Thai Police in Refractive Cultural Practice

The Policing of Anti-government Protests: Thailand’s 2013–2014 Demonstrations and a Crisis of Police Legitimacy

“…Deployed by authoritarian governments to put down political opponents throughout the second half of twentieth century, the Thai police developed an antagonistic perception of protesters, which in effect informed how they should treat protesters. The short-lived representative democracy in the 1990s enabled a reform of the Thai police, but the return of authoritarian governments has forestalled this reform (Haanstad, 2008; Lim, 2010). Despite this backdrop, it would be mistaken to say that the Thai police always rely on repressive tactics in handling with protesters.…”

“…Apart from suppressing rising crimes in emerging urban areas, modern police were assigned to monitor minority groups. They were suspected to threaten political stability of modernizing Thailand (Haanstad, 2008; Lim, 2016). The relationship between the Thai police and ‘dissidents’ was generally founded on the basis of the state’s distrust of sections of society.…”

“…The most infamous policy involving the police was the ‘war on drugs’. The police were given a license to commit extrajudicial killings of a thousand of drugs suspects (Haanstad, 2008, pp. 146–254; Paungthong, 2010).…”

“…Moreover, parts of the army were afraid that Thaksin’s close alliance with the police would deprive them of their privilege and long-established political power. According to Haanstad, Thaksin’s police-backed rule was a justification of the military-backed coup in 2006 and a renewed royalist nationalism (Haanstad, 2008, p. 77; see also Chambers, 2009). This set in motion the cycle of divisive conflicts between ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ camps.…”

“…With Thaksin’s ties with the police, yellow shirt-backed government suspected that the police had done little to curb red shirts’ vandalism. This suspicion, regardless of how valid it is considering constant shifts of patrons among the police (Haanstad, 2008, pp. 259–271; Lim, 2010), shows the intensity of political polarization in Thailand.…”