A Thai political activist reflects on the movement’s highs and lows since the 2020 protests, and why he believes that change – however slowly – is coming
In the fading afternoon light of Bangkok, Jatupat “Pai” Boonpattararaksa speaks not with the fire of a dissident on the run, but with the quiet conviction of someone who has lived too long inside the machinery of Thai repression to be surprised by its turns. “Going to prison is bad,” he tells the Editor of The101.world. “But I can survive it.”
Pai is no stranger to captivity. In a political landscape where symbols are sometimes punished more harshly than acts, he has become both: an act and a symbol. In this interview, Wachana Woralyangkun probes Pai to recount the past decade of his activism, which has seen him be arrested more than 10 times, jailed for Facebook posts, protest speeches and defying the lèse-majesté law: Thailand’s infamous Article 112, which criminalises criticism of the monarchy.
Yet Pai does not call himself brave. What he has, instead, is a practiced clarity forged in the tear gas of the 2020 protests and sharpened by the slow, exhausting grind of activist life in a country that often mistakes order for peace. “I think I’m more careful now,” he says. “I may have more strategies. I’m still left; but maybe not as sharp as before.”
In the summer of 2020, Bangkok’s streets erupted in protest. Like in many other countries, the pandemic exposed cracks in Thailand’s governance. The restlessness of a younger generation and the long-standing frustration over military dominance in politics converged in one of the most sweeping protest movements in modern Thai history. Students called for a reform of the monarchy, an unthinkable demand just a few years before. The ceiling was raised, as Pai puts it. And then, it came crashing down.
Today, many of those student leaders are either in exile or prison. The movement’s momentum has stalled. The political atmosphere, Pai says, has grown “gloomy.” The 2023 election saw the progressive Move Forward Party win the most seats, only to be locked out of forming a government by an entrenched conservative bloc. For Pai, it was confirmation of what he already suspected: the rules of Thai politics are written not by the people, but by those determined to keep them silent.
Still, silence is not something Pai has ever worn comfortably. At 33, he is still organising, no longer only in the streets, but in classrooms, rural communities, and youth gatherings through his organisation, IPAM. “The country’s hope lies in the new generation,” he says. “Some children grow up in a closed Thai education system and thus do not see the wider world. We help them see.”
A stark contrast to the explosive improvised rebellion seen on the streets of 2020, today’s organising is slower, less visible, but essential. Pai’s strategy now is not just resistance, but endurance. “We used to do things just to do them,” he says. “Now we do them to get results.” He talks about how the movement has matured, learning from its failures. In 2020, the protests were spontaneous, hopeful, defiant, but, in his words, “not enough.” They lacked coordination, legal preparedness and broad-based support. “The question now,” Pai says, “is how much patience can the people have?”
His answer is both sobering and oddly hopeful. He knows that history does not change at the speed of a viral tweet. He cites the 1997 “People’s Constitution”, born in the aftermath of mass mobilisation, as a blueprint. Real change, he insists, will not come from parliament alone. “Parliament will not change for the people unless people force it to.”
In Pai’s telling, Thailand is a nation locked in a tug-of-war between an increasingly sophisticated elite and a citizenry becoming more politically literate by the day. The Move Forward Party’s electoral success, and the backlash it provoked, revealed a deeper conflict: not between parties, but between two visions of Thai society – one hierarchical, the other participatory.
Even among those divided by colour-coded politics – yellow-shirts, red-shirts – Pai sees possibility. “No one joins because they want the country to go to ruin,” he says. “We have to look for common ground.” For him, that includes rethinking military conscription, expanding decentralisation and confronting monopolistic capitalism.
These days, Pai spends less time behind megaphones and more behind whiteboards. His strength, he jokes, is that he’s “still on the path.” His weakness? “I haven’t won yet.”
But then again, he isn’t sure what winning even looks like anymore. “We don’t fight just to fight,” he says. “We fight to live. And if we can’t fight now, we endure. Until we can fight again.”
Original article (“สปิริต 2563: ‘ไผ่ จตุภัทร์’ เมื่อการต่อสู้ไม่ใช่แค่อดีตและความหวังวันนี้อยู่ที่ประชาชน”) by Wachana Woralyangkun first appeared in Thai on The101.world on 29 April 2025.
It’s available here.
The101.world is a Thai creative media outlet working towards social change. They use a multidisciplinary approach, their team consists of academics, researchers, editors, writers, directors, creatives and graphic designers, aiming to connect the “world of knowledge” with the “world of creativity”.
