Thailand’s Democracy

Almost 100 people were killed in 2010 when the government authorised the military to use live ammunition against red-shirt protesters. Nevertheless, artists such as Somsak Raksuwan focus only on the destruction of buildings and property, ignoring the suffering of the casualties and even demonising the victims themselves.

Somsak’s painting Event at Ratchaprasong (เหตุเกิดที่ราชประสงค์) has a euphemistic title that minimises the magnitude of the massacre that took place there. The painting depicts a firefighter in front of the ruins of the Zen department store, which was burnt on the evening of the army’s final crackdown against the protesters. Somsak seems to suggest that Zen was the real victim of the tragic event.

Similarly, another of his paintings, Who Did Burn Thai Bus? (รถเมล์ไทย ใครเผา), shows the burnt chassis of a public bus in Bangkok, and the title explicitly seeks to apportion blame for this act of arson. While, of course, setting fire to a bus is a crime, a more pertinent question might be: who did kill the protesters?

Somsak’s paintings were shown at his Thailand’s Democracy (ประชาธิปไตย ไทยแลนด์) exhibition at the PSG Gallery in Bangkok. Significantly, the exhibition was held from 20th November to 16th December 2013, coinciding with the start of the disruptive street protests against Yingluck Shinawatra’s government.

Somsak is not the only artist whose work in response to the 2010 massacre focuses only on the arson and property damage. The Rupture (หมายเหตุ ๕/๒๕๕๓) exhibition featured photographs by Olivier Pin-Fat, Wolfgang Bellwinkel, Piyatat Hemmatat, and Manit Sriwanichpoom showing burnt buildings, plumes of smoke, and barricades of tyres. This created the false impression that the event had been a destructive riot perpetrated by the red-shirts. (All images of red-shirt victims, taken by Agnes Dherbeys, were removed from the exhibition by Bangkok Art and Culture Centre management.)

Right-wing publications have also whitewashed the deaths of the victims. For example, พฤษภาอำมหิต (‘savage May’), published by Kom Chad Luek (คมชัดลึก), focused almost entirely on the arson committed after the massacre. Likewise, the subtitle of a book by Suthep Thaugsuban, อย่าให้ใครเผาอีก (‘don’t let anyone burn [Thailand] down again’), presents the red-shirts as arsonists and terrorists.

Kornkrit Jianpinidan’s 2024 photographic series Damage features photos of buildings looted and vandalised after a previous massacre on 6th October 1976, though the damage was caused by the perpetrators of the violence, not by the victims. (Damage will be shown at MAIIAM in Chiang Mai later this month, as part of an exhibition about the 1976 massacre.)

Can’t We Recant?An Exhibition of Life, Art, Politics, and Death

Sina Wittayawiroj’s exhibition Can’t We Recant? An Exhibition of Life, Art, Politics, and Death (เราจะถอนคำพูดไม่ได้เลยหรือ? นิทรรศการ ชีวิต ศิลปะ การเมือง และความตาย) opened at Kinjai Contemporary in Bangkok on 13th December, and runs until 25th January. The exhibition explores Sina’s personal and artistic background, and his connection to the major political events of his lifetime. Sina’s essay film Your Ash and My Bone (ธุลีดาว) is also screening throughout the exhibition.

One section, which deals with the 2010 red-shirt crackdown, is titled The Awakening, situating Sina within the “Post-Ratchaprasong art” movement, a label coined by the journal Read (อ่าน; vol. 3, no. 2) describing artists whose work took on a political dimension in response to the crackdown. Sina is one of a generation of artists, writers, and filmmakers who experienced a political awakening in 2010, including Prakit Kobkijwattana, Veeraporn Nitiprapha, Uthis Haemamool, and Chulayarnnon Siriphol. Political awakening is known in Thai as ta sawang, and Chulayarnnon — along with five other directors — discussed his ta sawang experience in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored.

The Awakening features two installations. One is a life-sized recreation of a famous photograph from 15th May 2010, showing a soldier next to a sign warning that live ammunition was used against the red-shirts. (Red splotches have been added to the soldier’s uniform, as a reminder that the sign was accurate.) The other is a pile of red-shirt memorabilia (such as handclappers and clothing), under a neon pyramid.

