Intolerance in society will raise risk of violence, Pannika warns on Oct 6 massacre anniversary
The country's violent history should never repeat itself, Pannika Wanich, prominent person of the Progressive Movement, said on Tuesday on the 44th anniversary of the 1976 massacre.
She made her remarks to the press before arriving for the commemoration event at Thammasat University, where the tragedy occurred on October 6, 1976.
Pannika, a former MP and spokesperson of the dissolved Future Forward Party, said that people had been alert to the risk of violence for some time. And the reason why young people of today were interested to know about the massacre was because of its relevance in the context of the present situation in Thai society and politics.
She asked why people in the past had decided to attack, or even kill, other people who thought differently from them. Was it because of instructions from the government of that time or via several kinds of media?
“Even in this day, people with different opinions were being rejected by society as unbearable,” she said, adding, “Are we expecting history to repeat itself, and which way can we go to prevent a repeat of violence?”
Pannika said that the national education should provide more facts about October 6, 1976, instead of a few short sentences in a history book.
In 1976, police launched a violent crackdown on leftist protesters who had occupied Thammasat University on that day.
The number of casualties in the 1976 event remains disputed, with the official count at 46 dead, 67 wounded and 3,000 arrested. Others claim more than 100 died at the hands of the military, police and paramilitary forces after exit routes were first blocked. Some protesters and others were hanged by ultranationalist counter-protesters.
