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anon naMpa The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2021 Awardee By Don Tajaroensuk FEATURE
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2021�06��.indd 11
WHO IS ANON? Anon grew up in a farming family in Roi Et. He started his career as a human right lawyer in 2006. After the coup of 2014, Anon became a well-known political activist. His activism was in the spotlight all through 2020 leading the unforgettable Thai political movement. Anon is one of the most significant leaders of the “Resistant Citizens” and the “Ratsadorn” group. During his career as a lawyer, Anon mostly took cases defending the vulnerable. During the Red Shirt democratic protests of 2011, Anon was a volunteer lawyer to many Red Shirt political victims. He was a lawyer of the tragic Lese-Majeste 112 case of “Arrkong,” an older gentleman prosecuted under this Section 112 charge for sending an SMS message defaming the royal family. He was also the lawyer for Borkor-Laijot and Jatupat Boonpattaraksa, the latter being the 2017 Gwangju Prize laureate. Anon also politically criticized members of
June 2021
Many Thai democratic activists responded that Anon deserved the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights as the representative of Thai activists. It is important to know who Anon Nampa is and what he did before becoming
the laureate of the 2021 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. Currently, Anon has been in pre-trial detention for over a month with bail denied by the court, the stated reason being that if released, he would continue to defame the king and lead society back to a state of unrest.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
he past year has become an unforgettable one for Thailand’s democratic movement, with Anon Nampa occupying the frontline of democratic protests, challenging the untouchable taboo in Thailand of calling for reformation of the monarchy. His powerful speech on August 3, 2020 broke the Thai taboo, which no one before dared to speak of in public. “Ceiling-breaking” is the term to describe the democratic phenomenon after Anon’s speech that turned Thai society into one more open to social debate regarding the monarchy. “Speaking freely to reform the monarchy system must be feasible in Thai society in order to reach a better society,” Anon said on August 3. In Thailand, everyone knows that criticizing the monarchy is prohibited. Anyone who frankly blames, defames, condemns, or even shows disrespect to the monarchy could be imprisoned under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code (Lese-Majeste). Anon was the first person to bravely voice his truth in the public arena, an act for which he most surely must have known what the outcome would be.
2021-05-26 �� 9:30:01
