattawut and Jatuporn in red shirt days

However, on Tuesday, he called on the “government to release pro-democracy protesters from jail and seek a peaceful resolution to the political conflict.” He then went on to affirm that “sovereign power in the country belonged to the people as everyone is equal.”

He noted that he had been charged, arrested and jailed several times, saying: “I have no regrets over the path I chose. I have been sentenced to jail three times, but I can handle it if I have to face such punishment again.”

Nattawut reaffirmed his support for the pro-democracy protesters, saying:

The country can’t move forward if the new generation is still in jail, so the government should talk with the [young protesters] to seek a peaceful solution for the country….

These two red shirt leaders might have different aims, but the thrust of their current words and activity may further promote political struggle.

Update: Few of the mainstream media reported on the rally last night – perhaps it finished too late for stories to be filed? That said, the rally was livestreamed by various outlets, including Voice TV. Various reports were of a few hundred to 3,000 attending. Based on the broadcast PPT saw, it was very much a red shirt crowd and certainly much grey hair was evident.

Thai Enquirer did editorialize:

Jatuporn’s position also means that he is estrange politically. Having moved way from the Pheu Thai Party, Jatuporn has no ready allies in parliament. Move Forward, Palang Pracharat, Bhumjai Thai all have reason to not engage with the former red shirt leader. Ironically the party most closely aligned to his views might be the Democrat Party, the very party he once took to the streets to try to overthrow.

It is unclear how much traction this new movement will gain in the coming weeks and months or whether it will at all.

But what is clear is that if Jatuporn wants to create a stir and regain the support he once had, he is going to have his work cut out for him.

Mad monarchists madder still II

With the resurgence of protests and the regime intensifying its repression, the mad monarchists are increasingly agitated.

While reporting on Patsaravalee “Mind” Tanakitvibulpon and her recent speech targeting the monarchy and other reforms, Thai PBS spends space on enraged monarchists and their bizarre claims.

Mind

Already facing a lese majeste charge, on 24 March, Mind made three calls on the monarchy, calling on the king to cease interfering “in the military, in politics and in public assets.”

As a result of these reasonable demands of a monarchy meant to be constitutional, Mind probably faces additional lese majeste and other charges. She says she is “bracing for jail…” and vowed to “continue her fight even if she was jailed during the court trial.”

The rabid royalists given space are alleged “scholar” Arnond Sakworawich and political aspirant Warong Dechgitvigrom. It is interesting how each royalist repression of protesters since 2005 has seen a new bunch of royalist spokespersons promoted as the “defenders” of the monarchy.

Arnond claims Mind is “mistaken in alleging the King has ‘his own army’, independent of the Thai armed forces.” His view is that the “King’s Royal Guards were simply transferred from the military and police to form the royal security unit.” He doesn’t explain how it is that this “unit” is under the direct command of the palace or why it was necessary to vastly expand the “royal security unit.”

Arnond’s rebuttal of Mind’s observation of the king’s political interventions – preventing his elder, non-royal, sister stand in an election – seems to confirm Mind’s point. Arnond ignores other interventions, including the king’s demands for constitutional change.

Royalist Arnond’s defense of royal wealth and the king’s assets is just loopy and ignores the king’s own changes to the law that allowed him to take total control of all assets associated with the monarchy, while rolling back decades of legislation.

Warong Dechgitvigrom relied more on the concoction of a conspiracy, a royalist strategy that has been used repeatedly since 2005 to smear and repress.

He claimed Mind is manipulated “by a hidden hand bent on defaming the King with distorted facts.” He declared:

It’s a pity that you didn’t do your homework before reading the statement. The person who prepared the statement for you is so cruel. Without supporting truth, they sacrifice you just to incite people….

This conspiracy claim is repeated and expanded by the maddest of the Bangkok Post’s monarchists, Veera Prateepchaikul. Agreeing with the yellow-shirt conspiracies and cheers the detention without bail of those accused of lese majeste.

Like Warong, he believes that Mind and other protesters are manipulated and the tools of dedicated anti-monarchists. He pours accelerant on the royalist fire, repeating scuttlebutt that her “demands for reform of the monarchy was allegedly given to her by someone believed to be an anti-monarchist.”