Thai Political Milestones, no. 4:Yellow-shirts v. Red-shirts

Thai politics over the past two decades has been dominated by the polarisation between two broad groups of protesters: red-shirts and yellow-shirts. They represent opposite ends of the political spectrum, and they are both defined by their attitudes towards the divisive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Yellow-shirts

Street protests against Thaksin began in 2005, intensifying in early 2006 after he sold a 48% stake in his Shin Corp. business to Singaporean company Temasek. (Thaksin’s government had increased the legal limit on foreign ownership of telecom firms to enable the Shin sale, and changed the tax code to avoid paying any tax on the deal, in a blatant manipulation of the law for personal gain.)

Media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul formed the People’s Alliance for Democracy and organised weekly anti-Thaksin rallies, attended by PAD supporters wearing yellow shirts to symbolise their loyalty to the monarchy (and, by extension, Thaksin’s implied disloyalty). The first major PAD protest took place at Bangkok’s Royal Plaza on 4th February 2006.

On 5th March 2006, around 50,000 PAD protesters marched from Sanam Luang to Democracy Monument, burning Thaksin in effigy. On 29th March 2006, anti-Thaksin demonstrators gathered at Siam Square, bringing the shopping district to a standstill.

Despite its name, the PAD was definitely not a pro-democracy organisation. Sondhi caused maximum disruption and instability, creating the conditions for a military coup, which took place in 2006.

The PAD revived its campaign in 2008, occupying Government House for three months and even forcing the closure of two airports in Bangkok. After the yellow-shirts had blockaded parliament for three days, riot police dispersed the demonstrators on 5th October 2008.

The 2006 Coup

Thaksin was deposed by a military coup on 19th September 2006. But if the coup had been designed to eradicate Thaksin’s political influence, it was unsuccessful, as even today — almost twenty years later — he remains one of the most influential political figures in Thailand. The yellow-shirt rallies had paved the way for the coup, and the subsequent red-shirt protests were held in response to it.

Red-shirts

The red-shirt movement, formally known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, began after the 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin’s government, and for many years red-shirts were regarded as Thaksin loyalists. Unlike the more affluent yellow-shirts from Bangkok, red-shirts supporters were predominantly working-class voters from Isan and the north of Thailand.

Red-shirt protesters caused disruption in Bangkok in 2009, with a mass rally outside Government House on 8th April, followed by a violent confrontation with the military at Din Daeng on 13th April. Then, in March 2010, the UDD began a long-running and largely peaceful series of rallies near Democracy Monument, initially triggered by the seizure of Thaksin’s assets by the Supreme Court.

On 10th April 2010, the military launched a crackdown on the protesters at Democracy Monument. The red-shirts intensified their demonstrations, establishing city-centre protest camps at Ratchaprasong and Sala Daeng. On 14th May 2010, the camps were surrounded by armed soldiers, leading to a week of deadly street battles between protesters and military snipers.

Ninety-four people were killed in April and May 2010, a death toll exceeding the most notorious crackdowns in modern Thai history, namely October 1973, October 1976, and May 1992. The events of April and May are known in Thai as ‘เมษาโหด’ (‘cruel April’) and ‘พฤษภาอำมหิต’ (‘savage May’), respectively.

Thai Political Milestones:

• no. 1: ‘Black May’
• no. 2: 14th October 1973
• no. 3: 6th October 1976

Red’s Objects Dialogue

Almost exactly fifteen years ago, on 10th April 2010, the Thai military opened fire on pro-democracy red-shirt protesters in Bangkok. The Museum of Popular History is commemorating the anniversary of the crackdown with an exhibition of red-shirt memorabilia, which opened on 29th March at the Kinjai Contemporary gallery in Bangkok.

The exhibition, Red’s Objects Dialogue (เสื้อตัวนี้สีแดง), runs until 10th April, the date on which the army launched their assault. Red’s Objects Dialogue has been conceived as an interactive exhibition, with visitors encouraged to share any memories of the protests prompted by the items on display (including an impressive collection of hand-clappers, t-shirts, and VCDs).

