NAKHON SI THAMMARAT—Soldiers have removed mysterious banners hung in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat that accused the newly appointed governor of being allied to the Redshirt movement.

The banners appeared in major intersections and roads in the province this morning. Witnesses said they were hung by a group of "men in black" who arrived in pick-up trucks and motorcycles. 

"Citizens of Muang Khon [nickname of Nakhon Si Thammarat province] do not want a Redshirt governor," the banners proclaimed. 

Pirasak Hinmuangkao, who served as director of Land Department under the previous government, was recently appointed by the Cabinet as governor of the southern province, replacing Apinan Suethanuwong. His term is due to begin on October 1.

Over 30 soldiers were later dispatched by 4th Region Army to remove all of the banners. Political protests of all kinds are banned by Thailand's military junta, which seized power in a coup d'etat on 22 May.

Thailand’s political sphere is generally divided along the Redshirt–Yellowshirt faultline; northern and northeastern Thailand is considered a stronghold of the Redshirt movement, while Bangkok and the southern provinces, including Nakhon Si Thammarat, are home to many Yellowshirt supporters.

Speaking to Matichon today, Mr. Pirasak said he believes the banners were the work of "ill-intentioned individuals" looking to discredit him.

"I am very uncomfortable because I didn't do anything wrong," Mr. Pirasak said, "I insist that I am not a Redshirt as accused, and I have never meddled with politics. I am a professional bureaucrat."

He added, "I hope the people in the province will understand me."

Mr. Pirasak was also a target of rumours earlier this year during the six month protest campaign that sought to oust the Redshirt-allied government eventually toppled in the coup. The rumour claimed that Mr. Pirasak ordered a floodgate to open and obstruct Petchkasem Road in an attempt to prevent southern Thais from joining the protests in Bangkok. 

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BANGKOK — Leading members of the Democrat Party have denied the allegation that their party supported the six month anti-government protest campaign launched at the end of last year.

The comments came in response to a complaint filed by Redshirt activist Sa-ngiam Samranrat asking the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Democrat Party on the grounds that it engaged in politics through non-parliamentary means. 

Mr. Sa-ngiam's complaint was based on the involvement of prominent Democrat party leaders in the six months of street protests staged against then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra starting last November. The former secretary-general of the Democrat Party, Suthep Thaugsuban, became the leader of the protest movement. 

"The party did not organise the protests," Wirat Kalyasiri, director of Democrat Party's legal department, said on Thursday, explaining that Mr. Suthep and other Democrat leaders had already resigned from the party when they joined and organised the protests. 

The People's Committee for Absolute Democracy With the King As Head of State (PCAD) started its campaign against Ms. Yingluck in December 2013, demanding that she be replaced by a royally-appointed Prime Minister and an unelected "People's Council." The protests came to an end on 22 May 2014 when the military seized power in a coup d’etat.

Mr. Suthep and seven other Democrats resigned from their party in November last year to the lead the escalating protests, which were sparked by the government's attempt to pass a bill that would have given amnesty to Ms. Yingluck's brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who currently lives in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption convictions.

"They resigned to demonstrate and struggle for the right cause in a democratic way," Mr. Wirat said. "Society has always been aware about our party's stance on this issue." 

The Democrat Party’s legal adviser also insisted that previous court rulings deemed the PCAD protests legal, peaceful assembly. 

Nipit Intarasombat, deputy chairman of Democrat Party, said the public should understand that his party never agreed to endorse the PCAD protests. He stressed that all illegal actions committed by former Democrat members during the campaign should not be used to prosecute the party as a whole. 

In 2007, Democrat Party was spared from a party dissolution verdict by the Constitutional Court in a lawsuit related to its boycott of the April 2006 national election. However, the court dissolved the former ruling Thai Rak Thai Party on the grounds that it allegedly bribed a number of smaller parties to participate in the boycotted election. 

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BANGKOK — Thailand’s military junta has scrapped its plans to appoint members of a national reform body through a selection committee and instead decided to choose the council's members on its own.

The junta initially set up a 14-member selection committee to narrow a pool of over 6,000 candidates for the 250-member National Reform Council (NRC), which will be tasked with implementing a wide range of reforms in Thailand over the next year.

