Dynamics and Impacts of the 2020 Khana Ratsadon (People’s Party)

Abstract

Thailand’s Khana Ratsadon 2020 (meaning “Group of Ordinary People in the Year 2020”) is a student-led political movement. The movement draws inspiration from the People’s Party, which staged a revolution in 1932 that transformed Siam’s absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. The movement has garnered significant attention from Thai Studies scholars worldwide due to three intriguing aspects. First, the actors in the movement represent the revival of Thailand’s student movement, which re-emerged half a century after the October 1973 uprising. Second, the movement called for monarchical reform, a political aspiration that was previously forbidden in Thai politics due to its cultural sensitivity and legal restrictions imposed by lèse majesté laws. Lastly, the movement’s activities were praised for their creativity and unconventional nature. Despite being heavily suppressed by the Thai state, the student movement succeeded in assembling diverse groups of people and maintaining momentum. While many scholars argue that the role of Khana Ratsadon 2020, an umbrella organization leading the movement, has significantly diminished and that the movement fell short of meeting its political goals, this article disagrees with such an assessment. Although Khana Ratsadon 2020 has not achieved its objectives, the movement has generated several crucial political consequences. Firstly, as a Social Movement Organization (SMO), Khana Ratsadon 2020 has demonstrated distinctive dynamics and resilience, due to its organizational structure and efforts to survive the Thai state’s suppressive measures. In doing so, the movement mobilized people widely and actively organized political activities, fostering common experiences and consciousness among its participants. Secondly, through its innovative actions, the movement has created a new window of opportunity for political action within the existing repressive political structure. Thirdly, the movement’s discourses and practices have challenged the meaning of public space, which had previously been appropriated and monopolized by the monarchy and reclaimed that space for the people. This, in turn, has redefined the relationship between the monarch and the people. The influential ramifications of Khana Ratsadon 2020’s movement have demonstrated what this paper calls a cultural revolution, which could pave the way for a political revolution in the future.