20 September 2022

16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส
(‘it’s been 16 years, ai sat’)


Rap Against Dictatorship

Rap Against Dictatorship released their new single 16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส (‘it’s been 16 years, ai sat’) yesterday, on the sixteenth anniversary of the 2006 coup. The title echoes a lyric from another recent single, Long Live the People—“7–8 ปีแล้วนะไอ้สัตว์” (‘it’s been 7–8 years, ai sat’)—and the จะ4ปีแล้วนะไอ้สัตว์ (‘it’s been 4 years, ai sat’) concert. (Ai sat is a strong Thai insult.)

In their most famous music video, My Country Has (ประเทศกูมี), Rap Against Dictatorship recreated an infamous photograph of the 6th October 1976 massacre. For the 16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส video, they have recreated the moment when Nuamthong Praiwan crashed his taxi into a tank to protest against the coup. (The incident was also painted by Uthis Haemamool in 2019.) The song is dedicated to Nuamthong, as was the documentary Democracy after Death (ประชาธิปไตยหลังความตาย), and the video includes extracts from his suicide note, as does the short film Letter from the Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ). A cartoon featuring Nuamthong’s taxi appears on the cover of ยุทธการตอแหลแห่งชาติ (‘the battle of national bullshit’), a book of newspaper columns about the 2006 coup and its aftermath.


The 16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส music video also features archive footage of some of the major political events of the past sixteen years, including the Ratchaprasong massacre, the announcement of the 2014 coup, and a Harry Potter-themed monarchy-reform protest. Young Ohm’s single Bangkok Legacy (บางกอก เลกาซี่) also includes a reference to the Ratchaprasong massacre: “คงแยกไม่ออก ระหว่างทหารกับฆาตกร” (‘there is no distinction between soldiers and murderers’).

16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส features guest vocals by Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan, whose single 12345 I Love You has become an anthem of the anti-government protest movement. Footage of the recent protests also appears in two previous Rap Against Dictatorship music videos, Ta Lu Fah (ทะลุฟ้า)—which references Chaiamorn in its lyrics—and Reform (ปฏิรูป).