Red’s Objects Dialogue includes several notorious items that were banned by previous governments: calendars issued in 2016 and 2019 by Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, flip-flops featuring images of Abhisit Vejajjiva and Suthep Thaugsuban, and a Pheu Thai promotional water bowl. The bowl and calendars were previously displayed at the Never Again (หยุด) exhibition in 2019. One of the most intriguing exhibits is a transistor radio (a generic design, sold in Thailand as a Tanin TF-268) which has been rebranded a “RED RADIO”.

The tragic events of 10th April 2010 have also been commemorated in several previous exhibitions: Khon Kaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้) and Amnesia in 2019, Future Tense in 2022, and 10 April and Beyond last year. They are also referenced in Pisitakun Kuantalaeng’s album Kongkraphan, Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s short film Two Little Soldiers (สาวสะเมิน), and in the poetry collection ลุกไหม้สิ! ซิการ์ (‘burning cigar!’).

A book commemorating the victims of the massacre, วีรชน 10 เมษา (‘heroes of 10th April’) by Ida Aroonwong and Warisa Kittikhunseree, was published in 2011. There are also plans to publish a book based on visitors’ responses to the artefacts on show at Red’s Objects Dialogue. Like the Museum of Popular History, the National Library of Australia also has an archive of red-shirt ephemera.

นิทรรศการรำลึกการต่อสู้คนเสื้อแดง (‘exhibition on the red-shirts’ struggle’)

An exhibition documenting the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship protest movement opens today at Thammasat University. Organised by the students’ union, it will be held at the Thammasat Museum of Anthropology, on the university’s Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani.

นิทรรศการรำลึกการต่อสู้คนเสื้อแดง (‘exhibition on the red-shirts’ struggle’) runs until 2nd February. It features t-shirts, magazines, newspapers, VCDs, banners, and other red-shirt media and ephemera. A smaller display of similar items, titled 10 April and Beyond, will be on show at Arai Arai in Bangkok from 29th March to 7th April.

A similar exhibition was mounted at Pheu Thai HQ on 23rd April 2010, organised to present the events of 10th April 2010 from a red-shirt perspective to an invited audience of western diplomats. At that event, VCDs with English subtitles were distributed, one of which — Truth 10th April: Who Is the Real Killer (“ความจริง” 10 เมษา ใคร? ฆ่า ประชาชน) — was played for the visiting dignitaries.

ภาพประวัติศาสตร์ การต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดง ที่คนไทยต้องไม่ลืม(‘pictures of the red-shirt fight that Thais must not forget’)

ภาพประวัติศาสตร์ การต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดง ที่คนไทยต้องไม่ลืม (‘pictures of the red-shirt fight that Thais must not forget’), published in 2011, covers the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (red-shirt) protests and ensuing military crackdown from a decidedly red-shirt perspective. The book was published by PTV, the satellite television station set up by former Thai Rak Thai party members to compete with yellow-shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul’s ASTV channel.

Despite its glossy paper, the book feels cheaply made: many of the photographs are printed at a low resolution, and the binding is of poor quality. Also, there are some especially gruesome photos, with one page in particular (p. 17) lingering on the most horrific imagery. (There are brief sections on the 14th October 1973, 6th October 1976, and May 1992 massacres, for historical context.)

Links between PTV and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra were always denied, though he was widely assumed to be the station’s main financial backer. The book is essentially a Thaksin hagiography: it’s almost as fawning as ทักษิณ Where Are You? (‘Thaksin where are you?’). ราษฏร์ประสงค์ ๒๕๕๓ (‘Ratchaprasong 2010’) and ความจริงวันนั้น (‘the truth about that day’) are also pro-Thaksin accounts of the red-shirt protests.

