HK, Thai rallies compared
(It’s) the love for freedom and the courage to fight for change
BANGKOK (AFP) — Hong Kong and Thailand have both seen their streets filled with protesters daring to take on an entrenched political elite, and to discuss once-taboo subjects in their push for greater freedoms.
Voranai Vanijaka, a political analyst at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, said tech-savvy youths in both territories have “shared cultural values.”
“(It’s) the love for freedom and the courage to fight for change,” he told AFP.
Taking on powerful targets
Both movements are primarily motivated by inequality and democracy, but in pushing for a greater say in how their fates are forged they are taking on formidable foes resistant to change.
For Hong Kong, it is the Chinese Communist Party, which crushes dissent on the mainland and has increased control over the restless semi-autonomous city.
Beijing has rejected calls for greater democracy and police accountability, and has since blanketed the finance hub in a national security law that has, for now, snuffed out mass dissent.
In Thailand, it is the monarchy — backed by the powerful, coup-prone military — that sits at the apex of the political pyramid.
For now, it is unclear how the palace will react to the Thai protests, but in previous periods of turbulence it has played a pivotal role in deciding the outcome.
Rule of law or rule by law?
The way authorities use the law has been a key catalyst.
The initial spark in Hong Kong was an eventually aborted attempt to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland’s party-controlled courts.
The protest movement then morphed into a wider push for universal suffrage and opposition to Beijing’s rule.