Thesis Book Update — 26/2/2021

B.F.A Bachelor of Fine Art

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi

School of Architecture and Design

Communication Design Program

60120500609

Chalida Piyajittra (Pat)

Advisor Soraya Nakasuwan

Duck Rally

Duck Rally is an online board game about how the Thai government threatens Thai activists, which are against human rights and democracy.

This game is about the land called ‘Duckland’ which is ruled under the military government and all ducks are forced to do hard work with small pay. One day one of the ducks stands up and tells everyone that this land belongs to all the ducks, not just the government or the loyalists. They decided to stand up against them and do everything to get their Duckland back while the military government is using all the unfair laws and actions to prevent them from losing their power.

Keywords. Oligarchy, Human right, Thai politics, Thai Laws, the Thai government

There are no democratic in-laws and actions the government uses against people and activists in Thailand. The main unfair laws are section 112 or Lèse-majesté Law and section 116 or sedition Law which are categorized under crimes against national security but have unclear definitions then, the government can prosecute these accused easily in the name of the state for its security to whoever against them with harsh punishment. Or threatening activists by jailing them in the military camp base for a week when they tried to say their opinion about the military government, sending no uniform officers to threaten activists or their family at their homes, and cruelly assassinated activists and dumped the bodies in Mekong River as a warning to other activists. These actions and laws are not in the democracy ideal at all and clearly against human rights.

Introductory Background

Firstly, I was interested in the hate speech between people who share different opinions and how logical fallacy is involved in the discussions, then after the research and scouting in two sides of the political talk group on Facebook, I realized that both of them are nationalists but they do not share the same idea and hate each other aggressively. From the Thammasart Massacre on 6th October 1979 that the right-wingers violently attacked and murdered people and students from left-wingers, so I started to look more on ultranationalists from basic Thainess propaganda such are the Thai national anthem lyrics, other Thai songs, quotes, beliefs, and others.

I decided to explore their love for their country that becomes violent actions to people they think are enemies and enemy function. I made a video with two guys with different colors of shirts standing next to each other, and then when the national anthem begins, the guy with the white shirt hits the other guy until the song finishes and smiles at the end of the video as he thinks it is the right thing to do and feeling proud of himself.

Then I stepped back and looked for more details on why they do not share the same idea which I found that in Thailand there are not only two sides of politics, but tribalism. I differentiate those tribals and found that there are 18 sides in the main right-wingers and left-wingers sides.

Since there are many groups of people to focus on, I decided to focus on the main reasons for all this, which is the government and its system. I read Siam Mapped by Thongchai Winichakul and found out about enemy function. Enemy Function is mostly used by the government and decides what is good or bad for the state by pointing it through propaganda. For example, calling activists “country-hater” (ชังชาติ) to make civilians think that they are the threats to the country meanwhile what actively creates the enemy and produce most threats to Thailand is the state’s security mechanism. Then, I tried to find why they are so scared of losing their power which I found that Thailand does not have democracy but an oligarchy. An oligarchy is a form of the power structure in which power the small number of people not like democracy which is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Through propaganda and enemy functions where the government uses against activists, they remind me of board games such as Monopoly and Werewolf. After that, I did research more on other board games and found that many board games are inspired by politics such as Bangkok Big Brother, Coconut Empire, Secret Hitler, and Coup.

and finally, I decided to make a board game that makes people understand the suffering of people and activists from the government.

Research Questions

• How to persuade people from the opposite side of politics?
• How to make people feel the suffering of activists against the government?
• How to make the government supporters agree with my idea?
• What are the reasons why movements from the activists cannot achieve democracy?

Objectives

This project aims to share my opinion without saying it by letting the users experience it themselves by playing my board games and makes people see through the main problems of this political situation.

In this board game, the users will be an activist fighting for the democracy they deserve with movements those activists in Thailand have done before meanwhile, the laws and actions from the government will stop them from that.

Intellectual Framework

“The theme of the struggle for independence-or, to put it more precisely, the imminence of a foreign enemy-has become the magic box to generate the discourse of national security in history as well as in the present.” written in Siam Mapped A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation by Thongchai Winichakul from page 166, Enemy Function. The enemy function has been used as an excuse to create an undoubtful discourse for the state to put in Thai people’s heads causing paranoia, making the belief that the independence of the country is the greatest above individual’s freedom, creating otherness, and an enemy in particular for political and social control. For example, calling activists country-hater, creating the song called “traitor of the land” (หนักแผ่นดิน) which wrote by Senior Colonel Boonsong Hakritsuek in 1975, and broadcasting through radio and television rapidly during the 6th October 1979 or Thammasart Massacre to convince people to hate communist while framing the activists and students that they are in communists’ side and caused violently attacked and murdered. Without the enemy’s function, the military will not be necessary. The enemy function needs only to be concrete, real, and identifiable as the opposite of We-self, regardless of who or what that otherness is which finally becomes the tool for the government control’s power.

On 26th February 2020, Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn accused the Internal Security Operations Command of abusing its budget to fund IOs against government critics. Accusing the government of generating hatred with the ultimate goal of dividing society. Verbally abuse people from freedom of speech, humiliating them if they are not supporting the government, sharing fake news to spread a bad image of activists and other party members, breaking unity among civilians to maintain the state’s control power. He showed the secret government document with the Garuda badge on top that there is a workshop for the informal operation to learn how to post, how often they should be posting fake news, reporting posts from activists, suggested creating a fake account that does not relate to their real account so, they could not be caught, submitting a report of the mission in the group chat every day, financial support on internet and cellphones’ bills, and rewarding the certificate and money to whoever owns a fake news page with most likes every month.

The issues of Section 112 or the Lèse-majesté Law, an article by iLaw Freedom. Section 112 is the section in the Thai criminal code that criminalizes and punishes anyone who threatens, defames, or insults the Monarch and related members of the royal family to be criminalized and jailed. This section is categorized under crimes against national security and can be accused by anyone at any anytime. It contains an unclear definition but harsh punishment. On 19th January 2021, Aunchan Preererd has been sentenced to jail from section 112 and cybercrime for 87 years but decreased to 43 years from sharing 29 video clips that contain the Monarch criticizing. Also, it depends on the political situation as during the protest from November 2020 — January 2021, the increase of the case was at least 42 cases meanwhile there were zero cases between January 2018 — October 2020. From this, it prevents people from freedom of speech.