Anti-Coup Cabbie’s Suicide Remembered 12 Years On

BANGKOK — Dozens of Redshirt supporters placed flowers Wednesday morning at the pedestrian overpass where a taxi driver killed himself 12 years ago today.

Nattawut Saikua, Thida Thavornseth, Weng Tojirakarn are among dozens of people to converge on the overpass in front of Thairath Newspaper to mourn the death of Nuamthong Praiwan, who committed suicide to protest the 2006 coup.

“In my next life, I hope not to see another coup,” the 60-year-old man wrote in his suicide note, a message engraved onto a memorial pillar erected at the location.

Nuamthong hanged himself at the overpass on the night of Oct. 31, 2006, days after the Sept. 19 coup. One month before he killed himself, he was seriously injured after ramming his taxi into an army tank supporting the coup at the Royal Plaza.

Advertisement

A spokesman of the new junta, Col. Akkara Thiproj, played down his actions, saying that no one “would sacrifice their lives for ideology.”

In his suicide note, Nuamthong said he ended his life to disprove that.

Advertisement

Related stories:

Near-Forgotten Struggles Against Dictatorship and Repression