International workshop

The Oct 6 massacre and aftermath—violence and democracy

30th, June, 2018
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa,
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Organized by Core Project (Anthropology)“The Potential Value of Indigenous Knowledge in Managing Hazards
in Asia and Africa: The Anthropological Explorations into
the Linkage of Micro-Macro Perspectives 2”

Language: English

International workshop

The Oct 6 massacre and aftermath—violence and democracy
Editor- in-chief

Ryoko NISHII
Assistant editor

Yutaka YOSHIDA

Copyright Ⓒ Contributors 2019
Published on March 25, 2019

Core Project (Anthropology) of Research Institute for Languages and Cultures (ILCAA)“‌The Potential Value of Indigenous Knowledge in Managing Hazards in Asia and Africa:
The Anthropological Explorations into the Linkage of Micro-Macro Perspectives 2”
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
3-11-1 Asahi-cho, Fuchu-shi
Tokyo 183-8534
Japan

Cover Design: Fumiyo ISHIGURO
Printed by Word-On, Co., Ltd.

Contents

Introduction: Ryoko Nishii (ILCAA)............................................................................................. 1

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre
Puangthong Pawakapan (Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University,
Visiting Scholar, CSEAS, Kyoto University)............................................................................. 7

Comments
Discussant 1: Thongchai Winichakul (IDE-JETRO).................................................................. 21
Discussant 2: Masaki Takahashi (Musashino Univerisity)......................................................... 27

Discussion....................................................................................................................................... 35

Introduction

Introduction
Ryoko Nishii(ILCAA)

Thank you very much for coming all the way to the ILCAA far away from the center of Tokyo.
It is such good weather, but I was thinking of an opening phrase in such a big weather, but actually
today, it is very hot, so maybe it is dangerous to stay outside all the time. It is better to stay inan air-conditioned room. Now I would like to explain my intention around organizing today’s
workshop and give some context for today’s presentation by Professor Puangthong.
It is fair to say that Thailand’s democracy has been in crisis since the 19th coup held on May
22 in 2014 resulted in the military resuming control of the government. Given the circumstances,
I wonder what Thai people who wish democracy for their fair and hopeful society could do tofurther its cause. Thai society has been afflicted with divisions and conflict between so-called
red-shirts and yellow-shirts since an earlier coup in September 19, 2006. The red-shirts began as
supporters of deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (He just came to Japan. I did
not know, about it, Ajahn Shintani gave me a photo of Thaksin, maybe, in Tokyo) who was ousted
by a military coup in September 2006. The yellow-shirts represent those opposed to Thaksin andwere the force behind the street protests that led to the 2006 coup.
Last year, at the 13th International Conference on Thai Studies at Chiang Mai, I attended a panel
discussion chaired by Ajahn Phuagthong titled, ‘The Forgetting: A Talk on Public Memory of the
6th October’. This led to me getting to know of a movement promoting democracy in present-day
Thailand, and resisting the anti-democratic tide.

1

Introduction

My interest in the October 6th massacre comes from conversations I had in 2009 with thehusband of a friend who was present, and shot, at Thammasat University on October 6th, 1976.
With luck, he survived, and was able to join communists in the jungles. Around the time I had thisconversation in 2009, I was trying to process the shocking fact that ordinary citizens, including
taxi drivers and farmers, were openly criticizing the royal family, and calling for their removal.
In my 30-plus years of fieldwork, mainly in southern Thailand, I had not heard such negative
sentiments of Rama IX. I had to unfortunately admit that new divisions had opened up in Thai
society, not only between areas (red in the North-Northeast, versus yellow in the South maybe
around Bangkok), but also within friendly and familial groups, between husbands and wives,
parents and children, young and old. Divisions have appeared even among the sahai people (sahaiin Thai, the name they are called of in the jungle) who had entered after the massacre in the jungle
and shared democratic ideals, as well as experiences of harsh jungle life.
I am hoping we can find a better way today. In late September 2016, Ajahn Puangthong and
Ajahn Thongchai began documenting the atrocities that happened at Thammasat University over
40 years ago. What has been uncovered is striking, making a strong case that to face repressed
and traumatic memories of that place and point in time should be the first step in rethinking Thai
society, and indeed the rest of our world. I now refer to three women interviewees’ experiences of
the Thammasat University Massacre. Two of the interviews were conducted on August 4 in 2009.
The name, Nai, she was born in 1955. She is Muslim. Born in Bangkok, Nai was the third childamong seven brothers and sisters. Her father was a member of parliament for the Democratic
Party elected to represent the Songkhla region in southern Thailand. However, at the time of themassacre on Oct 6, he was refused access to Thammasat, where Nai was being held, by claims thegovernment’s collapse had canceled his status as an MP. Nai noted that her captors kept claimingthat the captives were Vietnamese, not Thai. The male captives were stripped to the waist, and2

Introduction

women were only permitted to wear underwear. Just as she was taking off her clothes, her namewas called and she was allowed to meet her father at the gates of Thammasat University. She
wonders to this day why she was alleged to be Vietnamese even though she had clearly been bornin Thailand, like her parents and grandparents.
The next interviewee is Tim. Nai and Tim are now living together in Chiang Mai. They arefriends. Tim was born in 1955 also She is a Buddhist. Tim was also born in Bangkok but her
parents came from Pathumthani. She was the first child among six brothers and sisters. Her father
was a soldier and her mother sold food at the local market. Because her parents were too busy totake care of her, she stayed with the family of Chit Phumisak. Chit Phumisak is a very famous
author, philologist, historian, poet, and communist. Chit Phumisak was arrested and shot dead in
1966, and Tim remembers Phumisak’s mother telling her why.
On October 6th 1976, Tim fled Thammasat for the river, leaving behind friends who had been
shot, with blood all over their clothes. Tim recalls telling herself at the time that she could not
help them, and that she should run as fast as she could to survive. She ran away with a friend who
could not swim, and threw a garbage box into the river to make a float so that her friend could
cross the river with her. She described vividly how she escaped the soldiers who were at the timeshooting students indiscriminately. Both Nai and Tim entered the jungle after the massacre; Nai
in Songkhla, and Tim, in the upper Northeast.
The third person who I interviewed is Suchada Chakpisuth (whom Ajahn Puangthong and Ajahn
Thongchai know) after the 13th International Conference on Thai Studies last year. She actually
acted in the drama performance at Thammasat University which was utilized to justify the violent
attack in 1976. Her father had migrated from China and ran a small shoe shop. Their family waspoor but loving. Frequently witnessing police extorting poor shop owners like her father, Suchadabegan acting in dramas protesting for social justice during high school, before entering Thammasat

3Introduction

University in 1976.
As Ajahn Punagthong detailed in her presentation, on October 5, as thousands of first-gradestudents were due to take examinations, performances were held protesting against the return offormer military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn to Thailand from Singapore. The examination hallsomehow remained locked, and so about 2000 students unwittingly attended the performance.
Returning home after performing, Suchada noticed police officers following her, so she took theback streets. Upon hearing reports over the house radio of performances that were consideredinsulting to the crown prince, she rushed back to Thammasat still wearing her uniform. Suchada
was at Thammasat until the night of Oct 6, and like Tim, managed to escape by crossing the rivereven though she could not swim. Some male students helped her by sending her to a safe-house
where girls disguised themselves as laborers, changing from school uniforms to shirts and phatung(a cloth worn around the waist). Suchada said of that time, “The police and soldiers treated us asif we were not human. We had no mothers, no fathers, no relatives.” Then, she entered the jungle,
being sent as far as Cambodia, and only returning to Thailand in 1979. Over 40 years later,
Suchada still remembers the voice of student leader Ajahn Thongchai calling repeatedly during
the attack, “Soldiers, police officers, please do not shoot us. We have no weapons!” Although her
story continues, I will stop here today. I just wanted to convey the general atmosphere of violenceat Thammasat on that day, October 6th, 1976.
I would like to quote the following words from Presentiments of Violence-Ifa Fuyu andOkinawa’s Crisis by Ichiro Toyama: “The matter I would like to consider through ‘historiographyof memory’ is the possibility of resisting military violence. The possibility of struggling against
military violence in a world where everyday lives are displaced into battle fields... We should
articulate this possibility from the perspective of everyday life.” Toyama refers to Takahashi
Kazumi’s short essay In the Sight of the Dead, which is an introductory chapter of a book4

