Brief report: Campaign to end Thai monarcho-militarism – PROTEST in GERMANY

The protests

PixelHELPER is a loose-knit group of mainly German free-thinkers and artists who work with imagery, music and satire at the fringe of the democratic state to confront injustice and tyrannical persona.

Previously unknown in Thailand, PixelHELPER does have the honour of being the first civic organisation in Germany to have the courage to step forward with concrete action to expose the contradictions, pitfalls and danger of permitting Thailand’s Head of State to conduct and direct criminal operations from a residence in Germany.

Collaboration between ACT4DEM and PixelHELPER has been a process of learning how to pioneer political protest in a geo-political arena that has been allowed to wallow in moral ignominy, largely because millions of westerners became accustomed to taking for granted their ability to exploit for pleasure, as if it were a right, the democratic vacuum in Thailand created and maintained by royalist suppression of the democratic aspirations of the great majority of Thai people.

During 6 weeks of joint activity, ACT4DEM and PixelHELPER worked to develop ways and means for bringing the attention of the German and European public to the contradictions and triple-standards that permit the Thai king to use Germany as a sanctuary for indulging his egocentric fantasies and for plotting and conducting murderous operations against dissenters and opponents of his regime in Thailand.

We worked in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin meeting different groups of people along the way. Our main armament was a light-projector – for projecting satirical slogans onto the facades of relevant buildings. We projected slogans onto the façade of the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl where the king has holed up with his harem, courtiers, secret service agents and security guards. We projected onto the facades of the Thai Embassy in Berlin, Angela Merkel’s Office and Residency, the Bundestag (National Parliament) and the Brandenburg Gate. With a general theme of ‘Hunt for the truth’ in Thailand these light projections have been taking place almost every week since the beginning of May (2020) and remain on-going. Documentation of this activity has reached millions of people in Thailand, millions in Germany and millions more around the world.

We organised a happening with a mock-up guillotine outside the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl to let the king know that if he persisted with his medieval tactics, he could suffer the same fate. We organised street events for distributing information about the king and his victims, with music and song dedicated to ‘the King of Germany’, and we held candle-protests in front of the Thai Consulate in Frankfurt and the Thai Embassy in Berlin – to stand in silence for all those known to have been ‘disappeared’ and murdered by agents of King Vajiralongkorn.

While these protests were being broadcast, politicians in the Bundestag began looking more closely at the legal status of the Thai Head of State in Bavaria – in connection with a range of potential criminal offences.

Learning through collaboration

The Thai monarchy can only survive by constantly instilling and maintaining high levels of fear in the minds of Thai people. Besides enforcing the law of the monarchy over democracy by threatening and using military force, the monarchy is deeply invested in all kinds of hocus- pocus rituals and mind-boggling mysticism.

PixelHELPER began protesting the contravening presence of the Thai king in Germany through a mainly German lens with no great knowledge of how the politics of the monarchy play out in Thailand. Our collaboration proved important in allowing ACT4DEM to discover what Germans do not understand about Thailand and about what needs to be done to raise public awareness in Germany. In instances when we did not understand each other both sides endeavoured to listen carefully.

The fact that the mad Crown Prince in Bavaria has replaced old King Bhumibol (as Rama 10 in 2016) seemed not to have registered in the mind of most people, for most people Thailand was the same old tourist paradise: the Kingdom of Smiles. Knowledge of the decades of struggle for democracy, or of the fear in Thai people today about what their cruel Head of State in Bavaria might do, was almost entirely absent.

Of great assistance in this task of exposing the criminality of the Thai king was PixelHELPER’s experience in dealing with the German authorities. We had no problem with obtaining permission to protest.

Growing together

Progressive Thailand needs new forms of collaboration. In our common struggle for human rights and democracy all learn from in-field collaboration across borders about our own short- comings and missteps and how to develop more effective strategies. There are always reactionary forces that must be overcome along the road to equal rights. As everywhere, the road ahead for Thai people could become rough and tough and we will not be able to walk the walk if we are not open, willing, prepared and able to walk in solidarity.

