Dao Din Student Activists: From Hope to Victims under the Thai Society of Darkness

Abstract

The Dao Din group is a gathering of students from the Faculty of Law, Khon Kaen University, a leading university in the northeast of Thailand. The Dao Din group has been one of the most prominent student movements to have emerged in the past four decades since the bloody massacre of 6th October, 1976. The group of students is a movement which gathers to oppose and protest against different capitalist-run projects that have had an impact upon the environment since 2009. The students have become heroes in some parts of Thai society and receive support from various groups, especially both the conservative middle class and the liberal midldle class. Some of whom regard the students as role models for Thai youth, mainly the conservative middle class. As a result, the Dao Din group received numerous awards between 2011-2013. However, the Dao Din group opposed the military coup d’état of 2014 and the subsequent military junta. Under the military dictatorship regime (2014-present), security officials have hunted, insulted, arrested, and jailed members of the group many times amidst silence from most of the conservative middle class. Therefore, this article posits the question of why the Dao Din group, which was once the hero and hope of Thai society, has become a political victim in only a few years. The study methods used are the analysis of documentaries and news articles. The author argues that Thailand’s consernative middle class previously demonstrated a positive perception of the Dao Din group precisely because that group had earlier opposed policies of the elected Yingluck Shinawatra government, which many of the conservative middle class already despised. However, once the group began to protest against the anti-Yingluck military government, then the conservative middle class turned to harshly criticize the Dao Din group. So, it can be concluded that the Thai conservative middle class tends to put its partisan interests ahead of a civil society group which has been critical of elected as well as military administrations. This has led the conservative middle class to support the demolition of Thai democracy. Such a Thai middle class characteristic not only poses a strong bulwark for the perpetuation of military rule but also destroys a civil society group composed of young people who should be the future hope of the nation rather than be cast into the darkness of Thai society.