Introduction

describing people killed by police in the 1960s and 1970s in Japan. “From the position of thecorpse of someone killed by police power, the corpse cannot speak but the last image of the person
beside them remains on their eyes. The corpse with this image exists.” He suggests that we,
who live alongside the corpse, should proceed as if we were the last person the victim saw, when
considering that we may one day resist violence. I hope we can find possibilities for quelling
imminent violence today by preserving and analyzing precious memories of the October 6th
massacre. Thank you very much.
Now I would like to introduce Ajahn Puangthong. I met her last year at the International
Conference of Thai Studies at Chiang Mai as I have already mentioned. She organized the panelon the Oct. 6th Masaccre. I was very impressed by the panel. So, I decided to invite her to talk
today using the chace of Aj Puangthong’s visiting at Kyoto University. Today’s topic is ‘Challengesof Documenting the October 6th Massacre in the Amnesic Thai Society’. Please start, Aj
Phuangthong.

5

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre
Puangthong Pawakapan(Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University,
Visiting Scholar, CSEAS, Kyoto University)

Thank you so much, Ajahn Ryoko, for inviting me to give a talk today and thank to everyone forcoming to the talk today.
[“#” indicates slide number]#2
Actually, I am not an expert on the October massacre at all. I never researched on this topic
and I am not the Octobrist generation. I was in grade 7 when the massacre took place. But theselast two years I have been involved in the project of documentation of the October massacre in theform of the online archives. Ajahn Thongchai, me, and a couple of colleagues decided to set up thearchives.
I have myself been interested in the documentation affairs before. In 2010, there was agovernment’s crack down of the red shirt protestors in Bangkok which led to 92 people killed. My
colleague in several institutes and I set up an ad hoc fact-finding team. We produced the 1,200-page
report, which challenges the government-sponsored commission.
#3
I am involved in the Oct 6 online archives because in October 2015 Ajahn Thongchai told me

7

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacrethat he believed that there were more than one person being hanged on Oct 6, 1976 but he was
not sure how many. For almost 40 years, we thought there was only one person being hanged. It
was a shock to me. How come this basic information has been neglected by people, including
myself, who claimed to care about this issue. After almost 40 years, we still were unable to grasp
the basic fact even though we use the pictures of the hanged victims constantly. You can find thepicture on the website, in the print, and the books. The hanging picture becomes the emblem of
the massacre. Since then, I got involved with the October 6th online archives.
#4
I understand that some people here may not be familiar with the history of the October massacre,so I will give a brief account of the massacre and also explain the status of October 6th history inThai society. I will explain the objectives and activities of the archives and the challenges. Then, I
will try to explain why all these facts about the massacre has been neglected for a long time. I use
the term ‘disremembering’ among the people. The last note will discuss, if it is possible for thetraumatic history of October 6th to have a place in Thai society, which is deeply divided in theselast 10 years.
#5
Let us look at the brief history of the massacre. In October 1973, a popular uprising overthrew
the military government of General Thanom and General Prapas. After the topple of the regime,
Thai society witnessed a series of demonstrations by farmers, workers and students. They
were demanding equality and justice. The students also became increasingly radicalized. They
intensified the fear of communism among the conservative elites. Meanwhile, the communist
movements in the neighboring countries were getting stronger and stronger too. In 1975, all the8Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

three countries were won by the communists.
Therefore, the fear led to the massacre in order to end the radical student movement. Besides, acouple years before the massacre, the right wing elites and the media were trying to dehumanize
the students by labelling them as ‘scum of the earth’, the enemy of the three pillars of the nation,and lackeys of communist aliens. It happened on the daily basis. That is why we saw such hatred
so clearly on that morning at Thammasat University and Sanam Luang.
#6
A month before the massacre, the rightist elites brought General Thanom, who was thenordained as a novice, back to Thailand with the aim to stir up student protest, which certainly took
place at Thammasat University. Students planned to do it in early October. Then, on September
24th, two activists who were workers for the Electricity Generation of Thailand and lived in
Nakhon Pathom province, a two-hour drive from Bangkok. They put up anti-Thanom posters
in Nakhon Pathom, and in that early morning they were found being hanged in a public area, so
it became a big news nationwide. Five police were arrested, but after the massacre, the case justwent quietly, and nobody was held accountable for these two guys. No one held accountable forthe massacre either.
#7
Anyway, the hanging of the two electricians led the students to stage the mock hanging aspart of the protest against the return of Thanom. One of the performers allegedly resembled thecrown prince Vajiralongkorn, who is now the king of Thailand. The right-wing media and themilitary radio hosts accused students of insulting and defaming the crown prince. They urged andmobilized the right-wing thugs to come to Thammasat to attack students. There 40 students and9Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

people were killed. Many were tortured, lynched, and sexually assaulted. In that morning five
police and the thugs died too. Over 3000 students were arrested, and later about 3000 students
fled to join the Communist Party of Thailand in the hills. In the late afternoon of that October 6th,
the military coup took place, and the extreme rightist government was set up by the coup d’état.
#8
Later, the people, both the state forces and the right-wing thugs involved in the massacre
were granted amnesty from the military set up parliament. No one was held accountable for themassacre. 3000 student activists fled to the jungle, but a couple of years later, they left the CPT
because of internal conflict. The military government pardoned them and allowed them to returnand resume their formal lives. Ajahn Thongchai, who was imprisoned for two years, was thenfreed. Therefore, the October massacres became a historical chapter that, according to Ajahn
Thongchai, is not forgettable, but it is difficult for the Thai society to recognize it. I think thiscaptures the status of the massacre until today. It is difficult to recognize it, and incorporate it ina national history. It has no place in historical textbooks. October 6th is the disturbing Chapterof the Thai nation, and the trauma for the victims, but it remained unresolved. Though people
seem to know who and which institutions were behind the massacre either directly or indirectly,
they cannot discuss the issue openly and straightforwardly for fear of political repercussions.
Because people believe that the institutions, which were complicit in oppression remain powerfulin present day. The lack of accountability is the proof in itself. Even the survivors themselves, theOctobrists, consciously limit discussion of the massacre.
The first 20 years after the massacre was a silenced period. Even though there were annual
commemorations at Thammasat, it was small and quiet until the 20th year after the massacre.
Ajahn Thongchai urged the Octobrists to break their silence. He urged that it was time to give the10Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

victims a full recognition they deserved. It is time for Thai society to come to term with its past.
Also, because Thai politics became more open, and the Octobrists were quite successful in many
professions. Many became well-known academics, businessmen, and politicians. Their status insociety was respected. A big commemoration was held in 1996. Since then, people talked andlearned more about the massacre, although it circulated among small circles of the Octobrists, andthe universities (the students and the lecturers). Majority of the Thai population do not know or
have heard about the massacre though.
Anyway, the terms state crime, massacre, dehumanization, hate crime became commonly used
to describe October 6th. Video clips and pictures of October 6th were distributed and reproduced
widely online. However, this created a paradox. On the one hand, the issue of who were behindthe massacre remained sensitive. There is a ceiling of discussion about this matter. You cannot
discuss much about the role of the monarchy either. Therefore, the massacre seemed to reach theunwritten consensus that we cannot discuss the matter further than this.
#9
On the other hand, the increasing public recognition of the massacre gives people an illusionthat we have known enough about the massacre. Though we cannot discuss the issue of who andwhat institutions were behind it, it seems that we knew enough who was who in the massacre andabout the dead victims. In fact, after forty years there are very few researches on the massacre.
One of them is by Ajahn Thongchai. One of them was about conflict among the elites only.
After we realized there were some missing pieces about the massacre, Aj Thongchai and I
agreed to create the online archives called ‘Documentation of 6th October’ (www.doct6.com) andlinks it with the Facebook account. It began with Aj Thongchai’s donation. I wrote several articles
about our findings and put it on Facebook because people use Facebook more than the website.

