Pain(t)ing

Today is the final day of the Pain(t)ing thesis exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, featuring work by students from the Poh-Chang Academy of Arts. The exhibition opened on 27th May.

One of the highlights is Narissara Duangkhun’s No War but the Class War no. 4, a satirical commentary on contemporary Thai politics. The painting includes a depiction of a Reuters photograph taken thirty years ago during the notorious Tak Bai incident in 2004. Narissara’s work resembles that of Navin Rawanchaikul (albeit on a smaller scale), with its dense, brightly coloured collage of wide-ranging visual references. Her painting also features a slot machine displaying ‘112’, a reference to the lèse-majesté law, which is article 112 of the Thai criminal code.

Remembering Her, Remember Us

“Do we really have to starve to death, before we get bail?”
— Netiporn Sanesangkhom

Exactly a year ago, Netiporn Sanesangkhom died of cardiac arrest after going on a prolonged hunger strike to protest against the jailing of political protesters. Netiporn — a leader of the Thalu Wang protest group — was charged with lèse-majesté, and had been released on bail only after a previous hunger strike of sixty-four days. Today, on the first anniversary of her death, Netiporn is being commemorated at Remembering Her, Remember Us (“บุ้ง เนติพร” วันที่เธอหายไป), an all-day event at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Rachata Thongruay’s half-hour documentary Hungry for Freedom, about Netiporn and her fellow hunger striker Nutthanit Duangmusit, will be shown as part of the event. Rachata interviewed Netiporn and Nutthanit while they were released on bail after their initial hunger strike. Netiporn tells him: “I thought... do we really have to starve to death, before we get bail?”

This will be the film’s second screening in Thailand; it was previously shown on 10th November 2024 at the House of Wisdom community space on Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus. A large portrait of Netiporn was included in last year’s Murdered Justice (วิสามัญยุติธรรม) exhibition, held at BACC just a week after her death.

Netiporn and Nutthanit conducted public opinion polls, asking people to vote with coloured stickers whether they supported or opposed lèse-majesté prosecutions. It was this activity that resulted in lèse-majesté charges against the pair, though two of their sticker boards are on display at Remembering Her, Remember Us. (Murdered Justice featured a similarly controversial exhibit: the t-shirt worn by Tiwagorn Withiton that led to lèse-majesté charges against him.)

Hungry for Freedom is one of several documentaries that focus on individual protesters. We Need to Talk About อานนท์ (‘we need to talk about Arnon’) and The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ), both released last year, are about Arnon Nampa. The Cost of Freedom — which was screened in New York in 2023, but has not yet been shown in Thailand — is about Panusaya Sithjirawattanakul.

The Day the Sky Trembled

Nutchanon Pairoj, a founder member of the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration protest group, has been found guilty of lèse-majesté and sentenced to two years in prison. He was originally found not guilty by the Thanyaburi Provincial Court on 8th November 2023, though that verdict was overturned today by the Court of Appeal.

Nutchanon was one of several people in a truck that was stopped by police in Pathum Thani on 19th September 2020. They were en route to Thammasat University, intending to distribute copies of the booklet The Day the Sky Trembled (ปรากฏการณ์สะท้านฟ้า 10 สิงหา) to protesters gathered at the university. Police confiscated 45,080 copies of the booklet, and detained the occupants of the truck, though ultimately only Nutchanon was charged.

The Day the Sky Trembled — so notorious that it has become known simply as ‘the red booklet’ — contains transcripts of speeches given by UFTD protest leaders at Thammasat on 10th August 2020. Nutchanon is not quoted in the booklet, though today’s judgement convicted him of knowingly attempting to distribute material that contravened the lèse-majesté law.

Re/Place

Wittawat Tongkeaw’s exhibition Re/Place opened at VS Gallery in Bangkok on 30th January, and runs until 6th April (extended from the original closing date of 30th March). As in the artist’s other recent exhibitions, he uses colours and numbers as coded references to Thai politics. The Re/Place paintings are also a fusion of his earlier landscape paintings and his increasing shift towards geometric abstraction, as each piece is an existing work with new overpainting.