But in an announcement signed on 19 September, which was only made public on Friday night, the junta's National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) abolished the committee and granted itself the power to determine the makeup of the NRC.

"The NCPO is already assisted by experts and advisers to consider the matter," NCPO spokesperson Col. Winthai Suvaree said yesterday. "So there is no need to set up a new committee."

Thailand is officially ruled by a semi-civilian interim government, but the NCPO is authorized through the 2014 interim constitution to unilaterally intervene in the administration of the country "regardless of its effects on the legislative, executive or judiciary."

The latest move by the NCPO will ensure that the junta retains significant influence over all prominent bodies of the interim administration. Members of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the Cabinet were similarly handpicked by the NCPO and junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has taken up the post as Prime Minister.

According to the junta's "roadmap" for Thailand's return to democratic rule, the reform council will work with the NLA and the government to enact reforms across numerous sectors of Thai society, including politics, economy, culture, and media. 

The junta says a national election will be held in October 2015 at the earliest, if the reforms and "national reconciliation" process are completed by that time.

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BANGKOK — Student activists have claimed responsibility for hanging two banners denouncing the 2006 coup in Bangkok today, on the 8th anniversary of the military takeover.

The first banner was hung on the pedestrian bridge in front of Chulalongkorn University in downtown Bangkok early this morning. It read: "8 Years, 19 September, the slain democracy is still dead." 

Another banner was later erected from a pedestrian bridge on Viphavadee Road in northern Bangkok, right in front of the headquarters of Thai Rath newspaper. "Mr. Thai Democracy, Born 24 June 1932. Died 19 September 2006," the banner proclaimed, referring to the 1932 revolution that established constitutional democracy in Thailand.

Police officers removed the two banners shortly after they were hung.

On 19 September 2006 army chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratglin deposed then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as he was about to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, USA. The coup was the beginning of an effort to eradicate Mr. Thaksin and his influence from politics. The more recent 22 May coup, which toppled the government of Mr. Thaksin's sister, is considered a continuation of that effort. 

In a statement posted on their website, the Thai Student Centre for Democracy (TSCD) took responsibility for the banner on Viphavadee Road, and said the banner in central Bangkok was hung by an affiliate student group, the Chulalongkorn Community for the People (CCP).

According to the TSCD, the pedestrian bridge on Viphavadee Road was chosen because it was the location where taxi driver Nuamthong Praiwan hanged himself to death in protest of the 2006 coup.

"Today is the 8th anniversary of the coup, the day that led to the first loss of Thai life because of the coup, Nuamthong Praiwan," the statement says. "And it is not the only life that was lost. So many other lives were sacrificed in the violence that escalated after the coup."

It continues, "The TSCD is hereby using the opportunity of the 8th anniversary of the 19 September coup to remind all Thais of the vile and undeniable consequences of military coups.”

On 30 September 2006, Mr. Nuamthong rammed a taxi painted with an anti-coup slogan into a military tank that was stationed in Bangkok's Royal Plaza. He was injured by the incident, which he said was an effort to display his condemnation of the coup. He also told the press he was willing to die in the attack.

However, Col. Akkara Thiproj, deputy spokesperson for the military junta, dismissed Mr. Nuamthong's motive and claimed that "nobody’s ideals are so great that they would sacrifice their lives for them."

Mr. Nuamthong later hanged himself in front of Thai Rath headquarters on 31 October 2006. In his farewell letter, he said he wanted to disprove Col. Akkara’s  "insult.” He also wrote that the date of his suicide was chosen as a tribute to the popular uprising in October 1973. 

"I'd like to tell my children and my wife to be proud of me. Do not be sad. I hope I will not see another coup in my next life," Mr. Nuamthong wrote in the letter.

There has been no immediate reaction from the authorities regarding the banners, though all forms of dissent and protest are banned by the the junta's National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Authorities have arrested dozens of activists in recent months for violating the ban, sending some of them to face trial in military courts. 

Yesterday, the military blocked an academic discussion on "Demise of Foreign Dictatorships" and detained the panel's organisers. 

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