Nearly six million people have suffered from state harassment in Thailand for having different political viewpoints and wanting to reform the government, the Move Forward said this week during parliamentary sessions.
The party’s comments came following various local reports of university and high school students being intimidated by state officials, school administrations and teachers for protesting and conducting civil disobedience campaigns against Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s government.
Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn, a Move Forward Party (MFP)’s party-list MP and spokesperson of the party, said that more than two million students are now “victims” to intimidations.
“These students have around four million parents so combining together, nearly six million are now being victimized by harassment,” he said.
The MP cited findings from the Thai Lawyers For Human Rights center that there are at least 40 cases of harassment against students every day.
He did not say what the cases were about nor the period of time when the findings were conducted.
Natthaphon Teepsuwan, the education minister who is now under fire for his comments that the police could arrest students in their schools if they broke the law, was not present at the parliament session on Wednesday.
This means that the MFP’s motion will not be heard by the minister until next week.
“If we wait until next week then it is going to be 200 more students being harassed by the school administrations and their teachers,” he said.
“However, we are willing to wait until next week in order to get some answers from the minister,” he added.
Wiroj told reporters on Wednesday morning that police officers and state officials from Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) are applying pressure on school staff members to stop students from conducting civil disobedience campaigns against the government.
Some local reports also show unidentified plainclothed officials taking photos of students inside school grounds around the country.
Teachers and school administrators are using verbal and physical abuse against students who speak out against the government in school. Some are even being threatened with expulsion, Wiroj said.
He added that the government promised to provide spaces for students to express their opinions but now police officers are scouting schools looking for young dissidents instead.
“Students are using hand gesture, raising empty papers and tying white ribbons to express themselves and these actions are within their constitutional rights,” he added.
Wiroj also said that if Minister Natthaphon was able to show his support for the People’s Democratic Reform Committee in 2013 then students should be able to exercise their constitutional rights as well.
