BANGKOK – A 16-year-old boy faces a possible prison sentence for parading on an improvised catwalk with a short top that evoked the King of Thailand. An actress is accused of breaking the law by cheering and delivering spicy food to hungry members of the country’s protest movement.
And another offender was informed that the sale of a calendar decorated with a rubber duck could result in 15 years in prison.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in student-organized protests in Thailand last year to demand government and monarchy reforms. But the democracy movement, armed with little more than duck-shaped pool floats to use as shields against water cannons, it is now battling a serious threat to its mission: a series of criminal prosecutions in recent weeks that could end with demonstration leaders and ordinary demonstrators imprisoned for decades.
After allowing street protests to continue unhindered for months, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of Thailand appears to have lost his temper, threatening to use “all laws and all articles” against dissidents. Since November, dozens of protesters have been accused of violating a dreaded majesty law that punishes those who insult important members of the royal family with prison terms, according to the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. The use of the law was suspended for almost three years, and the reintroduction of its trawl earned Thailand the condemnation of the United Nations human rights agency.
Several young protesters have as many accusations against them as how many years are alive, even though the discontent that led to street rallies remains unsolved. Some were seized by security forces in the middle of the night and taken to police stations.
“They see the protesters as enemies,” said Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree, one of the organizers of the rally, referring to the government’s growing legal campaign against democracy advocates. “If they continue to use this method, the protests will continue to grow and will never end.”
Mr. Tattep, a gay rights activist commonly known as Ford, has been accused of defaming King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, in addition to violating various security regulations.
Recently, Thanathorn Jungroongruangkit, the political opposition leader who questioned how a company linked to the king won a contract to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus, was attacked on several charges of defamation by the monarch. Each charge is punishable by three to 15 years in prison. A woman who posted audio considered an insult to the monarchy was sentenced in January to 43 years in prison.
“If this law continues, the sanctity of the law and the legal process will decrease,” said Jutatip Sirikhan, a Protestant student who was accused of insulting the monarchy in a speech she made in September. “I don’t think what I said is wrong because what I said was based on facts.”
Other protesters were accused of sedition and involvement in “an act of violence against the queen’s freedom”, an obscure section of the penal code that could mean life imprisonment for offenders. The act, in this case, was to shout at a motorcade carrying Queen Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya, the king’s fourth wife.
On Thursday, three high school students attended the Bangkok Central Court of Minors and Family in Bangkok to face charges of violating the state of emergency that was imposed briefly to quell protests last fall.
“The government does not act according to a democratic system,” said Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon, a university student who was summoned last month on two charges of lese majesty and faces seven other charges. “The government is using the law to silence us, not allowing us to speak.”
The demonstrations began last spring with students pushing for changes to school uniform rules, and then expanded to express disgust at the growing number of Thai dissidents who disappeared during their exile abroad. (Some of their bodies were found later.)
In the summer, protesters, who met every few days, despite fears of an army crackdown, called for the resignation of Prayuth, a former general who led a 2014 coup, and for the monarchy to come under the constitution.
The demands have not been met, nor should they be taken seriously by the political establishment. Mr. Prayuth is still in charge. The king, one of the richest in the world, continues to float above the national chart.
Efforts to reform the constitution have failed in Parliament, hampered by an unselected Senate, a feature of the same letter drafted by the military that the protesters want to change.
“Reforming the monarchy, it will not happen,” said Pareena Kraikupt, a legislator for the ruling Palang Pracharat party. “Thailand has a king who is loved and the most respected in all of our lives.”
Ms. Pareena warned against abandoning the Thai practice of worshiping the monarchy. She made a comparison with France, where she said that pressure to violate certain Muslim traditions created the conditions for violence.
“It’s a tradition, a culture,” said Pareena. “As with Muslims, you touch Allah, so look at France, you have a mass shooting and journalists have been killed. You have to understand the traditions of each group of people. “
On Friday, a legislator from the Pareena party threatened to proceed with lèse-majesty’s complaints against opposition members of Parliament who had added references to the monarchy to a motion to censor the prime minister.
One of Mr. Prayuth’s reasons for orchestrating the 2014 coup – one of about a dozen successful coups since Thailand abolished the absolute monarchy in 1932 – was that the royal family was being threatened by government officials at the time , an accusation that politicians denied.
For decades, under the government of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was the monarch who reigned the longest in the world until his death in 2016, real criticism was mostly limited to whispers. The rare explosions were dealt with severely. Someone has been arrested for mocking King Bhumibol’s dog.
But as protests grew in strength last year, speaker after speaker broke the royal taboo, directly questioning why a constitutional monarchy has a king that is not strictly limited by the constitution. In the fall, protesters were encouraged enough to scribble graffiti mocking the king on the streets of Bangkok. A daring few wore blouses, a piece of clothing that the king, 68, was photographed wearing in Europe. Some of these images were blocked by Thai internet censors.
“Young people, when talking about the monarchy, are placing a bet against the past: Thailand has changed and all public institutions, including the monarchy, are open to criticism and public scrutiny,” said David Streckfuss, a historian who studied the application of majesty in Thailand.
The spray-painted messages addressed the monarch’s intricate personal life – four wives, several disinherited children and a lover who increasingly appears at his side at public events – as well as his moves to increase the palace’s power by consolidating control over military regiments. and real finances.
Protesters asked why the king spent much of his reign living in luxury in Germany, surrounded by an entourage of assistants, while Thais suffered the economic effects of the coronavirus. The granting of a vaccine manufacturing contract to a company linked to the king also raised doubts about transparency.
“The monarchy has been with the Thai people for generations and is the root of Thai culture,” said Patsaravalee, the university student who faces charges of lese majesty. “But if one day what unites the heart of the Thai people creates a bad image of the country, will we be able to take it? It is one of the people’s duties to manifest and reform it. “
In November, King Maha Vajiralongkorn returned to Thailand for his longest stay since he ascended the throne in 2016. The news increased the coverage of the monarch’s visits to hospitals and schools, accompanied by the queen or his mistress, who received the official title of real consort.
Student protest organizers, who animated their rallies with Harry Potter wands, “Hunger Games” greetings, and rubber duck floats, say they will wait for a recent outbreak of coronavirus infections to subside before returning to streets. But they promised to continue pushing for change.
“I see the movement last year as fireworks and rockets that made a lot of noise and bright lights,” said Tattep, who graduated from Chulalongkorn University in political science last year. “This year, after the party with those fireworks, we will continue.”
“This is our homework,” he added, a student to the end.