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The year 2020 is the 239th year of the Rattanakosin Kingdom of Thailand. It is the fifth year in the reign of King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), and is reckoned as year 2563 in the Buddhist Era. The year was most significantly marked the by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which reached Thailand in January, as well as widespread youth-led protest movements against the government and for reform of the monarchy.
The politics of Thailand are conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the prime minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative branches.
Vajiralongkorn is King of Thailand since 2016. He is the tenth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama X.
The Democrat Party is a Thai political party. The oldest party in Thailand, it was founded as a royalist party; it now upholds a conservative and pro-market position.
The 6 October 1976 massacre, also known as the 6 October event in Thailand, was a violent crackdown by Thai police and lynching by right-wing paramilitaries and bystanders against leftist protesters who had occupied Bangkok's Thammasat University and the adjacent Sanam Luang, on 6 October 1976. Prior to the massacre, thousands of leftists, including students, workers and others, had been holding ongoing demonstrations against the return of exiled former Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn to Thailand since mid-September. Official reports state that 46 were killed and 167 were wounded, while unofficial reports state that more than 100 demonstrators were killed. In the "Documentation of Oct 6" project, historian Thongchai Winichakul argued that the official death toll should be 45, 40 demonstrators and 5 perpetrators since one demonstrator died in jail after the incident.
Prayut Chan-o-cha is a former Thai politician and army officer who became the 29th prime minister of Thailand after seizing power in the 2014 coup d'état and served until 2023. He was concurrently the minister of defence in his own government from 2019 to 2023. Prayut served as commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army from 2010 to 2014 and led the coup d'état which installed the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta which governed Thailand between 22 May 2014 and 10 July 2019.
On 22 May 2014, the Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by Prayut Chan-o-cha, the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launched a coup d'état, the twelfth since the country's first coup in 1932, against the caretaker government following six months of political crisis. The military established a junta called the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to govern the nation. The coup ended the political conflict between the military-led regime and democratic power, which had been present since the 2006 Thai coup d'état known as the "unfinished coup". Seven years later, it developed into the 2020–2021 Thai protests to reform the monarchy of Thailand.
The National Council for Peace and Order was the military junta that ruled Thailand between its 2014 Thai coup d'état on 22 May 2014 and 16 July 2019. On 20 May 2014, the military declared martial law nationwide in an attempt to stop the country's escalating political crisis, and to force the democratically elected government out of office. On 22 May, the military removed the Yingluck Shinawatra government and formed the NCPO to take control of the country. The junta censored the broadcasting system in Thailand, suspended most of the constitution, and detained members of the Thai cabinet. The NCPO was formally dissolved following the swearing-in of the new cabinet on 16 July 2019. Critics like former Thai ambassador Pithaya Pookaman charge that the NCPO "...is practically still very much intact. Its arbitrary power[s] ... transferred to the existing Internal Security Operations Command chaired by the prime minister."
The Milk Tea Alliance is a democracy and human rights movement consisting of netizens from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma). It originally started as an internet meme, created in response to the increased presence of Chinese nationalist commentators on social media and has evolved into a dynamic multinational protest movement against authoritarianism and advocating democracy. Aside from the four countries mentioned above, the movement has also established a significant presence in the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Belarus and Iran.
In Thailand, protests began in early 2020 with demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. They later expanded to include the unprecedented demands for reform of the Thai monarchy. The protests were initially triggered by the dissolution of the Future Forward Party (FFP) in late February 2020 which was critical of Prayut, the changes to the Thai constitution in 2017, and the country's political landscape that it gave rise to.
Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul also known as Panasaya Sithijirawattanakul is a Thai student political activist and university student leader who is also the spokesperson of the Student Union of Thailand. She is well known for her criticism of the Thai monarchy. During the 2020 Thai protests, she was one of the leaders who pioneered revolutionary demonstrations calling for major structural reform of the Thai monarchy.
Arnon Nampa is a Thai lawyer and activist known for his critical stance on theon the Thai monarchy, a highly controversial topic in the country. Initially celebrated as a leading human rights defender, Nampa's involvement in pro-democracy movements has led to numerous criminal charges. He became a key figure in the 2020–2021 Thai protests, advocating for unprecedented reforms to the monarchy led by non-elite groups.
Panupong Jadnok is a social activist, Ramkhamhaeng University student, and a leading protester in the 2020 Thai protests, from the Eastern Youth Leadership group, currently facing multiple charges including sedition.
On 3 August, a Harry Potter-themed demonstration was held, openly criticised the monarchy, and demanded amendment of increasing royal prerogative and lèse majesté law. The protest, which 200 people joined, featured a public speech by Anon Nampa. Paul Chambers, Southeast Asian politics scholar, noted, "Such open criticism of Thailand’s monarch by non-elites at a public place within Thailand with the police simply standing by is the first of its kind in Thai history."
This is a description of domestic and international reactions to the 2020 Thai protests.
On 5 September, approximately 300 members of the Bad Student group protested at the Ministry of Education for their three demands, i.e., an end to government harassment, reform of outdated regulations, and reform of the entire education system, delivering an ultimatum that the Education Minister should otherwise resign. A few days later, a debate was held between the Bad Student group and Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, where a student representative raised the issues of restriction of freedom of political expression, arbitrary and physical punishments, and failure to protect students from sexual predators. The minister agreed to some of the issues but rejected some points, such as abandoning uniforms.
On 1 November, an estimate of over 10,000 yellow-shirted royalists demonstrated their support for the King at the Grand Palace, where he had participated in a religious ceremony at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Benja Apan is a Thai student and activist. She is one of the leaders of the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) group that agitated for revolutionary reforms to the monarchy on 10 August 2020. She became a prominent UFTD leader later in 2021. In the 2020–2021 Thai protests, she co-organized the German embassy in Bangkok protest in 2020 to pressure the King that resided in Germany, drawing more than 10,000 protesters. In August 2021, she led UFTD 'Car Mob' protest. She was arrested by Thong Lor police for lèse majesté following her reforms to the monarchy speech in front of Sino-Thai tower. She had been imprisoned awaiting trial for 100 days in Central Women Correctional Institution from 7 October 2021 to 14 January 2022, and she was sentenced to 6 months in prison for contempt of court along the way.
Sirikanya Tansakun is a Thai politician and former academic, serving as the deputy leader of the People's Party, the de facto successor to the Move Forward Party, which was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in August 2024. Tansakun served as the deputy leader of Move Forward Party from 2020 to 2024.
"I'm not quitting," Prayuth told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting, adding that emergency measures would be in force for up to 30 days.