11

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

The objective of this online achieve is for people to be able to access the primary sources easily.
We put up all primary resources, such as autopsy reports and newspapers. All newspapers thatwere published in the September and October 1976. So that people can have access to all the pressat that time. People always mentioned Dao Siam as if it was the only ultra-rightist press. In my
opinion there were more than Dao Siam. In addition, the project had interviewed several family
members of the dead victims and friends. The other objective of our archive is to honor andrehumanize the victims.
Another objective of the archive is to honor and rehumanize the dead victims. As I told you
about the not knowing exactly about how many people being hanged on October 6th, I then asked
myself what else I did not know.
#10
I told myself that I had known very little about the identities of the victims and the impacts on
their families. I did not know the faces of the victims. During the commemorations, we did noteven have the pictures of all the victims. We only have a few. So, I asked my junior colleague
Ms. Pattaraporn Phoothong to help me do a documentary film, entitled Respectfully Yours. I want
the film to tell people about the individuality of the victims, and the impacts on their families, tomake the public hear their voices. During the production process, Pattaraporn and I looked at the
pictures and video clips of the massacre. We, then, came to the conclusion that there were at least
five people being hanged on that morning. The evidences we used were not secret. It is on theprints, the websites, and in the video clips on the YouTube. But no one had cared to look at themcarefully.
I decided to organize a public seminar at Chulalongkorn University on September 30, 2016.
Pattaraporn showed the audience about the findings. But on that day we could identify one

12Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

victim only. That was Wichitchai Amornkul, the sophomore at Chulalongkorn University. People
knew since 1976 that Wichitchai was hanged but thought that he was the only hanged victim. So,
people wrongly identified all the pictures of hanged victims as Wichitchai even though they were
not him. Anyway, what is astonishing is that at the end of the seminar, someone, an Octobrists,
walked to me and said she and her friends knew one of the hanged victim. His name was Kamol
Kaewkrithai. They had known since 1976 that Kamol was hanged on October 6 but they neverdiscussed about him in public. Even though they knew Ajarn Thongchai and knew that he had
been working on the topic for a long time, they never told him about Kamol.
Then, a week later, on October 6th, 2016, at the commemoration at Thammasat University, twopeople came to tell Pattaraporn that they knew one of the hanged victim, whose name was Mr.
Preecha Sae-ia. We learned that Preecha was a member of the editorial board of the leftist politicalmagazine. Several years ago someone sent ten pictures of Preecha to an Octobrist academic.
The pictures showed Preecha was dragged from a white car by the mob, beaten and dragged on
the ground unconciously, and hanged at Sanamluang. His pictures were put up on YouTube. For
several years nobody knew, nor cared to find out who he was. But just a week after the public
seminar, we could establish identities of two more victims.
Sadly, as of now we did not know identities of the last two hanged victims, even though their
pictures were used more widely and possibly gained highest number of viewers. Because their
pictures were shot my the Associate Press photographer, Neil Ulevich and one of the pictures wasawarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977.
#11
Furthermore, four people were burned to ashes and bones on that morning. We did not know
their identities either. According to the autopsy report, the doctor cannot identify their genders,

13Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

but a picture we found tells us that one of them was a woman. Where were their families? We did
not know. Whether they were still looking for their children, we did not know. I asked people,
and Ajahn Thongchai, whether any parents came to Thammasat to look for their children after themassacre. I believe that as a parent, one may keep searching and waiting for children for 10 or 20
years. But nobody seemed to hear of such thing.
In addition, a woman was sexually assaulted. She lied on the ground naked. Her picture wasshared on the print and internet. No one tried to find out who she was until recently (May 2018), I
was able to establish her identity by comparing her picture with the one in the autopsy report. She
was a third-year student of Ramkhamhaeng University. But we could not locate her family yet.
#12This is the film I mentioned about, Respectfully Yours or in Thai ด้วยความนับถือ. You cansearch for it on YouTube. Last year, we made another documentary film about the two electriciansin Nakhon Pathom. The film is name The Two Brothers or สองพี่น้อง. Pattaraporn successfully
found their families and interviewed them.
#14
During the course of searching for the identities of the dead victims, Pattharaporn and I saw thereactions of the family members. Many parents of the victims passed away, so we did not havea chance to talk to them, but we interviewed the siblings. The pain among the siblings I think
was much lesser than the parents, but still some were crying during the interview. Some of thevictim families are still living in fear. In one case, the older sister was happy to give an interview.
She said that after 40 years, nobody came to interview or tried to find her family and ask what
happened to them. But two days later, she called Pattaraporn and asked not to put her real name14

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacreand her face in the film. We then used only her voice in the film. Some families declined tointerview at all and said what would they get if they give us an interview. There will be no justicefor them, only trouble. They told us not to disturb them anymore. They sounded angry. So we
respect that wishes. Some people were really happy that we started to recognize their loved ones,
and questioned why the victims of the massacre were not recognized as heroes, unlike those who
were killed in the popular uprising in 1973. Ajahn Thongchai may explain to you the differences
between histories of October 1973 and 1976.
There was another case I wanted to interview so much. In the last 40 years, they never gave any
interview to anyone at all and I could locate the family easily. So, I thought maybe 40 years had
passed, they might be willing to give an interview to us. First, Pattaraporn contacted the friend of
the family but he told her not to disturb the family. Anyway, we got in touch with the niece in law,
who also knew me personally. So, she told her husband, who was a nephew of the victim. At thetime, her husband was a primary school student. He still remembered the effect on the family. He
told his wife that even though he was so very young, his family had to send him to live in anotherprovince because of the pressure in the neighborhood. The family was accused of raising acommunist, and her husband told her to tell us not to disturb the family.
I tried to understand why they do not want to talk. So, I read the autopsy report and lookedat all the pictures of this victim carefully again. He was the one who was tortured and lynchedso severely that his father could not recognize his body when he tried to claim the body. Later,a friend accompanied the father to the hospital and recognized his shoes. So, I realized that thetrauma was too painful for the family to talk about it. The pain of losing the loved one depends on
how they were lost. In one case, the mother was always enthusiastic in giving an interview. She
talked candidly and was not afraid of anything. She once said “At least my boy did not suffer. He
died suddenly because the bullet pierced into his heart. It looked like he was asleep,”.

