Protest In Thailand 2020 – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

PROTEST

• Since protests started in Thailand in July this year, seeking the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and demanding reform of the Thai monarchy, the movement has seen protesters adopt different mascots to get their message across; everything from singing the Thai version of one of the 1980s musical Les Misérables’ principal songs “Do You Hear the People Sing?” to dinosaur costumes to displaying the three-finger salute.

Why are protesters using inflatable ducks?

• News reports quote protesters saying that these inflatable ducks had initially been brought out onto the streets as a joke, while some protestors have told news publications that the rubber ducks were used to mock the government and the monarchy.
• But they took on a new role as the Thai government’s crackdown on the protests intensified.

What are these yellow inflatable ducks?

• Observers say that this yellow inflatable rubber duck has been inspired by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s series of floating sculptures titled ‘Rubber Duck’ that has been exhibited in several cities around the world, including Hong Kong, Baku and Sydney.
• But a few weeks after it was installed in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in May 2013, China’s government began imposing censorship on online discussions of the term “Big Yellow Duck” after activists started photoshopping images of the duck into the iconic photo of the Tank Man from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. Since then, this yellow duck has become an unusual symbol of protests around the world

Where else have these ducks surfaced in protests?

• In 2016, groups that were calling for the impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff began using the rubber duck as a mascot. But at that time, Hofman, the artist, had claimed that the use of the figure by these protest groups amounted to copyright infringement.
• Versions of these rubber ducks were seen during the 2017-2018 anti-corruption protests in Russia, where among other demands, protestors called for the resignation of Vladimir Putin and his government.

What happened in Thailand?

• Social media platforms were flooded with images of these inflatable rubber ducks from this week’s protests in Thailand. Several of these images show deflated rubber ducks stained with purple dye that protesters said had been projected from water cannons launched by Thai police.

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