Wittawat has worked consistently with the colour blue, in his 841.594 exhibition and his Imagining Law-abiding Citizens portrait series. (The colour has a symbolic meaning, derived from the Thai flag.) Two paintings in the Re/Place exhibition — Orange and Blue and Blue Dots — depict contrasts between blue and orange, with orange dominating, and orange is the colour of the progressive People’s Party, which called for reform of the lèse-majesté law.

Similarly, Wittawat has painted dramatic sunsets in which blue skies give way to bright orange sunlight, shown at the Mango Art Festival 2024. The Re/Place exhibition features another of these sunset paintings, Fire in the Sky, to which Wittawat has added quotations from monarchy-reform campaigner Arnon Nampa’s letters from prison. He has also added quotes from Arnon’s letters to a second painting, Blue Wave.

One of the works with the most extensive overpainting is Blues Square, which is now entirely blue. In the centre, Wittawat has added a drawing of Arnon by the campaigner’s daughter, a reminder that political prisoners are separated from their families. Wittawat previously painted a portrait of Arnon, Captain Justice (ทนายอานนท์), which had a blue background in reference both to the Thai flag and to the colour’s idiomatic meaning (sadness). That double meaning is repeated in the title Blues Square.

The Blues Square canvas measures 112cm², like Wittawat’s geometric abstraction series shown in the Symphony of Colours group exhibition at M Contemporary in Bangkok last year. Also, the Re/Place catalogue is being sold for ฿112, and these amounts are not coincidental, as lèse-majesté is article 112 of the Thai criminal code.

Another painting in the Re/Place exhibition features a different colour and number: army green and thirteen, both in reference to the thirteen successful military coups in Thai political history. Thirteen Green Lines uses vertical stripes of varying thickness to indicate the relative timespans of each coup.

Nineteen Degree, like Blues Square, has been entirely overpainted: the original portrait underneath has been replaced by an intentionally uncontroversial view of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Nineteen Degree is displayed in such a way that both the front and back of the canvas can be seen, in a continuation of that painting’s exhibition history.

At a previous exhibition, The L/Royal Monument (นิ/ราษฎร์), Nineteen Degree’s canvas was shown facing the wall, leaving only its reverse on display. (At that time, the portrait had not yet been overpainted with the Parisian scene.) Nineteen Degree is the work’s third title: the original portrait was titled พระเกียรติคุณ กว้างใหญ่ไพศาล (‘his honour spread far and wide’), and at The L/Royal Monument the visible reverse of the canvas was titled The Masterpiece (มาสเตอร์พีซ).

To a Friend I Have Never Met

Today is New Year’s Eve, though lèse-majesté suspects, and those who have fled the country to avoid lèse-majesté charges, are unable to celebrate with their families. Chatchawal Thongjun, director of From Forest to City (อรัญนคร), has made a new short film for the new year dedicated to lèse-majesté prisoners: To a Friend I Have Never Met (แด่เพื่อนที่ไม่รู้จัก).

The documentary shows footage of protesters campaigning for the release of Arnon Nampa and all other political prisoners, while its soundtrack is a conversation about the plight of those in self-exile who are unable to return to Thailand. The speakers compare the dire situation to dystopian fiction: “It’s as hard as in Squid Game [오징어 게임]. If you want to stay here you have to bow your head and respect them. No questions allowed. No doubts allowed. Because otherwise, it’ll be like in 1984.”

With its compassionate focus on the plight of those charged with lèse-majesté, To a Friend I Have Never Met is similar to Koraphat Cheeradit’s Yesterday Is Another Day, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Ashes, and Vichart Somkaew’s Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy (ไตรภาคการเมืองร่วมสมัยไทย). (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the impact of the lèse-majesté law on Thai filmmakers, and their responses to it.)

Oblivion: The Original Texts

The short film Oblivion: The Original Texts (เลือน: บทประพันธ์ดั้งเดิม), a collage of found footage woven into a magical realist allegory, begins with the sound of gunshots, stills from the recent film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), and a voiceover in which a student, Burindh, describes the 1976 massacre at Thammasat University: “A gunshot has been fired. Sending its vibrating wave upon my chest.”

