A village in northeastern Thailand is terrorized by a powerful ghost and descends into chaos as two factions fight over how to exorcise the demon. A short story by Charuphat Petcharavej that can be read as a parable of the country’s political conflict.
“There has never been a time, no other era, where the ordinary villager has cursed the ruling class so much as now. There’s a fire burning down below and the military coup has only poured fuel onto that fire.” Teerapol Anmai speaks about the aftermath of the 2010 protests and the state’s violent response.
He was a Red Shirt teenager. In May 2010, he threw a molotov cocktail, contributing to the burning down the Udon Thani provincial hall. He served six years for his crime. Though disappointed with the movement, he still believes democracy is worth fighting for.
Linguist Saowanee T. Alexander talks about the evolution of the term “red buffaloes” that had been used pejoratively to describe Red Shirts and supporters of the Pheu Thai Party. But in recent years, pro-democracy activists have reclaimed the slur, partly shifting its derogatory usage.
Somsak Prasansap is one of many who say they were wrongfully convicted for the burning of provincial halls in Isaan in May 2010. Since his release, the 59-year-old is struggling to stitch his life back together.
For over nine years Teerapon Anmai and his academic friends who set up a fund to help the families of political prisoners have been receiving letters from prisoners detailing their hardships and sharing their thoughts.
What happened to those persecuted for the burnings of provincial halls in Isaan in May 2010? We talked to Somsak Prasansap whose life fell apart after he was arrested and charged with arson of the Udon Thani provincial hall.
“I can still remember that heavy smell of blood wafting through the air, as the dead bodies of the protesters were being piled together up on the UDD stage, together with the weapons they managed to prise from the hands of soldiers. I can’t forget it,” writes a news reporter who covered the bloody events of April-May 2010.
On the 40th anniversary of the massacre at Thammasat University on October 6, 1976, four contemporary witnesses from the Northeast recall their memories of that day and the ensuing consequences.
