The Democracy Monument is a public monument in the city center of Bangkok, capital of Thailand. It occupies a traffic circle on the wide east–west Ratchadamnoen Avenue, at the intersection of Dinso Road. The monument is roughly halfway between Sanam Luang, the former royal cremation ground in front of Wat Phra Kaew, and the temple of the Golden Mount.
The Royal Plaza, or formally Dusit Palace Plaza, and also known among Thais as Equestrian Statue Plaza, is an important public square in the palace and government quarter of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
Sanam Luang is a 74.5 rai (119,200 m2) open field and public square in front of Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand. Sanam Luang is in the Phra Nakhon District, the historic center of Bangkok.
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, a key person in the 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 the constitutional court, banned protests and all political activities, suppressed and censored the media, declared martial law nationwide, and arrested cabinet members.
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 former dictator 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, Thongchai Winichakul argued that official death toll should be 45, including 40 demonstrators and 5 perpetrators, because one demonstrator died in jail after the incident.
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 People's Party, known in Thai as Khana Ratsadon, was a Siamese group of military and civil officers, and later a political party, which staged a bloodless revolution against King Prajadhipok's government and transformed the country's absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy on 24 June 1932.
Prayut Chan-o-cha is a Thai retired politician and army officer who became the 29th 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 popular uprising of 14 October 1973 was a watershed event in Thailand's history. The uprising resulted in the end of the ruling military dictatorship of anti-communist Thanom Kittikachorn and altered the Thai political system. Notably, it highlighted the growing influence of Thai university students in politics.
Somsak Jeamteerasakul is a former history lecturer at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University. His academic field is contemporary political history, especially recent Thai history from 1930. He is a critic of Thailand's monarchy and its lèse majesté law. He has lived in self-imposed exile in France since the 2014 Thai coup d'état, following violent attacks and lèse majesté charges.
The year 2020 is the 239th year of the Rattanakosin Kingdom of Thailand. It is the fifth year in the reign of King Vajiralongkorn, 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.
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 human rights lawyer and activist. He has openly criticized the monarchy of Thailand, which is controversial in the country. 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 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".
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 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.
