The studious young woman reading a book
through her glasses at a Starbucks cafe is nervous.
She
looks around often, quickly scanning the people wandering through the mall. For
good reason: When the Thai military arrested one of her friends, they asked
him: "Who was that girl?"
The
24-year-old graduate of a top Bangkok university, and her friends who number
around 30, all recent graduates, are learning how to become underground
political activists.
An
array of groups has sprung up in universities, among graduates or
postgraduates, with names like "Chulalongkorn University Community for the
People" and "Silapakorn University Community for Democracy".
The
groups do not meet too regularly or obviously; one meeting with The Straits
Times took place on the deserted upper floor of a university library.
They
conceal the names of their own contacts in other underground groups from each
other, send e-mails in code, and chat via Telegram - a mobile phone messenger
app that is difficult to monitor and has features like self-destructing secret
chats.
At
first glance there is a whiff of high-school intrigue and excitement about it,
but it is quite serious: Some activists who have been summoned and questioned
by the junta have learnt that the army has files on them already.
None
wanted their names mentioned; there are cases of the army tracking down and
questioning anyone speaking with or even just helping the foreign media.
The
tentacles of the junta, which seized power on May 22, are firmly embedded.
Agencies
under direct control of junta supremo Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is head of the
National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), include four security arms: the
Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), the Royal Thai Police, and the
policy-level National Security Council and National Intelligence Agency.
Under
the police is the Special Branch, and the army has its own military
intelligence and a task force on lese majeste to track and hunt down people
deemed to be against the monarchy, which was formed after the 2006 coup d'etat.
Police
generals in charge of security include Lieutenant-General Somyot Poompanmoung,
the deputy police chief set to take over as chief in October; and Major-General
Amnuay Nimmano, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police, who last month warned
the public "liking" the Facebook pages of anti-coup groups would be
considered a criminal offence.
Gen
Somyot has encouraged citizens to spy on one another, saying the police will
pay 500 baht (US$15.55) to anyone sending in evidence from social media - in
the form of screen shots, for instance - that suggests opposition to the
military takeover.
The
police already has an IT task force set up to monitor websites and track down
those who offend the monarchy - which tends to be seen as synonymous with
opposition to the military.
Sunai
Phasuk, a senior Thailand researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch,
says the military has files on some activists that date back to the coup d'etat
of 2006, which unseated then Pemier Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire whose
re-elected proxy party in a government headed by his sister was again ousted on
May 22.
"This
is a police state," said Sunai. "They have not killed anyone, but the
climate of fear is pervasive. The repression is not so public now, but it is
going on below the surface."
Among
the new university- based groups, some maintain open Facebook pages, deal with
hate mail from royalists who back the army, and assume they are tracked by the
regime.
Several
young activists from the university groups were arrested at the height of the
small, creative protests in public places last month, where they held up three
fingers in a sign of defiance taken from a popular film, quietly read George
Orwell's classic anti-authoritarian novel 1984, or simply ate sandwiches in
public.
A
22-year-old graduate from Thammasat University, involved in one of the groups,
told The Straits Times when he was questioned and briefly detained by the army,
his interrogators revealed they had been following him all day.
Subsequently,
soldiers in an army Humvee visited his family twice to talk about him, he said.
The
young man had been involved in pre-coup d'etat candlelit protests earlier this
year in favour of the elections - sabotaged by anti-government mobs whose
paralysing street protests helped pave the way for the royalist coup on May 22.
"They
already know all about us, but they ask us about each other," he said.
"It's like they are trying to build a case."
"What
they want most of all is our network," the 24-year-old woman added. But
the groups themselves are still relatively unorganised.
Asked
to explain their structure, members of one group excitedly discussed it first
among themselves before deciding.
Even
politically, it is difficult to categorise them. The 24-year-old woman said her
group was not politically aligned with any single camp, but was "against
anything that undermines democracy and human rights. We are against military
dictatorship".
Sunai
said: "The civic reaction is unpredictable, and the generals don't know
how to deal with it. They are more used to dealing with movements and
hierarchies."
Most of
the groups comprise inexperienced activists, responding naturally to
restrictions of rights and freedoms under military rule, said Chiranuch
Premchaiporn, director of the popular website Prachatai.com
"They
are growing up as digital natives, in a culture of expression in social
media," she added.
Nirmal
Ghosh
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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