He demeans and diminishes all the young protesters, preferring to believe they are misled and tricked. His claims are a familiar refrain. It was only a few years ago that yellow shirts demeaned red shirts, considering them uneducated buffaloes, led around by the nose, and or paid by Thaksin Shinawatra. Obviously, the kids protesting aren’t “uneducated,” but there is still a search for a political Svengali.

In an attempted political assassination, Veera names and seeks to shame “Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement Group and anti-monarchist lecturer at Thammasat University…”. Veera decries Piyabutr’s view that the protesters are agents of change, who “will not change their mind on the monarchy” by jailing them.

Veera peddles more royalist tripe by questioning why several academics have been willing to post bail for those jailed.

Veera states that “many students have been exploited,” and claims that Mind is manipulated: “What if she is thrown behind bars for reading the script in question while the actual writer remains scot free? That is unfair, cold-blooded and sheer exploitation of a young mind.”

Yellow shirt ideology is conspiratorial and displays a remarkable penchant for patriarchal nonsense, diminishing the views and actions over many months of demonstration. Clearly, the students understand that reform to the monarchy comes with a diminution of patriarchy and other hierarchies that keep old royalist men in charge of the country.

Thailand and Myanmar’s generals

Oren Samet has a useful article at The Diplomat. “The Myanmar Public Fights Not to End Up Like Thailand” makes some points that need attention. It begins:

A week after overthrowing Myanmar’s elected civilian government on February 1, coup leader [Gen] Min Aung Hlaing sent a letter to Thai Prime Minister [Gen] Prayut Chan-o-cha asking – with no hint of irony – for his help in supporting “democracy” in Myanmar. The letter was revealing not for what it said, but for who it was addressed to. Prayut is, himself, a former general, who overthrew Thailand’s elected government in 2014 and has been in charge ever since. When it comes to coups, Thailand’s generals know what they’re doing.

As we know, and despite initial silence and opacity, in recent days, representative’s of Myanmar’s military junta have been meeting with Thai counterparts – most of whom were a part or associated with Thailand’s own military junta in 2014-19.

As far as we know, this is the first overseas visit by a Myanmar government representative since its hugely popular and elected government was thrown out by the coup.

According to Samet, the Myanmar generals are following a Thai script:

When Min Aung Hlaing made his first televised statement since taking power, he repeatedly emphasized that government policies would remain unchanged and welcomed continued foreign investment. Despite the disastrous consequences of previous military takeovers in Myanmar, he promised that this coup would be different.

He might as well have said, “this time we’re doing it Thai style.”

Samet rightly points out that Gen Min Aung Hlaing:

has close connections to the Thai military. He received multiple high-level honors from the Thai authorities, even after orchestrating the Rohingya genocide in 2017. Prem Tinsulanonda, a previous Thai general turned prime minister, considered Min Aung Hlaing his “adopted son.”

Thailand’s royalist military and the interfering Gen Prem has, from the ashes, helped in bringing authoritarianism back to Myanmar.

But, as the world knows, the Myanmar generals are facing stiff opposition. This is not, as Samet claims, being unable to follow the Thai example, but different circumstances. In 2014, the Thai generals didn’t face widespread opposition because they had eliminated, through repression and jailings, the red shirt opposition and its leaders. At the same time, like Thailand’s yellow shirts who hated Thaksin Shinawatra, in Myanmar, several public intellectuals with civil society links have gone over to the generals and express an intense hatred of Aung San Suu Kyi and her alleged arrogance.

The other thing that the Thai military might have shown their buddies across the border is that it is possible to wait out civil opposition while picking off some of that oppositions leadership. The men with guns know that peaceful protest can often be waited out.

Updated: Jatuporn’s meltdown

One of the not very well hidden tasks of the regime, sometimes supported by the mainstream media, has been to nitpick at the protest movement and exacerbate divisions and differences.

