Thailand protesters swarm streets anew, with police and 'Elephant Ticket' the new targets

Thailand's pro-democracy protesters took to the streets anew on Tuesday, massing around police headquarters in Bangkok after seizing on revelations of a pay-to-play promotion culture within the Thai police force to rev up their flagging movement.

Evidence of the so-called Elephant Ticket - a list of police officers to be fast-tracked through the ranks through favours or connections - was produced in parliament last week by an opposition lawmaker who accused Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his deputy, Prawit Wongsuwon, of overseeing a corrupt and nepotistic police force.

The lawmaker, Rangsiman Rome, said the list had also been endorsed by powerful figures further up the Thai hierarchy.

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Prayuth, an ex-army chief who seized power in a 2014 coup on promises of ending corruption, on Tuesday addressed the issue of the Elephant Ticket, which has inspired its own hashtag along with endless memes on social media poking fun at the police.

"The document should have never been seen ... it's an internal matter," Prayuth told reporters of a police promotions list that was signed by him in 2019.

The protesters, whose loud, satirical and creative rallies had been dwindling in recent weeks amid a resurgence of the coronavirus and the arrests of core protest leaders, returned in their thousands to block a major thoroughfare outside police headquarters.

Pro-democracy protesters gather before a march to Royal Thai police headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

"Good cops shouldn't be hungry for power," a 21-year-old protester who gave his name as Ball told This Week in Asia. "They should want to serve the people instead of serving their masters."

Some wore elephant costumes and carried bananas as they danced while blasting a classic children's song about pachyderms from speakers atop a truck.

Other protesters sardonically played a police anthem lauding the integrity of the force as demonstrators gave speeches assailing the existence of the Elephant Ticket as well as the connections, cronyism and corruption that run through many Thai institutions.

Last year the pro-democracy protest movement ignited excitement among its mostly youthful ranks at the possibility of genuine change in Thailand, with unprecedented calls for reforming the monarchy and ending the army-aligned government of Prayuth and a constitution that favours the military.

But in the months since, the movement has been wracked by divisions over its direction - with the main split being over whether to dilute the attack on the powerful monarchy and instead focus on the embattled government of elderly generals led by Prayuth.

Charges levied against 60 prominent members of the protest movement for royal defamation, or lese-majeste, have sown fears of a larger crackdown on the movement, and an emergency law banning assemblies during the Covid-19 resurgence has also thinned turnout at the rallies.

"We have no protection any more," said a 23-year-old protester. "We're scared [because] the power in this country is so big. But we have to keep going," she said, adding that she had softened the tone of her antimonarchy banners in recent weeks as lese-majeste charges batter the movement.

Famous figures within the pro-democracy camp are debating the direction and efficacy of the protests, which at their peak last year drew tens of thousands to near nightly rallies.

Some fear Thailand's traditional split between the generally older, royalist conservatives and reform-minded youth will consume the movement before it can mortally wound Prayuth's government.

Protesters take part in a demonstration against police and government corruption in Bangkok on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

"The problem with Thailand is the people go against the people," said Headache Stencil, a Thai graffiti artist whose satirical works against the elites in Thai society have become widely known.

"We're not united against a common enemy in power like they are in Myanmar," he added, referencing the massive rallies across the border against a February 1 coup.

Others remain optimistic that the movement can keep momentum going through social media posting and messaging, and slowly chip away at the government's political base.

"The movement has slowly moved to the digital space; information is the name of the game now," prominent radio show host John Winyu told This Week in Asia. "It's only a matter of time that more people from the establishment camp will join the pro-democracy movement."

Older pro-democracy supporters have swollen the numbers at rallies in recent days, and many observers have speculated that the economic fallout from the coronavirus - Thailand's GDP dropped 6.1 per cent in 2020 - will soon help fuel the protest moment with voices of the disaffected and down-and-out.

"The movement hasn't died down. There are just too many factors at play right now, " said Chawannut Kongpopnarawich, a 53-year-old protester.

"The young are scared of legal charges, and the working folks have to work so they can eat. But soon enough they're not going to be able to, and then they're going to come out in their masses."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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