Protesters on the streets and online have made a growing number of veiled references to King Maha Vajiralongkorn over the last few months as they push for greater democracy, but nobody had dared make a public call for changes at the palace.
Any form of challenge to the monarchy was extremely rare under Vajiralongkorn's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after 70 years on the throne. “This is an issue that people want to talk about,” said Patsalawalee Tanakitwiboonpon, a 24-year-old engineering student at Mahanakorn University who helped plan and spoke at the protest on Monday. “It has been swept under the rug for so long. So we think it is better if we can talk about this issue rationally and in the open.”
On Aug. 4, the day after the protest, Anon told Reuters he was “not too worried” about being arrested. He had planned to speak out about the monarchy at two further protests in coming days, according to his Facebook page. Some analysts say the military uses its close association with the monarchy to justify its prominent role in Thai politics. Ex-army chief Prayuth has appointed three retired military leaders to cabinet positions and more than a third of Senate seats are held by current or former military officers.
"Our main ideology is to promote democracy," said Jutatip Sirikhan, 21, president of the Student Union of Thailand, which has helped organise the protests and has not criticised the palace.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: malaysiakini - 🏆 20. / 51 Read more »
Source: theSundaily - 🏆 25. / 51 Read more »
Source: fmtoday - 🏆 5. / 72 Read more »
Source: NST_Online - 🏆 17. / 53 Read more »
Source: fmtoday - 🏆 5. / 72 Read more »
Source: NST_Online - 🏆 17. / 53 Read more »