If Thaksin is the hero of this narrative then Abhisit Vejjajiva is very much the villain. The book directly blames Abhisit for the crackdown, as he was prime minister during the 2010 protests. The documentaries The Terrorists (ผู้ก่อการร้าย) and Democracy After Death (ประชาธิปไตยหลังความตาย) also point the finger at Abhisit personally, though he denied any culpability in his memoir The Simple Truth (ความจริงไม่มีสี).

Two books published by liberal journals, 19–19 ภาพ ชีวิต และการต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดง จาก 19 กันยา 2549 ถึง 19 พฤษภา 2553 (‘pictures of the life and struggle of the red-shirts from 19th September 2006 to 19th May 2010’) and กรุงเทพฯ (ไม่) มีคนเสิ้อแดง (‘Bangkok (no) red shirts’), cover the red-shirt protests with more objectivity. Bangkok, May 2010 provides analysis of the period from both sides of the red/yellow political divide.

ราษฏร์ประสงค์ ๒๕๕๓(‘Ratchaprasong 2010’)

ราษฏร์ประสงค์ ๒๕๕๓ (‘Ratchaprasong 2010’), published in 2011, is a coffee-table book documenting the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (red-shirt) protest movement, and its violent suppression by the military in May 2010. (Names of the dead and injured are listed in an appendix.) Many of the UDD protesters were also supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and Thaksin wrote a foreword to the book.

Clearly, with its contribution by Thaksin, this is a one-sided history of the red-shirt demonstrations. But it’s a necessary one, as history is usually written by the victors. The book contradicts the accusations of violence and arson levelled at the red-shirts by Thailand’s right-wing media. For example, พฤษภาอำมหิต (‘savage May’), published by Kom Chad Luek (คมชัดลึก), focused almost entirely on the arson committed after the military massacre. Similarly, Suthep Thaugsuban’s book ประเทศไทยของเรา อย่าให้ใครเผาอีก (‘our Thailand: don’t let anyone burn it down again’) presents the UDD as arsonists and terrorists.

In his foreword, Thaksin writes that he is saddened by the violence captured in photographs of the military crackdown, and indeed the publisher’s introduction warns the reader that “THERE ARE PHOTOS OF THOSE WHO WERE INJURED AND DIED.” Again, this challenges the narrative that the protesters were perpetrators, rather than victims, of violence. All photographs of red-shirt casualties were removed from the Rupture (หมายเหตุ ๕/๒๕๕๓) exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, leaving only images of damaged buildings.

With its bilingual text, and an expensive ฿1,000 price tag, ราษฏร์ประสงค์ ๒๕๕๓ was presumably aimed at a wider audience, and not merely intended as a souvenir for UDD members. In that sense, it’s similar to the anti-Thaksin Whistle Rebellion (ปฏิวัตินกหวีด), which is also a glossy, bilingual book.

The less lavish อาลัย..วีรชนเพื่อประชาธิปไตย (‘mourning..the heroes of democracy’), published in 2011, also lists the red-shirt victims and includes a foreword by Thaksin. On the other hand, ความจริงวันนั้น (‘the truth about that day’) and, especially, ภาพประวัติศาสตร์ การต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดง ที่คนไทยต้องไม่ลืม (‘historic pictures of the red-shirt fight that Thai people must not forget’) are so pro-Thaksin that they would surely appeal only to the protesters themselves.

Two books published by liberal journals, 19–19 ภาพ ชีวิต และการต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดง จาก 19 กันยา 2549 ถึง 19 พฤษภา 2553 (‘pictures of the life and struggle of the red-shirts from 19th September 2006 to 19th May 2010’) and กรุงเทพฯ (ไม่) มีคนเสิ้อแดง (‘Bangkok (no) red shirts’), cover the protests with more objectivity. Bangkok, May 2010 provides analysis of the period from both sides of the political divide.

Beyond Red and Yellow: A Thai Politics Primer

Thailand has been in a state of political crisis for almost twenty years: a cycle of protests and military interventions, dominated by a populist politician (Thaksin Shinawatra, who won an election landslide in 2001) and a military dictator (Prayut Chan-o-cha, who led a coup in 2014 and remains Prime Minister). A new exhibition — Red, Yellow and Beyond — provides a photographic record of the last two decades, and the following is a concise guide to the major political events of this turbulent and polarising period.

