Another democracy monument vanishes overnight
Re: “Disappearing democracy”, The Nation Weekend, January 5-6.
Congratulations to The Nation for publishing a detailed and illustrated article on the removal, by stealth in the dead of night, of a monument from its plinth at Laksi. The operation seems to have employed the same modus operandi as the removal of the plaque from the Royal Plaza, and again everyone in officialdom knows nothing about what happened, or so they say. These landmarks commemorated events in 1932 and 1933 which were significant milestones on the rocky and as yet unfinished road to Thailand’s emergence as a fully developed and democratic country.
A nation which wishes, for whatever reasons, to “airbrush” aspects of its history is a nation ill at ease with itself. Manipulating or embellishing historical events is certainly not unique to Thailand, but the lack of open debate on these events is disappointing.
Robin Grant
Bangkok
