Street protests in Thailand during 2019 to 2022

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic was adversely affecting Thailand amidst strong attacks especially by the youth groups on the government. The main force of Thai youth protests has made street protests in Thailand different from those of the past. By problematizing this emerging phenomenon, this paper proposes to tackle two research questions. How are the protests in Thailand during the Covid-19 pandemic different from those the past? How does the massive outbreak of protests generate implications for present and future Thailand? Therefore, this paper combines the theories of Radical Politics, Digital Activism and Contentious Politics, adopts qualitative research and quantitative research, mainly through documentary analysis, interviews and questionnaires to conduct a constructive research. This paper argues that the youth protests which took place in recent years had their shortcomings which, coupled with the strength of the government’s counter-measures to protests, led to continued but ineffective activities, with multiple conditions ultimately triggering a new period of deadlock in Thai political modernization. The paper tries to explain new methods of protest and counter-measures to protests, illustrating the impacts of social media on protests under the pandemic, and hoping in this way to enrich research on the development of street protests in Thailand.