Thaksin won an unprecedented second election victory in 2005, though protests against his administration began when he sold a stake in his Shin Corp. company to Singaporean company Temasek in 2006. His government had increased the legal limit on foreign ownership of telecom firms to enable the Shin sale, and changed the tax code to avoid paying any duty on the deal, a manipulation of the law for personal gain. The anti-Thaksin campaign disrupted the 2006 election, which was invalidated by the Constitutional Court.

The 2006 Coup and the People Power Party

Thaksin was deposed by a military coup in 2006. The junta drafted a new constitution, which was endorsed in a referendum. Whereas the previous 1997 ‘people’s charter’ had created a democratically elected Senate, under the new constitution only 50% of senators were elected and the remainder were appointed. Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2007, and he was later convicted of corruption.

If the coup had been designed to eradicate Thaksin’s political influence, it was unsuccessful, as he formed the People Power Party as a proxy for Thai Rak Thai. The PPP won the 2007 election, though its leader Samak Sundaravej was disqualified from politics by the Constitutional Court on a technicality in 2008. Thaksin installed his brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, as PPP leader to replace Samak, leading to a revival of the yellow-shirt People’s Alliance for Democracy anti-Thaksin campaign. The PAD occupied Bangkok’s airports and government buildings, and the Constitutional Court dissolved the governing PPP to appease the PAD protesters.

The Democrats and Pheu Thai

The court’s verdict created a power vacuum, and the military brokered a coalition between the opposition parties, led by Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrats, to form an unelected government. This prompted violent protests by the pro-Thaksin, red-shirt United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship in 2009. Thaksin’s assets were frozen by the Supreme Court at the start of 2010, triggering UDD protest rallies. UDD protesters were brutally massacred by the military, and almost 100 people were killed.

Pheu Thai, another of Thaksin’s proxy parties, won the 2011 election, and Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, became Prime Minister. Yingluck announced plans for an amnesty that would have quashed Thaksin’s corruption conviction. This sparked protests by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, which — following the PAD playbook — quickly gathered steam. The PDRC blocked candidates from registering for the 2014 election, and sabotaged the election itself. The election was nullified by the Constitutional Court, and a rerun was scheduled for later that year. Yingluck was removed as PM by the Constitutional Court after an investigation into nepotism charges (and subsequently fined, impeached, and convicted of dereliction of duty — in absentia — in relation to her government’s rice subsidy scheme).

The 2014 Coup

After Yingluck’s removal from office in 2014, the military imposed martial law and launched another coup two days later. Progressive politicians, including Yingluck, were detained, and protests were suppressed. After coup leader Prayut was appointed Prime Minister, sporadic anti-government demonstrations by young protesters began. Martial law, which had deterred widespread protests, was repealed in 2015. The junta rewrote the constitution in 2016, increasing proportional representation (to prevent another populist landslide) and reverting to a fully appointed Senate. The new charter, which was endorsed in a referendum, also gave senators a vote on who would become prime minister.

After numerous delays, an election was finally held in 2019. Another of Thaksin’s proxy parties, Thai Raksa Chart, audaciously nominated Princess Ubolratana as its candidate for prime minister in the election. On the same day, King Rama X issued a statement forbidding her from running for office. After this dramatic royal intervention, Thai Raksa Chart was dissolved by the Constitutional Court. Although Pheu Thai won the most seats in the election, Prayut was reinstated as Prime Minister.

From Future Forward to Move Forward

The current student-led protest movement began in 2020, following the dissolution of the Future Forward party by the Constitutional Court. Protest rallies organised by Free Youth and the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration were held at Democracy Monument and Thammasat University, and riot police used water cannon to disperse protesters at Siam Square. In 2021, more radical protest groups such as REDEM (a rebranding of Free Youth) and Thalufah organised regular demonstrations near Victory Monument, and riot police began firing rubber bullets at the demonstrators.