As the poetic voiceover continues, the narrator recalls how he fled not only from the Thammasat campus but from Bangkok itself, which “is not the city of the people. It is not the city of ordinary people”. (These lines are juxtaposed with vintage newsreel footage of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall and the Grand Palace, symbolic buildings that have also featured in some of the director’s previous short films.)

As he escapes from his attackers, Burindh asks: “if I don’t possess this ideology that’s different than them, would they still aim their bullets at me?” The question is as relevant now as it was in 1976, as riot police fired rubber bullets at student protesters in 2021 and 2022. The film uses footage of a protest against Ampon Tangnoppakul’s conviction for lèse-majesté, taken from the short film Ashes, to hint at the ideology of Burindh and the recent protesters.

In 1976, a prominent monk, Kittivuddho Bhikku, pronounced that killing Communists was equivalent to merely catching fish, in a signal to the royalist vigilante groups who stormed the Thammasat campus a few months later. Images of fish in the documentary The Terrorists (ผู้ก่อการร้าย) were metaphors for the monk’s comments, though Oblivion goes a stage further: Burindh transforms into a goby fish and swims away from Bangkok.

Burindh’s metamorphosis is similar to that of Boonsong, the monkey spirit in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), another student who fled from persecution and transformed into an animal. Burindh meets Boonsong, his (literal) kindred spirit, who reassures him that his memories (and, by implication, Thailand’s political traumas) will not be forgotten as long as they are retold.

Oblivion is the latest of more than fifty films that refer to the Thammasat massacre. (The previous examples are discussed in Thai Cinema Uncensored.) It was directed under the pseudonym Burindh the Golden Goby, and it will be followed by Oblivion: The Non-human Interpretation, which will be shown next year as part of Bangkok Design Week.

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy

Vichart Somkaew’s new documentary Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy (ไตรภาคการเมืองร่วมสมัยไทย) is an hour-long portmanteau project combining three of his recent short films: Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป), 112 News from Heaven, and The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ). The anthology’s structure, divided into three segments, reflects what the director sees as the three eras of modern Thai politics: 1932–1957 (the abolition of absolute monarchy and the establishment of democratic institutions), 1957–1992 (prolonged military dictatorship, culminating in the ‘Black May’ crackdown), and 1992 to the present day (liberal reforms, followed by political polarisation).

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy begins with Vichart’s most directly political film, Cremation Ceremony, in which the faces of three politicians stare impassively at the viewer. The three men — Anutin Charnvirakul, former health minister; Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister; and former army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha — are responsible for three tragic injustices. Anutin oversaw the Thai government’s initially sluggish response to the coronavirus pandemic. Abhisit authorised the shooting of red-shirt protesters in 2010. Prayut led the 2014 coup, and his military government revived lèse-majesté prosecutions.

Vichart sets fire to photographs of the three men, their faces distorting as the photographic paper burns. There is no sound except the crackling of the flame. This symbolic ritual is a reminder of the deaths of Covid victims, red-shirt protesters, and political dissidents, though it’s also a metaphorical act of retribution, as the three politicians have faced no consequences for their actions. (Anutin is a billionaire, Abhisit was cleared of all charges, and Prayut acted with total impunity.)

While the three portraits burn slowly, captions mourn the forgotten victims: red-shirts shot while sheltering in Wat Pathum Wanaram, political prisoners charged under article 112, and victims of the coronavirus. (Cremation Ceremony originally ended on a hopeful note with a final caption explaining that pro-democracy parties had “emerged victorious” in last year’s election. But after the film’s release, the progressive Move Forward Party was excluded from the governing coalition, and the optimistic caption has now been removed.)

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy continues with 112 News from Heaven, which juxtaposes news that’s broadcast on all channels every day with news that goes unreported by mainstream outlets. On the soundtrack, an announcer reads a bulletin of royal news, a daily staple of Thai television and radio. This is contrasted with captions documenting news of “victims of the Thai state”.

Lèse-majesté is article 112 of the criminal code, hence the title 112 News from Heaven. The film’s captions feature 112 headlines from a 112-day period, detailing the custodial sentences given to those convicted of lèse-majesté and the bail denied to those awaiting trial. It ends with a quote from a royal walkabout: “We love them all the same.”

