Chiang Mai Students' turn to challenge the military junta

(28 September 2006)“We’re already challenging the system by being here tonight,” Professor Somchai Prichasilpakul of the Chiang Mai University Law School told some 100 university students last night who gathered outside the grounds of Faculty of Social Science to have a “social dialogue on the military coup”. He said this as some 10 police men came and other men in civilians with a video camera started taking shots of the circle of people sitting on the grass. The students and the professors seemed unperturbed by the men in uniforms. One of the professors even invited them to join the circle.

While there were two public actions staged in Bangkok in the last 9 days of Martial Law in Thailand, this was the first in Chiang Mai to defy the military order of non-assembly of more than 5 people for political discussion/action. Chiang Mai is the hometown of the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the bailiwick of his Thai Rak Thai party. The dialogue was organised by the Chiang Mai Students for Democracy Network. While the Chiang Mai University students were double the number of those who attended the gathering at the Thammasat University last Monday, there was a difference in the atmosphere between the two meetings. Those who were in Thammasat University, the seat of student movement in the 70s, were mostly wearing black shirts – a symbol of their mourning for the death of democracy in Thailand; while the Chiang Mai students and professors were wearing different shades of gray, so to speak. It was clear that they were there as an act of defiance, a brave act indeed, given the increasing presence of the military day by day on the streets, in the markets; but there doesn’t seem to be a strong united position of condemnation of the military coup.

Associate Professor Tanan Anumanrajatan said that “Thaksin is out. A lot of us have worked hard together to oust him, and now we did.” (For a while it confused me if he is in the military, because he was saying “we” ousted Thaksin, but no, he is a civilian university professor.) Tanan’s main message throughout the dialogue is that the Thai people should be able to call for and assert their right to speak and to assemble. This, under martial law. Tanan spent some time reminding the students of Thaksin’s corruption, and his control of power when he was still the prime minister and his party Thai Rak Thai (Thai loves Thai) were ruling the government.

“Thaksin and his clique are gone – but what else is?” asked Professor Attachak Sattayanurak. “Nothing has changed but the people in power.” Attachak, a known progressive professor of History, close to the people’s movement in the North, said that the Thai people should have a clear vision of what kind of society they want. “Did we solve the problem of our society with the military coup? Or did it just deepen the crisis? Is our society better without a constitution?” Attachak said that now military men are seen at almost every junction in the city. “Is this to make us feel safer?” Attachak think otherwise.

One of the students expressed discomfort in seeing people having their photos taken with the soldiers, climbing up the tanks and posing. There was even a couple who had had their wedding picture taken in front of a tank with a soldier on top. Professor Somchai said that this is indeed dangerous – the acceptance of some people with such casualness of the symbolism of violence. “Tanks are for killing, not one person, but many, many people.” Somchai said that there should be more public discussion on what it means to have the military rule. People who have accepted the coup as it removed Thaksin from power should understand the implications. One of which is the fact that today there is no parliament, which is the democratic space for different voices to be heard. “The military coup is not a democratic alternative.”

However, Tanan, a university student during the 1973 and 1976 coup in Thailand, said this coup is different. “This has legitimacy as people accepted it. There is no violence.”

There may be acceptance by a lot of people, for now, as they celebrate the removal of Thaksin from office. But for how long? When the military coup leaders took over Thailand in September 19, they promised to hand over the government to a civilian administration and leave in 2 weeks. What if they extend their stay? Another 2 weeks, or another 2 years? Will the Thai people extend their acceptance and welcome? “That will not happen. The people have power. We will not allow them,” said Tanan.

But a lot of students have mistrust in the military coup leaders, who now call themselves the Council for Democratic Reform or CDR. “The military said that the people should be encouraged to build a new democracy. But how come we can’t have a public meeting? How come the police are here?” asked one of the students. “This is a university. This is for learning and for discussion.”

“The students should have a stronger voice in our society. We, and this university, should have more courage than being shown right now.”

While there may be a mix of positions and take among the students and professors of Chiang Mai University on the current situation in the country, what is clear is that they will continue to have more of these discussions and debates within the university, and outside. “We have to escape from the trap of thinking like buffalos,” Attachak said. This he meant being led by whoever is holding the rein. He reiterated that the Thai people should be able to reflect and think on their own. “What kind of society we want? Let us have a clear answer to that, and we work together to build it.”