Confrontation on the streets

Another Thai Coup: 22 May 2014

On 22 May 2014, General Prayuth Chan-ocha and the military junta he leads, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), instigated the twelfth successful coup in Thailand since the end of the absolute monarchy in June 1932. According to General Prayuth and the NCPO, the coup was carried out in order to reform the country and to return happiness to the people. Yet in the first weeks after the coup, the coup has ushered in Thailand’s most repressive government in nearly forty years, with widespread restrictions on the press, arbitrary summoning and detention, the use of military courts and mass deportations of migrant workers. What are the historical underpinnings of the coup, its implications for the region, and its possible futures?

A series of four short talks by scholars from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific and the ANU College of Law will address armed force and electoral politics, the constitutional implications of the coup, the attack on dissident thinking, and perspectives of the coup from outside Thailand. The four talks will be presented by Craig Reynolds (CAP), Nicholas Farrelly (CAP), Sarah Bishop (CoL), and Tyrell Haberkorn (CAP). Nick Cheesman (CAP) will serve as moderator and the talks will be followed by an open Q/A discussion.

The event is free and open to the public.

Location: Manning Clark Centre Theatre 2

Date: Friday, 27 June 2014-06-13

Time: 12-2pm

Photo by Nick Nostitz