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy’s final segment is The Letter from Silence, a series of extracts from letters by lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner Arnon Nampa to his family, written while he serves a prison sentence for lèse-majesté. Arnon’s letters are often heartbreaking, as he faces the prospect of many years in jail if convicted on further charges, separated from his wife and their two young children.

In fact, Arnon is one of the common threads linking each Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy episode. Cremation Ceremony summarises his 3rd August 2020 speech calling for reform of the monarchy, 112 News from Heaven documents the legal process following his arrest, and The Letter from Silence quotes from his prison letters.

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy will be shown on New Year’s Eve as part of ซิเนมากลางนา (‘cinema in the middle of a rice field’), an overnight programme of films shown at a rural outdoor screening to count down the new year. The event will be held in a rice field in Phayao.

The Letter from Silence

Vichart Somkaew’s latest short film The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ) features extracts from letters by lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner Arnon Nampa to his family, written while he serves a prison sentence for lèse-majesté. Arnon’s letters are often heartbreaking, as he faces the prospect of many years in jail if convicted on further charges, separated from his wife and their two young children.

The film is silent, except for ambient sounds recorded at night in a quiet neighbourhood. It avoids the explanatory captions of Vichart’s previous films 112 News from Heaven and Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป), instead letting Arnon’s words stand alone. This makes the film all the more powerful, and emphasises the hopelessness of Arnon’s situation.

The Letter from Silence’s focus on Arnon’s letters themselves has echoes of another short film with a similar title, Prap Boonpan’s Letter from the Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ). Prap’s film documented the suicide note left by Nuamthong Praiwan, who had protested against the 2006 coup by crashing his taxi into a tank.

The Letter from Silence, which is dedicated to Arnon and other political prisoners, was shown as part of this year’s online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน) on 5th November. Vichart has announced plans to combine it with 112 News from Heaven and Cremation Ceremony into an hour-long portmanteau film, Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy. Arnon’s letters have been translated into English by the Article 112 Project website.

Arnon led a protest at Democracy Monument on 3rd August 2020, one of the first rallies calling for reform of the monarchy. The speech he delivered at that event was published as The Monarchy and Thai Society (สถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์กับสังคมไทย). He has also written a book of poetry, เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง (‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’). A documentary about him, We Need to Talk About อานนท์ (‘we need to talk about Arnon’), was screened at Phatthalung Micro Cinema earlier this year.

Lazada

Today the Criminal Court in Bangkok dismissed lèse-majesté charges in relation to online videos promoting the shopping website Lazada and Nara skincare. Lazada had posted a video on 5th May 2022 featuring Thidaporn Chaokhuvieng in a wheelchair, which led to allegations that it was mocking Princess Chulabhorn and disabled people in general. Another TikTok campaign showed images of Thidaporn alongside Kittikoon Thammakitirad, who was dressed similarly to Queen Sirikit.

The video campaign was surprisingly audacious for a mainstream, market-leading company like Lazada, as lèse-majesté is rigorously enforced and the references to Chulabhorn and Sirikit were unambiguous. Two days later, Srisuwan Janya filed lèse-majesté charges against Thidaporn and Kittikoon, amongst others, and they were arrested on 16th June 2022.

The Criminal Court’s decision today was as surprising as the initial Lazada campaign. Previously, lèse-majesté has been broadly interpreted, though today’s judgement followed the precise letter of the law (article 112 of the criminal code). Article 112 specifies that only defamation or insults directed at the King, Queen, heir to the throne, or regent are illegal, and the court today made clear that it would only prosecute lèse-majesté cases related to those named individuals.

Therefore, as Chulabhorn is not the heir to the throne, the case against Thidaporn was dismissed, perhaps setting a precedent that criticism of some royals is not a crime. The court also ruled that the imitation of Queen Sirikit was not disrespectful, and therefore dismissed the charges against Kittikoon. Again, this was unexpected, as it seems to permit the impersonation of a senior royal, even for commercial purposes.

ปฏิทินพระราชทาน(‘royal calendar’)

The Appeals Court yesterday upheld a two-year jail sentence for a man charged with lèse-majesté for distributing a calendar featuring a cartoon duck. The 2021 desk calendar, published by the Khana Ratsadon pro-democracy protest group, was titled ปฏิทินพระราชทาน (‘royal calendar’), in what the police claimed was an attempt to imitate an official royal publication.

