Aung San Suu Kyi, sometimes abbreviated to Suu Kyi, is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since the party's founding in 1988 and was registered as its chairperson while it was a legal party from 2011 to 2023. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.
Until 22 May 2014, the politics of Thailand were 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.
The National League for Democracy is a deregistered liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It became the country's ruling party after a landslide victory in the 2015 general election but was overthrown in a military coup d'état in early 2021 following another landslide election victory in 2020.
Human rights in Thailand have long been a contentious issue. The country was among the first to sign the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and seemed committed to upholding its stipulations; in practice, however, those in power have often abused the human rights of the Thai nation with impunity. From 1977 to 1988, Amnesty International (AI) reported that there were whitewashed cases of more than one thousand alleged arbitrary detentions, fifty forced disappearances, and at least one hundred instances of torture and extrajudicial killings. In the years since then, AI demonstrated that little had changed, and Thailand's overall human rights record remained problematic. A 2019 HRW report expanded on AI's overview as it focuses specifically on the case of Thailand, as the newly government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha assumes power in mid-2019, Thailand's human rights record shows no signs of change.
The 2006 Thai coup d'état took place on 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'état against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup d'état, which was Thailand's first non-constitutional change of government in fifteen years since the 1991 Thai coup d'état, followed a year-long political crisis involving Thaksin, his allies, and political opponents and occurred less than a month before nationwide House elections were scheduled to be held. It has been widely reported in Thailand and elsewhere that General Prem Tinsulanonda, key person in military-monarchy nexus, Chairman of the Privy Council, was the mastermind of the coup. The military cancelled the scheduled 15 October elections, abrogated the 1997 constitution, dissolved parliament and constitutional court, banned protests and all political activities, suppressed and censored the media, declared martial law nationwide, and arrested cabinet members.
Public opinion of the 2006 Thailand coup d'état was diverse. An initial public opinion poll showed support for the coup, although the junta banned subsequent polls. Bangkok residents displayed kindness to soldiers who had seized control of key positions. The response of activists and academics was mixed, and ranged from support for the junta to harsh condemnations. Several public protests against the coup were organized, despite junta ban on demonstrations. In subsequent weeks, condemnation of the coup transformed into criticism of the junta-appointed government of Surayud Chulanont.
The Saffron Revolution was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The protests were triggered by the decision of the national military government to remove subsidies on the sales prices of fuel. The national government is the only supplier of fuels and the removal of the price subsidy immediately caused diesel and petrol prices to increase by 66–100% and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase 500% in less than a week.
This article details the chronology of events in the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests.
Acid is a Burmese hip hop group often credited with releasing Burma's first hip hop album, Beginning, in 2000. Two of the group's founders were later imprisoned for the group's allegedly pro-democracy lyrics.
Zayar Thaw was a Burmese politician and hip-hop artist who was detained for the perceived anti-government messages of his lyrics. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience. He was a member of Pyithu Hluttaw, the Lower House of the Burmese parliament. He, along with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were elected to the lower house on 1 April 2012.
Prayut Chan-o-cha is a Thai retired politician and army officer who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2014, when he seized power in a military coup, to 2023. He also served as the minister of defence, a position he held 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 2014 Thai 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.
The history of Thailand since 2001 has been dominated by the politics surrounding the rise and fall from power of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and subsequent conflicts, first between his supporters and opponents, then over the rising military influence in politics. Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party came to power in 2001 and became very popular among the electorate, especially rural voters. Opponents, however, criticized his authoritarian style and accused him of corruption. Thaksin was deposed in a coup d'état in 2006, and Thailand became embroiled in continuing rounds of political crisis involving elections won by Thaksin's supporters, massive anti-government protests by multiple factions, removals of prime ministers and disbanding of political parties by the judiciary, and two military coups.
Corruption in Thailand is a national issue. Thai law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption. Thailand's 2014 military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), stated that fighting corruption would be one of its main focus points, a common practice for military dictatorships following Thailand's frequent military coups. Despite the promises, officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity, and the NCPO engaged in corrupt practices itself.
Pravit Rojanaphruk is a Thai journalist who works as a senior staff writer for Khaosod English. He formerly wrote a regular column for The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Thailand, but was pressured to resign due to his political opinions following the 2014 coup d'état. Before the military coup, he was a prominent champion of democracy and free expression and was consequently investigated several times. Immediately after the coup, he was arrested on a charge of lèse majesté and detained for a week. Since the coup, he has been critical of the ruling junta and its efforts to limit freedom. Pravit has been detained for "attitude adjustment" twice by the ruling junta and as of 2017, has sedition charges against him for Facebook posts he made earlier that year.
Netiwit 'Frank' Chotiphatphaisal is a Thai student activist, librarian, preservationist, conscientious objector, producer, publisher, and author. He is a founder of TERA and Education for Liberation of Siam. Both groups aim to reform the Thai education system. In addition, he has established Samnak Nisit Sam Yan Press for publishing thoughts and ideas in Thai language, and also Humanity Beyond Borders for giving assistance to refugees and those in needs of protection.
A constitutional referendum was held in Thailand on 7 August 2016. The charter offered only semi-democracy and was seen to tighten military rule in Thailand. However, it was approved by 61% of voters with a 59% turnout. A second proposal for the next prime minister to be jointly elected by senators and MPs was also approved. However, the opposition groups to the constitution were barred from formally campaigning against it by the military government, while the military government actively campaigned for its adoption.
Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, commonly known as Pai Dao Din is a human rights defender and activist from Thailand, who was arrested on 3 December 2016 on charges of Lèse-majesté in Thailand, the first such case under King Vajiralongkorn, following which he faced a secret trial and was then imprisoned. He has been charged and imprisoned multiple times, including for sedition, and most recently, on 9 March 2021, was charged and imprisoned for lese majesty a second time. Jatupat is presently affiliated with the Free People movement.
Chonthicha Jaengraew is a Thai human rights defender, pro-democracy campaigner, Master's student at the Institute of Human Rights Peace studies, Mahidol University, and co-founder of the New Democracy Movement. She has been a prominent student activist for civil and political rights since the 2014 military coup and ensuing crackdown on civil society by the military government. Prior to the coup, Chonthicha was an environmental activist. Despite official restrictions, she and other students have continued to carry out small-scale peaceful protests calling for democracy, rule of law and an end to unlimited use of powers by the military government. As a result, she currently faces criminal proceedings and an unfair trial before a military and civilian court. Chonthicha has also faced online and offline harassment and threats.
Arnon Nampa is a Thai human rights lawyer and activist. He is renowned in Thailand for openly criticizing the monarchy of Thailand, breaking the country's taboo. He was initially regarded as a prominent human rights defender during his tenure as a human rights lawyer and later accumulated multiple criminal charges due to his active involvement in pro-democracy activism. He is considered to be one of the leading figures of the 2020–2021 Thai protests, co-leading reforms to the monarchy reform movement by non-elite people for first time in Thai history.
Parit Chiwarak is a Thai political activist, Thammasat University student at the Faculty of Political Science, and one of the leaders of the 2020 Thai protests, via the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration group. As of August 2021, he was recently imprisoned again; his bail had been revoked "after a court accepted a prosecution submission that he had broken bail conditions".