15

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre#13
Therefore, how do we understand why this basic information about the victims were neglectedeven though we commemorated the massacre for almost 40 years and claimed to care so muchabout the victims? I call it ‘disremembering’. ‘Disremembering’ means a process of culturingmental images and sounds related to the past painful event, but the past was altered in certain
aspects. Disremembering is not the same as not remembering. Disremembering happens whenincidents were unfathomable personally, or too threatening emotionally. The survivors did
not want to revisit the pain, so it is a survival strategy for them. Some traumatic memories are
disremembered. They are discontinued recollections, constructed by forgetting and altered byfragments of fantasy or beliefs. They did not forget or not remember the trauma but the past wasaltered. They remembered with a difference, some scenes may be deleted or avoided. It happened
when the reality was too painful. It is known that many Octobrists avoided looking at the picturesand video clips of the massacres because they reminded them of the extreme brutality and theirlost friends. This led to the disinterest in finding out about the victims. Some did not want to talkabout it at all. Therefore, the Octobrists seem to mix up the pictures of one victim with another.
They did not see the victims’ faces, even though they saw the pictures and the video clips, they did
not see the faces of the victims. The trauma seems to blur their vision and block their ability to ask
simple questions about the victims.
#15
However, negligence and superficiality among Thai people is another factor. The survivors ofthe massacre claimed a status of victimhood as well as an advocate for keeping and honoring
the memory of the massacre, but they talked and claimed a lot, but overlooked the deaths andtheir families. Apart from Ajahn Thongchai, whose research deeply engaged the memory of the16Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacremassacre, the deaths were treated as a sum of number.
We talked a lot about how they were dehumanized. The way they were killed showed clearly
how the right-wing thugs saw the victims as less than human. If we want to honor the victims,
I think we must first learn about their identities, who was who at the massacre, what happened
to their families afterwards? The negligence about the victims indicates that the concept ofindividuality is very unimportant among the Thai people. This is part of the reasons why humanrights cannot prosper in Thai society. When we talk about individuality, we talk about the valueof an individual to the people surrounding them and to the society. They have a family andopportunity in life. What could they become if they were not dead? I believe talking about thesethings can make people feel and respect human life. People in the society should feel the pain of
the loss of others, but this aspect is so weak and unimportant to the Thai people. Therefore, for us
who are involved in the online archives, this is a way to rehumanize the victims and to make Thai
society value lives of individuals.
My last note, if we believe in the documentation work, and we think that it is an importantpart of writing a different chapter of history and a cornerstone of a learned society, that it would
constitute the memory of the nations and of societies, as well as shaping the identity of the nation.
The October 6th massacre can tell a great deal about Thai society and nation-building. It cantell the identity of the Thai society contrary to the mainstream belief that Thai society is a true
Buddhist society. It can tell that Thailand did not always have harmony. A history of the October
6th also tells how the Thai state handled its crimes, and how a crime against the innocent people
and impunity were its important elements. It can tell the people that Thai society has its dark side,that it has the potential to commit a heinous crime against the people, and this heinous crime was
not done by state forces only. It was done by the people against the people.
More importantly, the marginalized status of October 6th and the lack of interest in17

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

documentation of the past violence also inform us about the future of other violent incidents inThai society: a decade of violence in the three southernmost provinces, the crackdown the Red
Shirt in 2010, and the ongoing oppression by the ruling military junta. We should have an archive
focusing on the state’s violation of human rights. I wish to see an archive of human rights in
Thailand, but it seems not so easy to have such archive because Thai society has been deeply
divided on all the violent cases I mentioned above.

Besides, if we think that documentation isabout seeking truth, and truth may lead to accountability, and the end of a culture of impunity,
but several chapters of the bloodshed histories seems too threatening for the establishment, which
would not allow them a place in the history books. Thank you.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much, Ajahn Puangthong. It is a very heavy question, and we haveto think from here. I am sorry. I forgot to introduce the affiliation of Ajahn Puangthong before
talking. Ajahn Puangthong is now a visitor at...
(Puangthong)(Nishii)

I am a lecturer at the faculty of political science, Chulalongkorn University.

From Chulalongkorn University, and for the moment, staying at Kyoto University...

(Puangthong) Yes, Center of Southeast Asian Studies.
(Nishii)...and Center of Southeast Asian Studies, yes.

(Puangthong)(Nishii)

Until next month.

Until next month, six months here.

(Puangthong) Yes.
(Nishii)Okay, thank you very much. Now, later we will discuss but if you have some questions,

two or three, just small questions, we can ask. Do you have any questions? Okay, so we will
discuss later. Now we have 10 minutes’ rest, and after that ask comments. The first commentator
is Ajahn Thongchai, and the second is Takahashi-san. Okay, so please take it. We have some18

Challenges of Documenting the Oct 6th Massacre

drinks and some snacks over there, so please take them, please.
(Puangthong)Thank you.

̶ Break ̶(Nishii)

Now, I would like to invite Ajahn Thongchai to give a comment. He is a well known

historian and he was at Thammasat University on the spot of Oct. 6th masaccre as a student leader.

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Comments
Discussant 1
Thongchai Winichakul(IDE-JETRO)

Thank you very much. I think the basic information about the massacre has been out there.
We can find it in many libraries, so I am not going to talk more than that. I have been living withthis issue all my life because I was there on October 6th. But after that, I moved on to become an
academic, a historian. For me, the academic historical study is fun. Dealing with the October 6th is
not fun, but this is my life’s mission. My fun stuff is the late 19th century early 20th century Thai
history, mostly 1880s is 1930s, the change I called colonial modernity, i.e. how Siam, like Japan,
turned to modernity in different ways from modern Europe. But in spirit, my interest in history isalways about October 6th.
In recent years, there were times I hoped people would recognize and revisit the October 6th
massacre. By now, I lost the hope that the October 6th would be accountable. At the end of
my life, I do not think I will see it. Okay, that is the way it is. It is not surprising. It is usual for
Thailand. Many cases in the world are also like this. I can live with this fact that there will not be
any investigations anytime soon, perhaps forever.
One of the key conditions to make the October 6th investigation possible, there must be afundamental regime change in Thailand. I do not see a regime change in Thailand possible.
Regime change does not mean just military. I mean the monarchy, because the monarchy involved,

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King Bhumibol, the beloved king, involved in the massacre. So, no way for an investigation
because, even after he died, his sacredness remains. I don’t see any possibility of the regimechange yet. The only thing we can do is to leave the memory of the October 6th.
As Ajahn Puangthong said, we can leave the memory in many forms. One of them ̶ I finisheda book about October 6th. Thanks to IDE and to Japan, first I had time to rethink the wholeproject when I went to Kyoto three years ago. Then one year at IDE, I finished the book. The
book is not about what happened on that day. It is about memory. What happened to the memoryof the massacre over 40 years? What happened in the first few month, in two years, 20 years, andafter 20 years? This is the main story of the book. Only one chapter is about what happenedon that day. The rest of the book is about the changing memory, and changing perception of themassacre.
Another thing we can do is the “Documentation of October 6th”, an online archives. Archive inThailand is treated like treasure. An archive is for prestige and for security. An online archive,
like the Documentation on October 6th, is to store information. We do not have money to store
real materials. Whenever we find materials, we ask the archives of Thammasat University to keep
them. Even so, we just learned a few months ago Thammasat University was afraid that theymight get in trouble, so they would not let people used these materials. Unbelievable! At least allof the materials are safe.
Documentation on October 6th is a website. How much impact? Not sure. But it is far better
than not having it. However, do we have hope that it will lead to the accountability of thewrongdoing? No. But it helps keep the memory much longer.
I have three points to say in relation to this archive project. The first one ...why do we do this?
The second one is about memory and forgetting. The third one is how to make the dead speak?
The first one, why do we do this? In some countries, events like the October 6th would be a22

