Pro-democracy groups have reiterated their core demands, for monarchy reform, the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his clique and the drafting of a People’s Constitution, at a rally yesterday at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani, held to mark the second anniversary of the publishing of a ten-point reform manifesto on the same spot.
The rally was the first after a long hiatus, as most protest leaders have been charged, indicted and detained for various charges including lèse-majesté over the past 2 years.
In a statement, issued at the rally yesterday, the groups said that Thai society has changed irreversibly since that rally on August 10th, 2020, adding that “these days, many people come out to demand and aspire to a better political society. We are sure that today’s political society is not the same as it was.”
It claimed that a major achievement of the political activism has been its success in changing the thoughts and beliefs of people in Thai society, citing the result of the Bangkok gubernatorial election in May this year, in which former Pheu Thai cabinet member Chadchart Sittipunt won a landslide.
The anti-establishment groups said that the next general election, scheduled for early 2023, will not just be an exercise in casting ballots, but an important turning point for their movement and struggle, a measurement of the changes in thoughts and beliefs, the first door opening on the path to the drafting of a new constitution and the only way to bring about true reform of all major Thai institutions.
The rally ended at about 8.20pm.