Future Forward, previously led by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, was relaunched as Move Forward. As a popular alternative to the Thaksin-affiliated Pheu Thai, it may split the opposition vote in this year’s upcoming election, though a progressive coalition is also a possibility. Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat is currently being investigated for ownership of shares in iTV, even though the TV station ceased operations in 2007. (Thanathorn was disqualified as an MP for ownership of media shares in 2019.)

A constitutional amendment in 2021 slightly reduced the impact of proportional representation on the election results; this may benefit larger parties such as Pheu Thai. A few months before the election, Prayut joined a new party, United Thai Nation, after a rift between him and his deputy, Prawit Wongsuwon (rumoured to be the mastermind behind the 2014 coup).

Red, Yellow and Beyond

Photojournalist Vinai Dithajohn’s exhibition Red, Yellow and Beyond is on show at two adjacent Bangkok galleries: Red and Yellow at VS Gallery and Beyond at Cartel Artspace. Vinai’s photographs cover more than fifteen years of political polarisation in Thailand, from 2005 to the present day. Red, Yellow and Beyond opened on 22nd April, and runs until 2nd July.

At Red and Yellow, which visitors enter through red and yellow curtains, photos of yellow-shirt and red-shirt rallies are hung on opposite walls of a corridor, so that the two opposing groups face each other. This echoes Vinai’s exhibition last year — ทางราษฎร์กิโลเมตรที่ 0 (‘the people’s road, 0km’) — which featured images of student protesters opposite a photo of a soldier. Beyond is dominated by a portrait of a student protester at twilight, which occupies an entire wall of the gallery. One of the most striking photos shows Panusaya Sithjirawattanakul delivering her taboo-breaking speech calling for reform of the monarchy.

Cartel held a similar exhibition last year, Post 2010 (เกียรติภูมิอยู่กลางสนาม), by Karnt Thassanaphak, from 9th June to 9th July. That exhibition featured 112 photographs taken at protest rallies between 2011 and 2021, and its Thai title was a lyric from นักสู้ธุลีดิน (‘ashes of the fighters’), a song by the band Kammachon. The photographs were in colour, in contrast to Karnt’s previous exhibition Gray “Red Shirt”, for which he desaturated the colour in order to focus on the people in the images rather than their red or yellow affiliations. (Gray “Red Shirt” was held at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in Bangkok from 11th February to 6th March 2011. It was also the title of a book released by Karnt last year, in a limited edition of 120 copies.)

Another photographer, Yuttana Arschariyawinyoo, also covered the red-shirt and yellow-shirt movements, in his book Democracy. The recent student protests are the subject of a handful of photobooks: No God No King Only Human, End in This Generation, There’s Always Spring (เมื่อถึงเวลาดอกไม้จะบาน), EBB, and #WhatsHappeningInThailand.

10th April

The new Jim Thompson Art Center opened in Bangkok last year, and its inaugural exhibition, Future Tense: Imagining the Unknown Future, Contemplating the Cold War Past, explores the legacy of the Cold War era in contemporary Southeast Asia. The exhibition opened on 27th November 2021, and runs until 28th February.

Future Tense includes Parinot Kunakornwong’s installation 10th April (๑๐ เมษายน), which examines the military massacre of red-shirt protesters on 10th April 2010. In a corner of the gallery is The Men in Black, a group of polystyrene mannequin heads in balaclavas representing the armed agitators who infiltrated the 2010 protests. (A powerful photograph of a ‘man in black’ was one of five images by Agnes Dherbeys censored from a Bangkok Art and Culture Centre exhibition about the protests in 2010.)

Parinot attended a commemoration at Democracy Monument on the anniversary of the massacre last year. (His installation includes To Service, a candle and red-shirt scarf from the event.) He wiped a wet towel around the monument and collected soil samples from the area: traces from the site of the massacre, the residue of history. These were then photographed with a scanning electron microscope, to produce abstract images (The Cleaner, Banner, and O) exhibited alongside the physical artefacts themselves (Towel and Samples). The process is a combination of art and science, ritual and remembrance.