Comments

subject for investigation quickly and thoroughly. Imagine if it had taken place in Japan, would it
be hidden from the public? Would it stay silent for years or decades? Could people pretend that
nothing happened? Every country has this kind of ugly past. How do different countries deal with
it? How do they deal with not only what happened, but also long afterward? This is the question.
Investigation or not? Stay silent or not? How long? Should we create an archive, allowing people
to use the materials, and some forms of institutions for memory? Or should we be afraid oftrouble?
In Taiwan, the event called 2.28, February 28, 1947, it took them a long time until the decline of
Kuomintang’s power that they create a museum. It is simple, not grand, not huge, but wonderful.
They recorded the voice recording of hundreds of victims. They did it quietly and once theopportunity arrvied, they are ready to make an archive. It does not need a grand sculpture. It
does not need a grand building. It looks simple, but inside, it is wonderful. A few months ago,
a museum of lynching of the black people in the US opened. This kind of thing tells us not justin terms of what happened and how they recognize, but it tells about the larger society. How
Japanese society, Taiwanese society, Thai society are. How they deal with the past atrocity, thepast wrongdoing, tells us about the society too.
Why have we in Thailand neglected about the dead for so long? For many years, we havefought the attempt to forget; and not to recognize October 6th. But ultimately, we have not done
enough ̶ who the dead were, have we informed the families of those who died, and so on? It
is embarrassing that, almost 40 years, some of the families of the deaths were not informed. It isembarrassing that we have not known how many people were hanged. Not just an embarrassment.
It is wrong.
These neglects raise the questions ̶ what kind of people we are? What kind of culture we live
with? What kind of people and culture we have been grown up with that the negligence on this23

Comments

kind of information has become a normal thing? If an atrocity like the October 6th taken placein UK, in France, in Europe, in the US, do you think they would neglect for 30-40 years before
realizing that, uh-oh, we do not even know the name of the dead?
Many people often blame politics. Those people in power do not want people know about theircrimes in the past. The state has suppressed and censored information, has distorted the past.
These arguments are correct. They become common assumption. But these arguments are tooeasy. In fact, there is more than politics. Ideology too. Culture too. Altogether, there are manyfactors result in the ways Thailand have dealt with the past wrongdoing in the wrong ways.
The second point I want to raise is about memory and forgetting: Scholars who have been
studying memory often fall into the dichotomy of either remember or forget, memory vs.
forgetting. We often think silence means forgetting. I don’t think so. There is something inbetween the dichotomy. I call it in the book, the ‘unforgetting’. It is a kind of a limbo position
in between remembering and forgetting. What is it? For me, the unforgetting is a state ofremembering, but unable to articulate the memory to other people in comprehensible ways. That
is to say, you remember it, but you cannot say it out loud in a sensible sentence. People remember,but people do not know how to express, how to articulate into a sensible, into a comprehensible
sentence or story. This is what I mean by ‘unforgetting’.
In the October 6th case, I believe that there are many ways people tried to articulate, but notable to do as they want to. They cannot find a voice. And it is not just because of politics. Any
traumatic event, even personal trauma, sometimes we just lost words. That is it – the unforgetting.
Losing words does not mean people forget. They do not forget, but they lost words, could
not express. For the October 6th, people do not forget, but people could not find their voices.
Therefore, in the book I explain many forms and many conditions of the inability to articulate, toexpress in the way they want.

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Comments

The third point I would like to discuss, I think the dead can speak. For the project
Documentation of October 6th, we tried to collect information as much as possible. But for the
first few years, apart from collecting materials, another main agenda has been the research on
families of the victims. So far, some people in Thailand criticized us that since we cannot talkmuch about the politics of it, about who and who, the knowledge about the October 6th is mostly
about death, death, and death. Nothing else interesting. I understand. But I disagree. On the one
hand, the death is important in reminding people that their death has not been accountable yet. On
the other hand, I would like to go beyond just talking about how ugly the incident was. Therefore,
what we, people in the Documentation October 6th, have tried to do, is to ask the right questions to
the dead that allow the dead to reveal to us something interesting. For example, the question about
number of people who were hanged. With the right questions, the dead still can speak.
To give you an example of the right questions ̶ many people thought that those people diedbecause of torture. We found out that only a few died because of hanging and torture. One washanged to death. But four others died before they got hanged. Hanging was a form of desecrationof the corpses, and there are many other forms of corpse desecration on that day. Corpse
desecration has never been an issue that anybody pays attention to. It is illegal in most countries
for good reasons. But in the Buddhist Thailand, it happened in public.
(Puangthong)In front of the authorities.

(Thongchai)

And in public. The authorities involved and allowed it to happen. What does thistell us? Why did they do this? Why? We thought that a female student was sexually assaulted,
stripped her clothes off, with a piece of wood near her private part. In fact, she was dead already.
The whole thing was staged to look like she was sexually assaulted. Why? Six dead bodies were
lined up on the ground, and a man nailed a piece of wood in the chests. Why? A young boy

25Comments

urinated on a body on the ground Why? Two bodies were dragged on the ground. We thoughtthat they died because they were dragged. We found out that they already died. If so, why were
they dragged after death?
We do not have an answer. This is just an example of asking the right questions to let the deadbodies speak. In this case, we want to know, even hypothetically, why? Not in terms of theintention of the people, but what does it mean? What does this phenomenon tell us about Thai
society?
We hope that in the next few months we have some answer. Maybe there are more questions we
can ask, to learn more, to understand more about Thai society, or to understand more about humanbeings. Thanks.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much, Professor Thongchai. As the second commentator, Takahashi-san.

Sorry, I forgot to introduce Takahashi-san. He is a political scientist, and I met him for the firsttime maybe more than 30 years ago when I was a visiting researcher at Thammasat University.
Today, we met since then maybe more than 30 years ago, but I think Takahashi-san has notchanged, looks like 30 years ago. Okay, thank you very much. Please.
(Takahashi)

Thank you very much for the introduction. As Professor Nishii introduced, when I

was a doctorate student, I stayed at Thammasat University, and I met Ajahn Thongchai. Still, youworked at there, teaching at Thammasat University, maybe. October 6th shocked me too, and it
was one reason why I was interested in Thai politics.
Today’s topic is October 6th, but the October 14, I enjoyed the annual ceremony of the October
14 held at the Thammasat University every year. I do not know nowadays, recently, it is still heldor not.
(Puangthong) Yes, we have it.

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Comments

Discussant 2
Masaki Takahashi(Musashino Univerisity)

Okay, because at that festival or ceremony, karawan song, and everybody was excited andenjoyed, or they did not forget. They remember October 14, but today’s topic is October 6th. I
am interested in the October 6th massacre, but I have no knowledge or information so much about
October 6th, and particularly, I have no idea about this documenting project. Therefore, it is noteasy for me to offer some comment. Today, I read Professor Puangthong’s interviews and articles
from the Prachatai website. I also used the articles from Prachatai website.
#2First of all, I will talk about the importance of collecting primary sources. The objectives ofthis project are, first of all, collecting and disseminating primary sources about the October 6th
massacre. Fact finding is a very important or inevitable first step of research, whether it is history
or social science. Any knowledge must be based on facts and evidences, I think.
#3This project is very important in order to study or know the Thai political history, but there
are many difficulties, as Professor Puangthong explained. The difficulties of documenting the
October 6th massacre are, first, fear, and, second, culture of impunity. Therefore, I want to ask the
professor the first question: Have you experienced something dangerous or harassment from thepolice or someone in the process of documenting the October 6th? Second, have you compared27

Comments

with the other cases of collecting documents of a massacre like the Holocaust of Nazi or othercases? The difficulties come from, according to Professor Puangthong, fear and the culture of
impunity. According to the professor, the changeless or lasting ruling class makes fear for thevictims and their families, and the narrow ruling class makes the culture of impunity.
#4
For example, the professor said, “Ordinary people can think that the massacre was somehow
connected to the ruling power... they can feel that there is a connection and this is fear.
#5
The current military rule makes the families hesitate to open their faces and names, or talkabout the victims. According to the interview with Prachatai, in the interviews with the familiesof victims, “we barely talked about present-day politics. We wanted to let them talk about
the personality of the person who died and how they were connected to others in the family.
Relatives and siblings of those who were killed were willing to grant interviews. But then theycalled several days later and said that they were afraid because we are currently living under amilitary government. They asked if their names could be changed and their faces not shown.
Simultaneously, many other families did not want to talk about massacre.
#6
Second, the culture of impunity, this was said by the professor today, but I also mention again
the culture of impunity. Ajahn Puangthong said, “Those who were involved with the violence of
6th October have never had to fear that they will be punished. This is the clear culture of impunity
in Thai society.” Ajahn Puangthong said, “The ruling class in Thai society is very narrow.

