Thailand’s productive opposition party on Thursday filed a draft bill wanting amnesty for potentially thousands of people having allegations with crimes whilst political rallies, involving criticising the monarchy, over around two decades of turmoil. The bill submitted to parliament would cover all political demonstrations since 2006, a period of intermittent disturbance that has seen two coups, the eradication by courts of three prime ministers, and crippling, sometimes rageful street protests.
The Move Forward Party, which gained victory over a May election but could not succeed to create a government, is appealing creating a committee consisting of the house speaker and representatives of government, the opposition and judiciary, to decide who is eligible for amnesty. “We did not specify offenses because there are so many cases and the timeframe is broad,” party leader Chaithawat Tulathon said, adding the bill stipulates those included majorly in insurrection, leading to issues to lives, or misuse of power in safety crackdowns would not be eligible.
Move forward won the election on an anti-establishment platform that involved reforming a law that protects the monarchy from insult, a notion that was the reason behind outrage of royalists, the military and conservatives legislators, who collaborated forces to keep the party out of government. It is vague how much support Move Forward has for the recent amnesty plan. A latest bid by the currently-ruling Pheu Thai Party in 2013 backfired, leading to protests and later, a coup. More than 4,400 people have been charged with offenses connecting to political rallies since 2006, according to a Reuters calculation, which involves cases that have since concluded.
Figures from legal aid party, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, reveal 1,928 people prosecuted over political rallies, with 258 people charged with royal insults in the last couple of years. Five hundred people connected with conservative political parties, involving “yellow shirts” included in a 2009 blockade of two international airports and of the seat of government in 2008, 2013 and 2014, have been insulted with offences, said Puangtip Boonsanong, a lawyer included in several of those cases. Thida Thavornseth, a governing figure in an enemy “red shirt” movement that stormed an Asian governers’ summit in 2009 and a year later occupied Bangkok’s commercial heart for 10 weeks, told Reuters more than 2,000 of its supporters had been prosecuted.