The lèse-majesté charge related to five of the calendar’s cartoons, illustrating the months of January, March, April, May, and October. (The images cannot be reproduced or described, as this would constitute a repetition of the offence.) The man was arrested on New Year’s Eve 2020, and sentenced on 7th March 2023, though he was granted bail pending an appeal. He did not attend court yesterday, and was sentenced in absentia.

This is the third calendar to be confiscated by the Thai authorities in recent years. Wall calendars featuring photographs of former prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawawtra were seized in 2018 and 2016.

Wilderness

“October 6th is a profound lesson,
Teaching us clearly that...
democracy can only be won by taking up arms”.

Thanaphon Accawatanyu’s new play Wilderness (รักดงดิบ) begins with a revolutionary verse, set to music. The play, divided into two parts, is set in the aftermath of two key events in Thai political history: the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University, and the student protest movement that began in 2020.

In part one, a group of students join the Communist insurgency after the Thammasat massacre, and escape into the forest. Part two features another group of students, though they’re not explicitly indentified as protesters. (Although one character says that she was destined to be part of a demonstration, as she was “in my Mom’s womb during the Black May uprising”, and her father died during that 1992 protest.)

The second part is much more ambiguous than the first, with numerous scenes that appear to be dreams caused by hallucenogenic sweets eaten by the characters. (According to the recipe they follow, the sweets should “dry in the sun for 112 hours”, and the lèse-majesté law is article 112 of the criminal code.) The dreams involve worshipping gods by chanting tongue-twisters.

As in Wilderness, Pasit Promnampol’s short film Pirab (พีเจ้น) and Sunisa Manning’s novel A Good True Thai both dramatise a student’s decision to join the Communist insurgency. A Good True Thai is particularly similar to Wilderness as, like Thanaphon’s play, it focuses on the romantic relationships between the characters.

Wilderness opened at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on 12th September, and the final performance will be today. The script for one of Thanaphon’s previous plays, The Disappearance of the Boy on a Sunday Afternoon (การหายตัวไปของเด็กชายในบ่ายวันอาทิตย์), appears in Micro Politics alongside Pradit Prasartthong’s A Nowhere Place (ที่ ไม่มีที่), another play that refers to the 6th October massacre.

10 ข้อที่คนไม่รู้เกี่ยวกับมาตรา 112 (‘10 things you don’t know about 112’)

Suchart Sawadsi, one of Thailand’s most respected writers, has been charged with sedition (article 116 of the criminal code) for posting a social media link to a video by iLaw, a non-governmental organisation promoting human rights. iLaw uploaded the video, 10 ข้อที่คนไม่รู้เกี่ยวกับมาตรา 112 (‘10 things you don’t know about 112’), to TikTok on 29th October 2022 as part of its No More 112 campaign, and Suchart shared it on Facebook along with a comment calling for the abolition of article 112 (the lèse-majesté law).

The King Protection Group, an ultra-royalist pressure group, filed charges against Suchart the next day. Suchart was described by David Smyth in the first issue of the journal Asiatic (2007) as “without doubt, the single most influential figure in the contemporary Thai literary world.” The King Protection Group has previously filed similar charges against other public figures, ranging from the rapper P9D to the former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat.

บทปราศรัยคัดสรรคดี 112 (‘speeches on 112’)

A student has received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of lèse-majesté for attempting to distribute copies of a booklet, บทปราศรัยคัดสรรคดี 112 (‘speeches on 112’). The booklet, published by the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration, features a collection of speeches calling for the abolition of the lèse-majesté law, which is article 112 of the Thai criminal code.

The graduate student, whose name has not been released, was accused of carrying a box containing copies of the booklet at a Naresuan University commencement ceremony on 30th December 2021. Police confiscated all copies before they could be handed out to anyone attending the event. (Copies had previously been distributed at Three Kings Monument Square in Chiang Mai, and at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.) The student was sentenced yesterday, though the booklet itself has not been banned from publication.