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Comments

The number is limited and they all know each other. The ruling class is marked by friendship,
continuity, and the experience of having helped and supported one other. These connections
eclipse taking a stand to restore justice.
#7
These are the third questions. If your final objectives are to honor/re-humanize the victims,
why do you think that collecting and disseminating the sources of the victims can achieve theobjectives? Ajahn Puangthong asked a good question in today’s PowerPoint on page nine. The
page may be different from today’s PowerPoint page. “Why do we need to honor and re-humanize
the dead victims after 40 years has passed?” What is your answer? You might answer today, butplease answer again. I think, to honor/re-humanize the victims, we may have to give the meaningof their death for the victims. If they died for democracy, they need political meaning beyond
personal tragedy or personal humanity, I think.
#8
However, Ajahn Puangthong recognizes, I think, Ajarn Puangthong concedes, however, that
October 6 will be taboo in Thai society due to its sensitivity. “Most media do not want to talkabout since they know it is sensitive. They merely say that it was state violence and just that, but
who was the state? Who were involved in state power at that time? We cannot discuss further
than that. It is the limit of talking about 6th October.” I think, of course, Ajahn recognizes theimportance of the political level perspective, but under the current political situation, there aresomething Ajahn or other persons cannot speak out, so if you have hidden objectives of thisproject, could you tell something about that?

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Comments#9
These are the articles which today I used besides the PowerPoint contents. Thank you verymuch.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much. First I just invite Ajahn Puangthong to reply something tocommentators.
(Puangthong)

The first question, did I experience something dangerous, harassment, from thepolice, or somebody in the process of documenting the October 6th? No, not from October 6th
at all. Several people asked me whether I was afraid of doing this. I said, no. It is within mycapacity of an academic to do it. Even though I may get harassment from someone, I can handle
it. It is not life-threatening, and it would not threaten my career either. I also told people I thinkpeople were overly worried and overly scared about issue. It is still a sensitive issue but as longas we don’t involve the monarchy, there are still a lot we could do. There are many aspects ofthe massacre we can discuss and use it to promote the value of human rights and to prevent state
crimes.
Actually, the ruling junta now is more concerned about the fact-finding report of its involvementin the violent crack down of the Red Shirt in 2010 and I have told you that I was involved in the
project. The report accused the military and the Democrat-led government of using excessive
forces against unarmed civilians. They violated the rule of engagement with the demonstrators.
After the coup in 2014, the junta summoned me for “the attitude adjustment” session. During theinterrogation, this was the first issue they raised and threatened me. So, they are more concerned
about their own safety rather than the past.
(Thongchai)The question is about the difficulty of this project. Yes, people are still afraid tospeak. Even the reporters and many people ask whether you fear or not. It means that people

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Comments

realize there is something there telling us that “Do not cross the line.” We are the ones who say, “donot worry too much.” But we cannot blame people who worry too much. We cannot guarantee forthem that there will be no consequence. That is why many families and relatives of the dead did
not want to speak to us.
(Puangthong)It depends on the status.

(Thongchai) Yes, it means that there is something there for concern.
(Puangthong) Yes, it is depended on your status in the society. As an academic, I have a kind ofprotection, but for ordinary people, the family members of the victims, they have no protection atall, so they are afraid to show their faces and real names.
(Thongchai)

It also depends on one’s tolerance to risk too. I think people are afraid morethan necessary. In a way, we are troublemakers. We like to push the line. We test the line. For
ordinary people who live without intention to test the line, their level of risk tolerance is lower
than those who want to test the line.
(Puangthong)When I told a reporter that people were overly worried, I in fact aimed atacademics and the media. I believe they could do more. I did not demand ordinary folks toundertake this project. I know that even some well-known academics, who advocate on the issueof peace, non-violence and human rights do not want to touch on the October massacre. For
example, Pattaraporn, before she helped me doing the film Respectfully Yours, she had done a
documentary film entitled ‘Silence-Memory’. She interviewed the parents of two victims. She
told me she wanted to show it at Thammasat University. She asked an academic there to helporganize it for her, but he refused to do it because, he said, “It is not time to talk about the Octobermassacre yet”. As for politicians, several years ago, I approached a few Octobrist politicians,
affiliated with the Pheu Thai government, about the creation of the human rights archive ofThailand. They did not want to do it. They were worried about October 6th. They said that it was31Comments

too sensitive.
(Thongchai)

Just one more example ̶ a source of documents about the massacre is the

documents and materials that police collect after the killing. Seventy three boxes, including the
autopsy reports, are at the Attorney General Museum. Most are bureaucratic paperwork such asrecording when you are arrested, recording when you are released. I looked at the testimoniesof the right wing witnesses whom later became the prosecutor witnesses in the October 6 trial.
(Eighteen people were charged after the massacre, and the police and prosecutor had to prepare
their witnesses.) There are 224 people who give testimonies to the police. After the trial, all the
documents were transferred to be stored there.
Should we leave those materials at the Attorney General Museum or should we make copies?
I made copies of a few testimonies. Then I was greedy. I want many. I asked a senior professor
to make a request to the Attorney General to microfilm the whole thing. This is under Thaksin
government. The Attorney General made it clear in writing, no, because it is a matter of national
security. Even under Thaksin, the Attorney General at the time, knew that these materials are
sensitive.
(Puangthong)Yes, it is a sensitive issue. I think different people can do different things. Have

I compared my project with the documentation of Nazi and other cases? Yes, I did. Actually, I am
interested in the state violence. I teach a course on violence in the modern world and use several
cases such as the Nazi, the dirty war in Argentina, genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, former
Yugoslavia, etc. I read a lot about these cases and the testimonies and memoirs. That is why when
Ajahn Thongchai told me about the unknown number of the hangings struck me hard. I realized I
knew a lot more about cases in other countries than the October massacre, which is closest to me.
There is one doc film about the victims of the Nazi that I like very much. It read the last pagesof diaries of several children before they were killed by the Nazi. They show what the children

32Comments

thought and felt or feared on the last days of their lives? It is very powerful. So, since we have theDocumentation of Oct 6 online archive, I wrote several short articles and posted them on Facebook
and website. Most of them about the victims, how they were killed, what they were like from thepoints of views of their friends, the effect on the families, etc. In a way, they were sentimental
because I want people to feel the pain of the victims, to feel the pain of injustice.
Though I do not believe that we will be able to bring those perpetrators of the Oct 6 to justice.
Other cases may be possible. But I undertake this project because I am fighting a culture of
impunity. The lack of accountability in Thai society is not just about the state, it is supported by
the culture of impunity too. People do not see the imperative of societal justice. Many see those
who fight for justice as trouble maker and an obstacle of stable society.
(Thongchai)Why they nailed a piece of board into the chest? Such action, according toChristianity, was to kill Satan, right? Or they are a vampire that was supposed to get killed thatway? But for sure, those who did these to the dead bodies thought that the dead were not human.
That’s why they deserved this desecration. Dragging a body like an animal. Hanging as people
did to a witch or a horrible criminal. Urinating on the body is not how a human treats anotherhuman. Staging a sexual assault was the worst action to humiliate or to destroy femininity.
Therefore, to counter the extreme de-humanization is to re-humanize them. Start from whothey are, what their names are, where they lived, where their family are, what they did for a living,
how many siblings they have, etc. These simple things can re-humanize them. A few years ago
at Thammasat, at a commemoration of October 6th, I sent a message to the organizer, “Could you
please add into the program of the commemoration to read aloud the names of the dead, every
one of them, one by one?” They did not understand why doing this is important to restore their
humanity.
(Puangthong)

They did it in a pity way.

