Global Courant 2023-04-19 09:38:15
PATHUM THANI, Thailand — Chonthicha “Lookkate” Jangrew is going door-to-door asking people to vote for her in Thailand’s May 14 elections, even as she faces jail for sedition and defamation charges against the king amid unprecedented protests in 2020.
The 30-year-old is one of more than a dozen activists from a student-led protest movement who are taking their once taboo cause from the streets to the polls as election candidates.
They bring into the open the question of the monarchy’s role in society. King Maha Vajiralongkorn is officially revered under the constitution and insulting the monarchy is illegal under the strict laws known as lèse majeste and punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Changing – but not abolishing – those laws is part of the platform of Lookkate’s progressive Move Forward party, which campaigns to reduce the severity of punishments for royal insult and how it is applied.
“If you want to change something in Thailand, you can’t rely on street movements alone or on parliament alone,” Lookkate told Reuters in an interview as she took a break from her campaign in Pathum Thai province, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok .
“Both paths must continue together,” she said.
The 2020 demonstrations, which began as opposition to the military’s domination of politics following a coup in 2014 and a disputed election five years later, broke ground in Thailand by questioning the supremacy of the monarchy.
Protesters pointed to what they described as an unhealthy balance of power between the military and the palace that justified repeated military intervention against elected governments.
The military says it will only intervene in civilian politics if it must act to save the nation from chaos and has ruled out any involvement in the election. The palace does not comment on politics.
The protests were eventually quelled, largely through legal action against their leaders, with hundreds arrested and facing criminal charges that are still making their way through the courts.
Lookkate said she has 28 criminal cases against her, including two for lèse majesté, which would end her parliamentary career if she won a seat. Anyone convicted of a crime is disqualified by the legislature.
Analysts say many of the issues raised by the youth movement are now part of mainstream discourse, including calls to change lèse-majeste laws.
The laws have been used against at least 240 people since the protests began in 2020, according to data compiled by Thai Lawyer for Human Rights.
Dozens of youth activists, such as Lookkate, have joined political parties such as Move Forward, Pheu Thai and the Thai Sang Thai, either as candidates or as employees, said Dr. Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok who closely monitors the youth movement. follows.