Vichart Movie Collection

A trio of recent films by Vichart Somkaew will be screened at Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai on 4th August. The Vichart Movie Collection retrospective features three documentary shorts: Voice of Talad Phian (​เสียงแห่งตลาดเพียร), 112 News from Heaven, and his new film The Poem of the River (บทกวีแห่งสายน้ำ). (This will be the fourth screening of 112 News from Heaven, which was previously shown in January, February, and March this year.)

112 News from Heaven juxtaposes news that’s broadcast every day with news that goes unreported by mainstream outlets. On the soundtrack, an announcer reads a bulletin of royal news, a daily staple of Thai television and radio. This is contrasted with captions documenting news of “victims of the Thai state”. Vichart’s previous film Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป) used a similar technique, with captions honouring victims of political injustice.

Lèse-majesté is article 112 of the criminal code, hence the title 112 News from Heaven. The film’s captions feature 112 headlines from a 112-day period, detailing the custodial sentences given to those convicted of lèse-majesté and the bail denied to those awaiting trial. It ends with a clip from a royal walkabout: “We love them all the same.”

It might seem an unusual comparison, but 112 News from Heaven’s structure recalls D.H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers. The bulk of that book describes the misery of the protagonist’s life, though it ends on an unexpectedly uplifting note: “He would not take that direction, to the darkness, to follow her. He walked towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.” Can a book’s final few optimistic sentences negate the oppressive narrative of its previous 500 pages? Or does the apparently hopeful ending represent a false dawn? The same questions are raised by 112 News from Heaven, in relation to the state’s attitudes towards political dissent.

Vichart’s latest film, The Poem of the River, will have its world premiere tomorrow at the Paradise Film Festival in Budapest. The film opens with a caption describing “a Royal Development Project, costing 100 million baht” to dredge the water from the Lai Phan canal in Phatthalung. The Poem of the River juxtaposes tranquil images of the canal and its verdant, fertile banks — including some beautiful drone photography — with footage of the dredging process. (The effect is similar to Koraphat Cheeradit’s short drama Yesterday Is Another Day, in which scenes set in a woodland are interrupted by shots of a JCB digging up the area.)

“Thaksin is ready to prove his innocence...”

The Office of the Attorney General confirmed today that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be indicted for lèse-majesté and violation of the Computer Crime Act, in relation to an interview he gave in South Korea almost a decade ago. An OAG spokesman said this morning: “The attorney general has decided to indict Thaksin on all charges”. Thaksin was not present to answer those charges, as he tested positive for coronavirus yesterday. His hearing has been postponed until 18th June.

The charges relate to a short video clip from The Chosun Daily (조선일보), recorded on 21st May 2015, in which Thaksin implied that privy councillors were behind the 2014 coup. Thaksin has made similar claims in previous interviews, without being indicted for lèse-majesté: on 20th April 2009, he told the Financial Times that the Privy Council plotted the 2006 coup, and he made the same allegation to Tom Plate in Conversations with Thaksin. Likewise, on 27th March 2008, he publicly accused Prem Tinsulanonda, Privy Council leader at the time, of masterminding the 2006 coup.

Thaksin’s passports were revoked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27th May 2015, in a preemptive decision pending a police investigation into the Chosun Daily video. Two days later, lèse-majesté charges were filed against Thaksin on behalf of Udomdej Sitabutr, army chief at the time (raising questions about the politicisation of the military). After Thaksin was indicted today, his lawyer Winyat Chartmontri said: “Thaksin is ready to prove his innocence in the justice system.” That stance may change if the case goes to trial, as those accused of lèse-majesté almost always enter guilty pleas. (Defendants pleading guilty often receive reduced sentences.)

When Thaksin returned from self-imposed exile on 22nd August 2023, it seemed that he and the military had reached a mutually beneficial truce. However, the military giveth and taketh away: Thaksin has been wrong-footed several times, and every act of leniency granted to him has come with strings attached. He was released on parole on 18th February, yet the very next day he appeared at the OAG (in a wheelchair) after the Chosun Daily case was suddenly revived. His application for a royal pardon was accepted, though it only partially commuted his prison sentence. Senators endorsed Srettha Thavisin, the leader of his proxy party, as Prime Minister, though a group of forty senators has now petitioned the Constitutional Court to investigate Srettha.

