Prodemocracy protests led by students growing

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand — High school students in Thailand’s capital held blank signs and flashed threefingered salutes to show opposition to the government, and about 2,000 university students joined a protest on the outskirts of Bangkok on Tuesday as the youthled prodemocracy movement continued to spread.

The students at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom gathered on a football field in the evening to cheer speakers criticizing the government. Others formed double lines to sign a petition calling for amendments to the constitution, drafted under military control.

“Some students don’t dare to speak the truth because Thai society teaches them that they have to listen to adults and obey their orders,” said one of the speakers, 18yearold Athiya Pornprom. “But today we are expressing ourselves and we will end this old tradition. This problem ends with us.”

Prodemocracy hashtags linked to high school protests were trending on social media with photographs and videos showing young students at schools in a number of cities lined up on playgrounds and giving the salutes during the compulsory daily singing of the national anthem.

The displays of solidarity began last week and are a remarkable show of defiance within an educational system that stresses obedience to elders.

They appear to be growing after the largest antigovernment rally in six years was held in Bangkok on Sunday and highlighted how the studentled protest movement is capturing the imagination of many young people after six years of relative political quiet.

Thai media reported such school protests occurring in provinces including Ratchaburi, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Surat Thani and Nakhon Sawan, as well as in the capital.

Many people have become weary of the rule of Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, a former army chief who took power in a military coup in 2014 and then retained it in a 2019 election widely seen as rigged to all but guarantee his victory.

Under his leadership the economy has struggled to compete with its neighbors, even before the damage inflicted by measures to counter the coronavirus pandemic. The government’s image has also been tarnished by corruption scandals for which no one has been held accountable.

At Sunday’s large Bangkok rally they spelled out three more points: no more coups, no national unity government and upholding Thailand as a democracy with the king as head of state under the constitution.