"Hunger Games" Protest Against Bangkok's Coup

Six months after the military seized power in a coup, about 20 media-savvy protesters allowed themselves to be detained for illegally waving three-finger salutes, inspired by "The Hunger Games" film series which portrays repressed civilians challenging a dictator.

On Thursday (November 20), more than 100 police and plain clothed security forces converged on prestigious Siam Paragon cinema here in Bangkok after anti-coup protesters promised to give away 160 free tickets for the premier of the latest sequel, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I.”

In the cinema's lobby, university student Nachacha Kongudom posed while saluting with three fingers in front of the movie's huge poster, allowed herself to be photographed by the media, and was then taken away by police.

"The 'Mockingjay' movie reflects what's happening in our society," Nachacha, 21, told The Associated Press before being detained.

"When people have been suppressed for some time, they would want to resist and fight for their rights," she said.

"And so now we found our #ThaiMockingjay!" tweeted an anti-coup activist known as @freeMindTH, who posted a photo of Ms. Nachacha saluting and compared her to actress Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen character who leads the fictional rebellion.

Nearby, police detained two other protesters for also displaying the salute which Thai dissidents appropriated from the film as their desperate symbol against the coup.

"I believe the students' symbolic protests that are happening in many areas at the moment will not escalate, because I believe the majority of the people understand what the NCPO and the government are doing," Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwna told reporters on Thursday (Nov. 20), referring to the junta's dominant National Council for Peace and Order.

"The government is currently working to build reconciliation," said Gen. Prawit who is also deputy prime minister.

Two other Bangkok cinemas suddenly cancelled their heavily advertised Thursday screenings of "Mockingjay" fearing a political confrontation, despite expectations the cinemas would lose tens of thousands of dollars.

The activists had tried to buy 200 tickets from the two cinemas for their free distribution contest.

Their Facebook contest was headlined: "Raise Three Fingers, Bring Popcorn and Go to the Theater".

It asked contestants, "How does the Capitol resemble Bangkok?" -- a reference to the movie's center of power -- and attracted more than 240 replies to the Facebook page of Bangkok's Thammasat University-based League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy (LLTD).

Hours earlier on Wednesday, five students walked up to a podium where coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha was speaking in the northeast town of Khon Kaen, and displayed three-finger salutes in front of him, surprising the general, his audience and security staff.

Their T-shirts said: "Do Not Want a Coup.”

Gen. Prayuth, who is portrayed by Thai media as frequently lashing out at critics and lacking patience, calmly asked his audience, "Anyone else want to protest? If so, please do. Then I can speak.”

Police detained and later released the five students on Wednesday.

Khon Kaen is the heartland of political opposition to the junta led by Gen. Prayuth who was on his first one-day visit there since seizing power.

Thailand's northeast mostly supported popularly elected former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra who Gen. Prayuth ousted on May 22.

On Wednesday night, 11 students from the LLTD staged an outdoor dinner in front of Bangkok's Democracy Monument in solidarity with the five Khon Kaen students, and allowed themselves to be photographed waving three fingers.

Police then detained the 11 students and later released them.

A handful of students elsewhere in Thailand staged similar protests.

Under the junta's martial law regime, free speech and the salute are banned.

Violators are detained, told to sign documents promising to stop protesting, or else undergo "attitude adjustment" in military camps.

Most dissent appears daily on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, and includes Thais and foreigners engaged in scholarly analysis, calls for democracy, and satirical blasts against Gen. Prayuth's regime.

Protesters began displaying the three-fingered salute during their first street demonstrations in Bangkok which attracted hundreds of people shortly after the May 22 coup.

When the newest "Hunger Games" film opened in London in mid-November, protesters there held signs declaring their support for "District Thai" -- their made-up extension of the movie's fictional geographic districts which suffer under totalitarian rule.

"It is sort of thrilling that something that happens in the movie can become a symbol for people, for freedom or protest," Francis Lawrence, the movie's director, told reporters in London on Nov. 15.

"But when [Thai] kids started getting arrested for it...it takes the thrill out of it, and it becomes much more dangerous, and it makes the feeling much more complex. When people are getting arrested for doing something from your movie, it's troubling," Mr. Lawrence said.

Gen. Prayuth controls Thailand unhindered after he cancelled the constitution and suspended all political parties and elections.

He ordered military courts, with no right to appeal, to punish dissenters.

Gen. Prayuth retired as army chief on September 20 and arranged to become prime minister, while remaining head of the junta's NCPO.

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and recipient of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final chapter, "Ceremonies and Regalia," in a new book titled King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective.

His websites are
http://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets
https://gumroad.com/l/RHwa

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