Power must be return to citizens, student protesters day
Pro-democracy protesters from the “Thammasat will not tolerate” group demanded that power be returned to citizens on Wednesday.
Students and supporters of the Move Forward Party gathered in the Sanya Dharmasakti courtyard at the university’s Rangsit campus in front of the Faculty of Law.
The university’s student organisation, the student council, and student networks organised the political demonstration to underline their position on the formation of the government.
Several activists were on hand to give speeches, poems were read out by a literature group, and various amateur bands supplied the music.
The speakers were highly critical of the senators, saying that they were not following the people’s stated wishes by failing to quickly form a government.
They also criticised the constitutional court, calling it a "tool for legislative war", as well as the election commission for not being fair.
The students expressed disapproval of other parties like Pheu Thai for not keeping the promises they made to the people. Even those who voted for Pheu Thai expressed their disagreement with the party collaborating with the old government, the movement claimed.
The demonstrators were adamant that the MFP should not step back on the reform to Article 112 and that the eight-party coalition should hold firm for the next 10 months, when senators will finish their terms.
Placards were placed at the Sanya Dharmasakti monument, reading #Thammasatwillnottolerate and slogans like “even if you pick the all the flowers you cannot stop spring”, “Are you (the senators) afraid of the new age?” and “250 > 14 million voices.” Fabric signs were also in evidence, their messages directed at the senators and MPs.
Furthermore, the demonstrators convened to blow candles on a cake and sing happy birthday to the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on his 74th birthday.
They claimed that his removal from power through a coup had resulted in the loss of democracy and being governed by a dictatorship.
The demonstrators concluded their activities by symbolically placing funerary paper flowers and nailing a coffin shut.
At 8.30pm, after reading out announcements from activist groups, demonstrators carried the coffin out along with a doll wrapped in white cloth featuring a picture of the constitution court’s judge. They painted the coffin red and placed the doll inside it, hammering the lid shut.
Later, they took a copy of the 2017 constitution and burned it, sprinkling chillies and salt as a curse. They then raised their hands with the three-finger gesture, declaring that they would not bend to the state.