The shootings on 10th April 2010 were the prelude to a military crackdown resulting in the loss of almost 100 lives. Tawan Wattuya painted portraits of the victims for his Red Faces series, shown at the Khon Kaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้) and Amnesia exhibitions in 2019. A book commemorating the victims, วีรชน 10 เมษา คนที่ตายมีใบหน้าคนที่ถูกฆ่ามีชีวิต (‘heroes of 10th April: the faces of the dead live on’), was published in 2011. The magazine ประมวลภาพเหตุการณ์ ทหารสลายการชุมนุม 10 เมษายน 2553 (‘photo compilation of the military’s dispersal of the rally on 10th April 2010’) features photographs of the day’s events. A VCD, Truth 10th April: Who Is the Real Killer (“ความจริง” 10 เมษา ใคร? ฆ่า ประชาชน), was distributed with a special edition of Voice of Taksin magazine in 2010.

เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง(‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’)

Human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa was the first anti-government protester to call for reform of the monarchy, at a rally in 2020. He was arrested earlier this month, following a speech marking the first anniversary of that event. His portrait was painted by Witawat Tongkeaw, who dubbed him Captain Justice (ทนายอานนท์).

Arnon published a booklet outlining his proposals for a truly constitutional monarchy, สถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์กับสังคมไทย, and he cowrote a booklet with a manifesto for monarchy reform, ปรากฏการณ์สะท้านฟ้า 10 สิงหา. They have recently been translated into English by PEN International online, as The Monarchy and Thai Society and The Day the Sky Trembled, respectively.

Arnon’s first book, however, was a poetry collection published in 2011. One poem, เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง (‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’) also provided the title of the collection. It describes the legal persecution that followed the 2010 Ratchaprasong massacre, when red-shirt activists were charged with arson.

Arnon defended many of the accused, and the poem highlights the injustice of their trials. It concludes with a call to arms, which was eventually answered last year when the student-led anti-government protests began in earnest:

“So the law has turned to the rule of dogs;
We subjects, as if mute and blind,
Have found ourselves at the end of the line:
Submit or die—no other way.

History must be written in lives
To get the wheel of time unstuck;
Fly the red flag, friends, show your pluck:
Revolt! Bring down the robber regime!”

The book’s cover, by Kullawat Kanjanasoontree, reimagines Picasso’s Guernica as a depiction of the 2010 massacre. It was included in the Art for Freedom (ศิลปะเพื่อเสรีภาพ) exhibition at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in 2013, under the same title as the book and with an alternate English translation, As Blind as the Dead End. Another book of poetry written in response to the 2010 massacre, ราษฎรที่รักทั้งหลาย (‘dear citizens’), also features Kullawat’s painting on its cover, and when combined, the two book covers form a diptych.

กวีปราบกบฏ 40 ปี กวีการเมือง พ.ศ. 2515 ถึง พ.ศ. 2557 (‘poetry of rebellion: 40 years of political poems, 1972–2014’), a collection of poetry by Wat Wanlayangkoon, also features a painting (by the author) of the 2010 massacre inspired by Guernica. Wat fled the country in 2014 after being charged with lèse-majesté. In 2017, his son Wana painted his own version of Guernica, both as a commentary on 2010 and in tribute to his father.

10 Year: Thai Military Crackdown

For the current Conflicted Visions Again exhibition, Pisitakun Kuantalaeng created a series of posters and stickers to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the military massacre of red-shirt protesters in 2010. The twenty posters show maps of the protest sites, with markers to indicate the spots at which individual protesters were killed. Pisitakun also drew portraits of each victim, on sixty-three stickers. The project focuses on the last week of the crackdown, from 13th to 19th May 2010. (Tawan Wattuya painted portraits of protesters killed in April 2010.)

Pisitakun’s posters and stickers are available as a box set, limited to fifty signed and numbered copies (mine being no. 2). The set, 10 Year: Thai Military Crackdown, also includes a sticker album and a certificate of authenticity. Pisitakun is also a musician, and his provocative new album Absolute Coup will be released (with more stickers) at the end of this month, as a limited edition cassette and bullet-shaped flash drive.