In terms of the effectiveness of political protest, learning from the ways that people in Germany attempt to deal with (neo-liberal) brain-washing has been helpful in the disposing of the mental garbage deposited by the Thai monarchy.

For Thai people to be able to shake themselves free from 250 years of being forcibly conditioning to be no more than dust under the feet of a Chakri monarch, learning from political activists, artists and social movements in other counties is essential learning, we can say, henceforth, a central aspect of general education.

Today’s generation of students demanding democracy and termination of this latest, ridiculous attempt to re-establish Thailand as an absolute monarchy must be given the support of the International Community. Allowing Thailand to slide further backwards would be tantamount to a major crime against humanity, because it can so easily be prevented, because no person beyond the corrupt core of the Chakri wants that to happen.

There must of course be immediate international condemnation of any military action against the Thai students (- completely innocent young people – ) demanding full unadulterated parliamentary democracy, but why not take action now to stop the orders being given? Germany and the EU have, right now, the power to prevent such orders being issued through the foundations of law that determine and thus define the German Republic and the European Union.

We wish to thank all who have supported this collaboration and all who have come forward to expose the vulgar, cruel and criminal activities of the Thai king. Naïve or not, PixelHELPER is to be commended and congratulated for their courage in stepping forward. Millions who were not aware are now aware that the old Kingdom of Smiles is in deep trouble. We look forward to a broadening-out of our active collaboration with PixelHELPER through linking-up with artists and citizen-activist groups and Thai communities in other countries in Europe and around the world.

Today it is clear as crystal that the Thai students speaking-out against Thai monarcho- militarism are the sisters and brothers of the children and youth that are rising fearlessly in every corner of every country to demand real fundamental change to dangerous out-dated governance.

In solid solidarity with students against autocracy in Thailand.

Junya Yimprasert

Coordinator,
ACT4DEM – Action for Democracy

Campaign to end Thai monarcho-militarism

ANNEX to ‘Brief report (07.08.2020) on PROTEST in GERMANY’

ACT4DEM – PixelHELPER joint-actions, May – July 2020 (on-going)

7 May Light projections onto the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria – residence of Rama 10 and his harem, servants, agents and guards.

14 May Light projections onto the Thai Embassy in Berlin.

20 May Light Projections onto the Bundestag, Brandenburg Gate, and Chancellor’s Office.

2 June Rock music for ‘The King of Germany’ in front of the Hotel Sonnenbichl, 

4 June Light projection onto the Oberwesel’s Ancient Town Wall demanding the release of Wanchalearn Satsaksit, who was abducted in Phnom Penh on 4 June 2020.

9 June Save Wanchalearm, LCD-vehicle screening in front of Thai Embassy, Berlin.

6 June Release the music video ‘Rama King of Germany’.

11 June Save Wanchalearm, Light projection onto the Thai Embassy in Berlin.

16 June ACT4DEM joins PixelHELPER in Germany to help advance the campaign.

22 June Release a video calling for international support: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT-4ffABl1g&t=5s

24 June Joint action at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl. 

8 July Light projections onto the Bundestag, Thai Embassy in Berlin and Chancellor Office. 

“Rama is no longer king. He is a dictator.”

18 July Joint-action at Frankfurt City Hall. Distribution of information (in German, Thai and English) about the king’s victims.

Candles-and-flowers action with silent remembrance of people ‘disappeared’ and murdered by agents of the king.

26 July Light projections onto the Bundestag, Brandenburg Gate and Chancellor’s House and Chancellor’s Office.

28 July Joint-action to de-celebrate Rama 10’s birth date at the Brandenburg Gate, with Thai from many cities in Germany, The Netherlands, UK and Finland, 16.00 – 22.00 hrs.

29 July Candles-and-flowers action to commemorate the victims of Rama 10. Thai Embassy, Berlin.