That follows a tested junta tactic of trying to divide and conquer former opponents in Puea Thai and among red shirts. This involved buying off red shirt leaders like the detestable Suporn Atthawong, who has been rewarded with legal cases dropped and lucrative positions. Those turncoats have assisted the military junta to transform into the current post-junta regime.

A more activist Jatuporn

Over the past couple of months we have watched United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, leader Jatuporn Promphan say some odd things and, finally, have a meltdown. His story is told by a seemingly gleeful Thai PBS.

Jatuporn’s role as a red shirt protest leader resulted in numerous criminal charges and several arrests, and he eventually served 19 months in jail when a court found him guilty of defaming the reprehensible former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who led the regime that murdered red shirts. Jatuporn’s defamation was to call Abhisit “a murderer” who “order[ed] the shooting dead of the protesters.”

He was also seen court orders for 100 million baht “in civil rulings stemming from riots and arson attacks by red-shirt protesters.” We won’t go back over the details of these false charges. In addition, he faces charges of “terrorism, illegal phone-tapping, and provoking public disorder, as well as other libel offences.”

Many activists looked differently at Jatuporn when, in July 2020, he “warned student activists not to cross a line, by infringing upon the [m]onarchy…”.  Some took this as a warning that the students should be wary of yet another murderous military attack on protesters. Others, however, wondered why Jatuporn appeared to be defending the monarchy. Many red shirts who joined with the student demonstrators calling for monarchy reform were stunned by Jatuporn’s statements.

In September 2020, his commentary was taken up in an op-ed by the notorious anti-democrat journalist Tulsathit Taptim who used Jatuporn’s “advice” to demonstrators to call for them to back down. Referring to campaigns against royalists, it was stated:

According to Jatuporn, it is all right for dictators to seek to destroy or suppress opposite or different opinions because it’s what they do. But it’s not democratic, he says, if minority or unpopular opinions are condemned, insulted or forced to undergo changes.

Oddly, in 2010 and during the Yingluck Shinawatra government, it was Jatuporn who was accused by yellow shirts of supporting “majoritarianism” – in this case, supporting an elected government.

Two further outbursts by Jatuporn suggest that he has had a political meltdown. He has seen increasing opposition from former comrades, with accusations that he is a “traitor” and “lackey of the military.”

Staggeringly, Jatuporn has called for the UDD “to disband and pass the baton on to the young-generation protesters now battling for democracy. That push drew another barrage of criticism – this time that he was betraying fellow red shirts.” Some wondered aloud about Jatuporn’s motives and asked why, in 2014, the red shirts went off stage with a whimper. Was Jatuporn complicit in demobilizing red shirts? Some disgruntled observers suggested that Jatuporn’s paymaster had changed.

Then, he drew more criticism when he campaigned for the re-election of Chiang Mai’s provincial administrative organisation (PAO) chief, Boonlert Buranupakorn, himself considered a turncoat. Boonlert lost to a Puea Thai candidate who also had Thaksin Shinawatra’s support. Even other red shirt leaders spoke out against Jatuporn.

Just a few days ago, Jatuporn’s meltdown and slide to the other side was illustrated when he filed “a police complaint against some 200 netizens he accused of posting false information and defamatory abuse against him” during the [PAO] election campaign.”

Jatuporn said the “online attacks part of a concerted attempt to destroy his reputation,” something he seems to be doing for himself. Sounding like the regime’s nastiest of lying, cheating politicans, he vowed “many hundred more cases.” He seems to be taking a leaf out of Thammanat Prompao’s playbook.

We can understand that all those legal cases and the threat of more jail must weigh heavily, but it does seem that Jatuporn is doing the regime’s work.

Update: Khaosod has more on the UDD. It concludes with comments by red shirt activist Anurak Jeantawanich, saying “he would oppose any attempt to dissolve the UDD.” He correctly points out that “the large number of Redshirt protesters at anti-government rallies in 2020 prove that the movement is still a force to reckon with, and what the UDD needs is a new leadership with new strategies.” He adds: “Redshirts are against the dissolution of the UDD,” he said, citing an informal online survey that he conducted. “

As for Jatuporn, Anurak states: “I don’t want to use the word fired, but I’d like to ask him to leave.”