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Comments(Thongchai)

They do not understand why we need to do this. It is a simple action to re-humanize the victims. I think re-humanization of these dead is a huge issue. We do not have tohonor them as democracy fighters at the expense of their basic humanity, i.e. their individuality. I
think we should honor them in both ways. What is missing in Thai society is that people do notrealize the value of individuality.
(Puangthong)

Let me add this. I always wish one day we could eliminate the culture of

impunity in Thailand that the rulers who violated people’s rights must be accountable for theircrimes. Therefore, by working on the Documentation project, first, I could make people aware thatthe hatred propaganda could turn ordinary people into a violent tools of the state and thus commit
a heinous crime against their fellow citizen. Such happened at the October massacre.
Second, I want to emphasize to the public that although the government has power andcommand over state forces, it has no right nor legitimacy to kill unarmed civilians. And we must
not allow them to get away with it. We need to build up this popular consensus to end a culture of
impunity for the future generations.
I also want the online archive to be an example for people who are interested in and working on
the state violence in other cases, like the three southernmost Muslim provinces, the crackdown on
the Red Shirt, and there is number of groups.
(Nishii)Okay, thank you very much. Now I would like to invite any questions or commentsfrom the floor.

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Discussion

Discussion(Q1)

I am a little bit confused by “unforgettable” as Ajahn Puangthong uses the words‘remembering’, or ‘unforgetting’, or ‘disremembering’. Also, Ajahn Thongchai uses the word
‘unforgetting’, and also ‘forgetting’. Could you explain it again these four or five phrases?
(Puangthong)

Disremembering?

(Q1) Yes, and unforgetting.
(Puangthong)(Q1)

It is the same.

I am not sure.

(Puangthong)Yes, as he is saying the term ‘unforgetting’, but they are pretty much the same.

For me, disremembering means you do not forget it. You still remember the atrocity, but with thefragment, the memory is distorted. The distortion happened because maybe the memory is too
painful for you, or you do not want to remember it. You do not want to hear it but you want todelete it.
For many years, people thought there was only one hanging, even though some Octobrists knowthat their friends were hung on that day too, but they still say, “One hanging,”. When they saw
the pictures of different people, they still said this was Wichitchai.” They do not try to match
the pictures they saw with the memories they had. They avoided the serious thinking about themassacre. Besides, they avoided watching the pictures and the video clips which are so accessible
nowadays because these are too painful for them. And even when they watched them, they did not
see the faces of the victims. This is the effect of disremembering.
(Q2)

One more question, can I ask it? Maybe at that time, maybe many peasants leaders in

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Discussion

rural areas also have been killed in rural areas, especially after 1975, so could you tell me theassassinations in rural areas at the time? Also, are there any documentation projects aboutassassination at that time?
(Thongchai)

The peasants’ assassinations before October 6th – there were about 50 of them.

Is there any documentation project on them? As far as I know, no. Most of them become news
before October 6th. Do we know anything beyond just who they are, anything beyond the news in
the newspaper? I doubt. There are so many issues to work on.
(Puangthong)Yes, and maybe we get this project, people ask whether we want to include those

who died in the jungle, those who joined the CPT.
(Thongchai)(Q2)

We want to, but we cannot, right? We want to include everybody, but...

The government has some document, or...?

(Puangthong)Mainly because we do not have the resources (money and people). It is hard tofind people who have commitment to work on documentation. For the funding, as of now, we
gained from private donation from a few people. We have had a little over Baht 3 million. That is
not much at all. So, we are careful with money. We pay people on a project by project basis. Manyof us are volunteers. I am a volunteer as well.
However, as I said, I want these archives to be an example for people who are interested inother issues to think seriously about documentation. Otherwise, if you let the time pass, a lot of
documents, materials and memories could disappear.
We don’t have a plan to include the case of the Red Barrels yet. This incident took place in avillage in Phatthalung province. The military reportedly tortured villagers, put them in the oil redpainted barrels, burned them til death and kicked the barrels down a hill. About 3000 people were
killed. Nor for the students and activists being killed before 1976 and those died in the jungle.
(Nishii)

36

Any questions? Last year when I interviewed Suchada who wa in the center of theDiscussion

masaccre, she told me she was very shocked by the people laughing on the scene. The most she
was shocked was people laughing while they were hitting the head of the dead. Therefore, I
would like to ask Ajahn Thongchai. Ajahn Thongchai said the masaccre is‘unforgettable’, meaning
people remember, but they have no voice. This project is giving people who have no voice forspeak out, maybe give them some chance to speak out. On the other hance, I would like to ask theaudience in those days at the scene, how they feel now. They also have their own family, but inthe scene, they took the human being like non-human. So, I would like to ask Ajahn Puangthong
and Ajahn Thongchai, when you are trying to give some voice to the people, can you find out
how the other side of Thai people think, what kind of people are they? Maybe Ajahn also said
that memories have changed, so some people who are there, and now, 40 years later, do you everinterview who was laughing at the scene, or this side, or person?
(Thongchai)Do we know the boy who enjoyed the hanging? We tried to search, but we did not

find him. We asked of it on Facebook, who knows the person who holds the chair? We still cannot
find it. The victim of that picture, we still do not know. In the picture that becomes emblematicfor the massacre, we do not know the guy who beat the dead body with a chair, the victimof the beating, and those among the audience. None of them. We think about making a verystraightforward project, make a big announcement in newspapers, “Who are these guys? Pleasecome forward.” Then we decided not to do that for a number of reasons, including that it mightcause trouble since we do not know what to expect or repercussions. So we do it small scale,putting it on Facebook. Nobody comes forward.
Do we know about the right wing? Yes, this is one chapter of my book: how the memories
among the right wings also changed. I tracked down, I met about 20 of them, such as a few
leaders of the Red Gaurs, and a few of those in the paramilitary who were the killers on that day.
They are the ones who still brag about what they did. They still believe they did the right thing. I

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Discussion

have interviewed them, most in 2001 and 2006. All of them are still proud, or justify what theydid. They still bragged partly because Thai society never makes them uncomfortable. There is nosocial mechanism to shame these people. When the victims express the voice that the October 6th
is wrong, when Thai society agrees that it is wrong, these people simply stayed silent.
The group of killers that I met had no fixed names in 1976, they changed names all the time,
the group organized by a commander from the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). I
met the commander who was an instructor at ISOC. The Red Gaurs has become a generic nameof the perpetrators of the massacre. It looked like, in fact, they did not do much that morning. Of
course, the main force is police.
Regarding the guy who held the chair, none of right wings I met knew him. He appearedin many pictures of those desecration acts. He might be super hysterical, or he must be a
provocateur. We do not know. If I met him today, I just want to know who he is, what he thinks
about the past.
(Puangthong)

On Facebook, when people read our articles about the massacre, a lot of people

say that those people who were involving in the lynching and the torture must feel guilty now. In
fact, there was no evidence of such thing. Let me tell you this. Pattaraporn and I used to try tofind the man who appeared in the Pulitzer Prize-awarded photo. He was beating a hanged man
with a chair. So, we call him a chair man. The idea of looking for a chair man came from Ajahn
Thongchai.
(Puangthong)When I began to get involved in this project, I remembered that when my son

was at grade nine, he told me that one of the teacher bragged proudly to the students in the classabout his heroic involvement in the massacre. My son said that the teacher was very rude andviolent, and always used physical punishment. I did not pay attention to this story because, after
one semester, I took him out this school. When I was involved in this project, I asked him whether

