One year on, path to democracy still blocked

 At least three groups of people were arrested at separate locations on Friday as they demonstrated against the ousting of a democratically elected government one year ago.

In Bangkok, members of the Resistant Citizen group led by activists Pansak Srithep, Sirawitch Sereethiwat and Wannakiat Choosuwan were detained by police shortly after they filed a lawsuit against the junta at the Criminal 

 Court.

A few hours later nine members of a pro-democracy youth group were detained and subjected to a 30-minute session of “attitude adjustment” as punishment for delivering a statement at the October 14 Memorial in which they labelled the military “dishonourable”.

Police said the group had not asked the authorities’ permission before going ahead with the demonstration. 

Then, on Friday evening, 200 uniformed police turned up at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and arrested 30 students who had gathered to express their opposition to the coup. 

On the same day, in the Northeast, 13 Khon Kaen University students who belong to the Dao Din group were arrested and taken to the Sri Patcharin military camp at 1.40pm after they unfurled a large banner that read: “Oppose the coup”.

Seven students were accused of violating security orders under Article 44 of the junta-sponsored provisional charter, which grants absolute power to the NCPO chief. They were made to agree that they would refrain from committing any action that could cause “divisions in society”. At 3pm the students were taken to a police station and charged.

While the junta denied reports that the protesters had suffered physical harm, their arrest and detention paints a negative picture of the NCPO’s ongoing efforts for reform and national reconciliation.

Rather that greeting the coup’s anniversary by relaxing its authoritarian attitude to permit 

 protest – and thereby show it has made progress on the road to democracy – the junta chose to gag freedom of expression and assembly. That move only enhanced its image as a military dictatorship that is curbing democratic norms rather than cultivating them.

If a reform process is to pave the way to democracy, it must encompass free expression. It is impossible for Thailand to produce genuinely democratic reforms while the views of the public are being silenced.

Those views targeted the coup and the junta for many different reasons but they carried the same message – that for genuine reform to occur, this country needs freedom. Unless ordinary citizens are given some means of making their voices heard, the reform process will not yield positive change. The so-called reform now taking place at the direction of the junta is merely authoritarian governance, not democracy.

The crackdowns on small assemblies of protesters over the past week reflect insecurity within the junta and its government. It suggests to the Thai public and the international community that the NCPO fears and is intolerant of any opposition, even from unarmed students.

Although the military claims that it staged the coup so as to maintain order, it is now unnecessary to forcibly prohibit the basic freedoms of expression and assembly. To foster genuine democratic reform, the junta has no option but to allow an atmosphere of openness. If Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is also the junta chief, wants to show that Thailand is “already 99.99 per cent democratic”, he must not fear the voices of the people, and especially those of our younger generation, who will eventually inherit responsibility for the fate of this nation.