By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A MASSIVE PROTEST AGAINST Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha resumed today (Sept. 19) with a ”car mob” procession of automobiles and motorcycles cruising through an inner part of Bangkok and street protesters reminisced on the 15th anniversary of the 2006 coup.
The long procession of horn-tooting automobiles and motorcycles ridden by anti-Prayut demonstrators braved heavy downpours along the way with red flags mounted on the vehicles fluttering in the rain. The flags say ”Hashtag Get Prayut Out.” The ”car mob” procession purposely took a long detour from Asoke intersection in Sukhumvit road area to Democracy Monument on Rajdamnoen Avenue.
Today’s peaceful demonstration marked the 15th anniversary of the 2006 coup orchestrated by then-army chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin to oust Thaksin Shinawatra as head of an elected government. That event was basically repeated in the 2014 coup conducted by then-army chief Gen. Prayut to depose Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra from elected premiership.
Shortly before the procession got started from Asoke area, political activist Nattuwat Saikua sat behind the wheel of a taxi cab which he rammed into an effigy of an army tank standing in the way at Asoke intersection.
The mock crash was meant for the street protesters to reminisce about an event in which a pro-democracy taxi driver, namely Nuamthong Praiwan, rammed his cab into a parked M-41 tank on Royal Plaza ground in protest of the 2006 coup. The taxi driver who was seriously injured due to the crash committed suicide by hanging himself at a pedestrian bridge on Vibhavadi Rangsit road a month later.
Nattawut has joined hands with Sombat Boonngam-anong who designed the ”car mob” procession and other political activists to conduct massive street protests in a sustained effort to press Prayut to step down after he recently survived a no-confidence vote at parliament.
CAPTION:
Today’s huge “car mob” protest procession going through Bangkok’s downtown area and the ramming of a taxi cab into an effigy of a tank in memory of the solo protest that occurred during 2006 coup. All photos: Thai Rath
2 Replies to “Anti-Prayut street protesters reminisced on 15th anniversary of 2006 coup”