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Discussion

he remembered the teacher’s name because I wanted to interview him. He remembered the name.
Unfortunately, the teacher died about a year before the search started, but I got the picture of him.
The face of his shape was similar to the chair man but I was not sure because of the age difference.
I told Pattaraporn that we should search for his identity from the school. Luckily, Pattaraporn’s
friend was working for the school’s history project and thus had access to the school’s documents.
At the end, we concluded that he was not the chair man but we also learned something from thesearch. I phoned and talked to his wife, who told me that the teacher also told her and their son
about his past involvement in the massacre. Pattaraporn’s friend also said that she and her juniorand senior friends heard about the same bragging from the teacher. This is a good example of theperpetrator’s never feel guilty.
(Thongchai)Among the victims of the hanging, we found three. The one that they did not findis the one in the most well known picture.
(Nishii)(Q3)

Thank you very much. Are there any other questions?

Professor Thongchai mentioned the village scouts. I saw the TV program four or five years

ago. They held a four-night-five-day training still now, so could you explain that? If there are somedifferences, could you explain the difference between the ลูกเสือชาวบ้าน (village scouts) training,
and the training in recent military government? Are there any differences between village scouts
movement in the 1970s, and village scouts in this phase?
(Thongchai)(Puangthong)No, I did not follow much about that.
The Internal Security Operations Command, which is dominated by the army,

has been trying to mobilize the right-wing mass organizations to support the ruling military junta’s
political agenda. The Village Scouts have been reactivated as well but they are not the biggest
group.
There are some trying to mobilize it. There is an activity. There is an activity around it.

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Discussion(Thongchai)

I am not sure, but it operates under the supervision of the Border Patrol Police.

(Puangthong)

ISOC has bee empowered to command and coordinate all the state-sponsored mass organizations, even though some of them are officially under the Ministries
of Interior, Education and the Public Health. ลูกเสือชาวบ้าน (village scouts) is not so strong
nowadays because they could not

draw the annual budget from the government, unlikeอาสาสมัครรักษาดินแดง (Volunteer Defense Corps), ไทยอาสาป้องกันชาติ (the National Defense
Volunteers), etc.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much. Maybe the time is up, but if there is someone who would liketo ask? I remember just now. A documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squadleaders to reenact their mass-killings. I am sorry, I foreget the name of the movie. I was shocked
to know even at the present they are proud thier act. They do not think they are guilty. Do you
know?
(Thongchai) Yes, which one?
(Nishii)Those who killed the Chinese people, interviewed those who killed, and...

(Thongchai)

The Act of Killing?

(Phuangthong)(Thongchai)(Nishii)

The Act of Killing.

The Act of Killing.

Yes, The Act of Killing, and their interviewee, they told the whole story very vividly,

like how to kill, how to behave on the killing. In the massacre in Thai society, those who killed
are kind of proud? Today, how they feel? Maybe they have no imagination. In those days, they
thought they killed their enemy, they had justice to kill them. But after that, why they could notunderstand?
(Thongchai)

Maybe. Maybe I did not meet the right person who may say, “I am sorry”. So far, I

have not found one. I am not saying that there is nobody who does not regret. I just do not know.

40Discussion

Those people who I met, did not regret. The society never shamed them, never made it clear
what is right and what is wrong. In fact the society may have done the opposite – celebrating andhonoring the wrongdoer.
For example, the person who drove a bus, slamming into the gate of Thammasat University
to open up the way for the police to storm in to Thammasat ̶ the police did not do it ̶ thisguy did. Then he was shot dead. He died as a national hero. He was honored. His funeral was
attended by Princess Sirindhorn and Princess Chulabhorn. His dead body was blessed by thetwo princesses. These people have been humanized and honored. Among the 40 dead victims,
how many of them had a funeral that is publicly honored? Zero. Their families had to do thefunerals as quiet as possible. A few were cremated as the corpse without relatives. How many ofthem are still not known even today? Three unidentified Thai males and four burnt bodies beyond
recognition. We still do not know who they are.
I can say that, even the boy who enjoyed the hanging, I know that he is human too. I did notwant to dehumanize them, and they have not been dehumanized. The victims were. I have mypriority. Those who were dehumanized are my higher priority. The boy who laughed is the one
who dehumanized those victims, even though he was maybe 12, 13 years old. I do not blame him.
But I care about him less than the victims. It is intriguing to know about the right wings. It sounds
more exciting. But my prority is not by excitement. I would like to know the chair guy. I want toknow them, but do I have commitment strong enough to know him? Well, my first commitment
is to the victims and their families. If somebody else comes in to do it, please do it. Yes, I would
like to know too. I never said I oppose people who try to know it. That is why the chair guy has
been in my mind all the time. The only new thing can do in my way, when I interview those 20
people, I asked every one of them, and it looked like they do not know them, so I do not know how
to to go further. I do not know what else I can do.

41Discussion

Nobody ever dehumanized these right wings. But I cannot care more about them than those who
were victims of dehumanization. If you really want to know the boys’ name, then please help us
search for him, please. I want to ask him what he thinks. Search and interview him, please. If
you want the project “Documentation of October 6th to reset our priority, to give higher priority to
the right-wing perpetrators than the victims, please give me a good reason. I support it, but doing
it more than searching for the families of victims, I would disagree. If we finish searching for thevictims’ families, then if somebody wants to suggest the next step, do the right wing, it is possible.
But right now, I think the first priority is still the victims who have been dehumanized.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much. Would you like to say something...?

(Puangthong)I feel that the injustice the families faced did not end on October 6th. It hascontinued long after that. How long they suffered right after the massacre, we did not know.
Imagine if we were the parents of those unidentified victims, are they still waiting for the returnof their children? One of the victims was identified by Ajahn Thongchai several years ago. It was
his friends who were dragged by a cord along the Thammasat football ground. He did not receive
proper cremation. His family did not know that he was killed until 20 years later. Another one is
one of the hanged victims, Kamol, 17 years old. He did not receive a proper cremation from his
family either. His older sister did not go to a hospital to claim his body because she was too afraidthat the police would go after her.
(Thongchai)In the police practice, if they cannot identify the dead, the body would be crematedwith all other unidentified dead bodies including the ones of drug traffickers, criminals, whatever.
His father did not know because his name was not among the dead, because he was unidentified.
Anyway, for 20 years after the massacre, his parents still had hope that he might still be alive.
Twenty years until some people told him. His father then asked a small group of friends to findthe body of him because he does not want to believe until we found his son’s body. I searched

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for years until I have the answer. I did not find the body, but I know what happened to the body.
I delivered the news to the parents, telling them the whole story because I think they deserved toknow. Was this news good? I am not sure because the parents had kept their hope alive as long as
the body was not found. I shattered their hope with truth.
How many other bodies? This is a valid question. We need committed people who do these one
by one, perhaps. I cannot commit to do this for the rest. When I delivered the truth to my friend’s
parents, I told myself, “No, I am not going to do it anymore”.
(Nishii)

Thank you very much. Now we have to close. Today, we all understand, the project

to find the name of the victims should give us hope, though it is very small. But to recover
the relationships between human and human is a very difficult task.To get back the justice andcomposure to the society, it is long way. But at least there are people like Ajahn Puangthong and
Ajahn Thongchai, who are still struggling for it, so we have some hope, I think. Thank you verymuch.

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