Srettha is accused of violating article 160 of the constitution by appointing Pichit Chuenban, Thaksin’s disgraced former lawyer, as Prime Minister’s Office Minister. Pichit was jailed for six months in 2008 after blatantly attempting to bribe a judge on Thaksin’s behalf with ฿2 million in cash. Article 160 states that government ministers must “not have behaviour which is a serious violation of or failure to comply with ethical standards”, which would seem to apply in Pichit’s case. (It’s worth noting, though, that exceptions can be made: the court ruled that Thammanat Prompao was qualified as a minister in the 2019 military-backed government despite his criminal record for heroin smuggling, as he was convicted outside Thailand.)

The court accepted the petition against Srettha on 23rd May. With both Thaksin and Srettha now under investigation, it seems clear that a warning message (at the very least) is being sent, reminding Thaksin that his deal with the military was not made on equal terms. Thaksin upheld his side of the Faustian pact when his proxy party Pheu Thai prevented the anti-military Move Forward Party from forming a government, but Move Forward is now facing the prospect of dissolution by the Constitutional Court. This would be a more effective neutralisation of MFP, and could be achieved without Thaksin, who may therefore become surplus to the military’s requirements.

Red Poetry

Supamok Silarak’s film Red Poetry (ความกวีสีแดง) will be shown at Doc Club and Pub in Bangkok, Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai, and Alien Artspace in Khon Kaen on 26th May, as part of the Wildtype Middle Class 2024 season. It will also be screened at Chiang Mai University on 4th June, at dot.b in Songkhla on 6th June, at Vongchavalitkul University in Korat on 7th June, at the University of Phayao on 13th June, and at Bo(ok)hemian Arthouse in Phuket on 23rd June. The documentary is a profile of performance artist Vitthaya Klangnil, who co-founded the group Artn’t. A shorter version of the film — Red Poetry: Verse 1 (เราไป ไหน ได้) — had its premiere at Wildtype 2022.

Red Poetry shows the intense endurance and commitment Vitthaya invests in his protest art. A durational performance — sitting near Chiang Mai’s Tha Pae Gate for nine full days — led to his collapse from exhaustion. In another action, he climbed onto Chiang Mai University’s main entrance, repeatedly slapped himself in the face, and jumped into a pond. Before reporting to the police to answer charges of sedition, he vomited blue paint outside the police station.

The film ends with Vitthaya’s most extreme action: he carved “112” into his chest, in protest at the lèse-majesté (article 112) charges he faced after exhibiting a modified version of the Thai flag in 2021. He was convicted of lèse-majesté last year, and received a suspended sentence.

Supamok’s film was screened three times as part of The 27th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27): in the online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน), at the main festival itself, and in the Short 27 Awarded Film Screening programme. It has previously been shown in Chiang Mai (most recently in February), Salaya, and Phatthalung.

Mango Art Festival 2024

The Mango Art Festival 2024 at River City in Bangkok (running from 7th to 12th May) includes a new series of paintings by Wittawat Tongkeaw. As in his exhibition 841.594, the colour blue dominates his recent work (in a reference to Thailand’s tricolour flag). His paintings are for sale, and each price ends with 112. (Lèse-majesté is article 112 of the criminal code.)

In Wittawat’s exhibtion The L/Royal Monument (นิ/ราษฎร์), paintings of sunsets represented a desire for transition. Displayed at the Mango Art Festival are paintings of sunrises, with orange skies signifying the rising popularity of the progressive Move Forward Party (whose logo is orange). Titles include Blue vs. Orange (showing the sky split between the two colours), Blue to Orange (in which the sun is rising over the sea, implying that the almost entirely blue sky will become orange), and Hope (a sky filled with blazing orange light).

Wittawat’s work over the last decade has been dominated by political symbolism, which has the potential to arouse scrutiny from the authorities. But another painting at the Mango Art Festival gives the artist some plausible deniability: depicting clouds in a blue sky, it’s wittily titled It’s Just the Sky, Nothing More. Wittawat used a similar painting of a sky in his provocative installation Creation-Conclusion (เริ่ม-จบ) at The L/Royal Monument.

Office of the Attorney General:“The police notified Thaksin about the allegation...”

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is expected to be paroled later this month, though in another twist to his legal drama, he also faces lèse-majesté charges that could extend his custodial sentence. Thaksin returned from self-imposed exile in August last year, and the Supreme Court sentenced him to an eight-year prison term for corruption and abuse of power.

However, on his first day in jail, Thaksin was transferred to a police hospital for unspecified medical reasons, and has remained there ever since. After he applied for a royal pardon, his eight-year sentence was reduced to one year, and the Department of Corrections confirmed last month that, given his age (seventy-four), he was eligible for parole. (These events were presumably not unrelated to Pheu Thai’s cooperation with the military’s political wing.)

This apparent leniency may have reached its limit, as the Office of the Attorney General announced today that an investigation will be opened into lèse-majesté charges first filed against Thaksin in 2016. An OAG spokesman said that “senior officials from the Office of the Attorney General and the police notified Thaksin about the allegation” on 17th January, and the charges relate to an interview he gave to South Korean media in 2015, when he implied that members of the Privy Council had orchestrated the 2014 coup.

Red Poetryยังมีจิตใจจะใฝ่ฝัน(‘still having a mind that will dream’)

After a screening last week in Chiang Mai, Supamok Silarak’s film Red Poetry (ความกวีสีแดง) will be shown in Phatthalung this weekend. The feature-length documentary is a profile of performance artist Vitthaya Klangnil, who co-founded the group Artn’t. A shorter version of the film — Red Poetry: Verse 1 (เราไป ไหน ได้) — was screened at Wildtype 2022.

The documentary shows the intense endurance and commitment Vitthaya invests in his protest art. A durational performance — sitting in front of Chiang Mai’s Tha Pae Gate for nine full days — led to his collapse from exhaustion. In another action, he climbed onto Chiang Mai University’s main entrance, repeatedly slapped himself in the face, and fell into a pond. When he reported to the police to answer charges of sedition, he vomited blue paint outside the police station.

The film ends with Vitthaya’s most extreme action: carving “112” into his chest, in protest at the lèse-majesté (article 112) charges he faced after he exhibited a modified version of the Thai flag in 2021. He was convicted of lèse-majesté last year, and received a suspended sentence.

Red Poetry will be shown at the Swiftlet Book Shop on 10th February, at an event titled Red Poetry ยังมีจิตใจจะใฝ่ฝัน (‘still having a mind that will dream’). Swiftlet was also the venue for the inaugural Phatthalung Micro Cinema screening last month.)

Supamok’s film was screened three times as part of The 27th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27): in the online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน), at the main festival itself, and in the Short 27 Awarded Film Screening programme. It has previously been shown in Chiang Mai, Salaya, and Phatthalung.

Memes of Dissent: Thai Social Media During the 2020–2021 Student Uprising

An exhibition of satirical memes and online political cartoons opens this week at All Rise (the offices of iLaw) in Bangkok. Memes of Dissent: Thai Social Media During the 2020–2021 Student Uprising (โซเชียลเน็ตเวิร์คในท่ามกลางการประท้วงของนักศึกษาไทยระหว่างปี 2020–2021) features anti-government GIFs and other digital artwork shared via social media in support of the student protest movement that began in 2020.

The exhibition was previously held at Artcade in Phayao, where it was on show for almost two months (from 3rd August to 1st October 2023), though it will only be open for three days in Bangkok, from 26th to 28th January. Organised by the University of Phayao’s School of Architecture and Fine Art in association with the Museum of Popular History, the Bangkok exhibition will also include memes created after last year’s election (when the winning party was sidelined and the military remained in government).

Copies of คนกลมคนเหลี่ยม Live in Memes of Dissent (‘round people and square people live in memes of dissent’) will be given away at the exhibition. The booklet — limited to fifty copies — reprints a dozen cartoons from the คนกลมคนเหลี่ยม (‘round people and square people’) Facebook page, in solidarity with the cartoonist, who is facing lèse-majesté charges in relation to four cartoons he posted on the page in 2022. (Another Facebook cartoonist, BackArt, has also been charged with lèse-majesté, in relation to two cartoons he posted in 2021, and an artist is facing the same charge for a painting she posted on Instagram in 2021.)