Thirayuth Boonmee

Thirayuth Boonmee (Thai: ธีรยุทธ บุญมี, RTGS: Thirayut Bunmi; born 10 January 1950) is a Thai social scientist, public intellectual and a former student activist.

While a student at Chulalongkorn University in 1973, Thirayuth led the National Student Center of Thailand (NSCT) in coordinating political activism against the military dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphas Charusathien. The NSCT led tens of thousands in public protests against the regime. One of the earlier activities of the NSCT had been a 10-day boycott against Japanese products, in protest against Japanese investments in Thailand.^[1][2]

On 6 October 1973, Thirayuth and 12 other student activists were arrested by the Praphas government for sedition after they distributed leaflets demanding a new constitution. Rumors spread that they had been killed, which sparked massive anti-government protests. The demonstrations reached their peak on 13 October, when about 400,000 protesters gathered in front of the Democracy Monument and the parliament building. That afternoon, Thirayuth and the other students were released, and the king approved plans to draft a new constitution within 12 months.^[3]

Thirayuth also played a role in exposing the Internal Security Operations Command's role in a massacre of villagers at Ban Na Sai village in the northeast.

After the student massacre at Thammasat University on 6 October 1976, Thirayuth, as well as many other students and intellectuals fled from the cities to take refuge with the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in its jungle strongholds. Thirayuth increasingly became critical of the king, noting in a broadcast on 1 April 1977 that the monarchy was "obsolete and deteriorating", and that "I think that if our people were to destroy it, there would be no adverse effects". After the CPT dissolved itself in the early-1980s, Thirayuth returned to the mainstream of Thai intellectual life, renouncing socialism and rejecting his anti-monarchical statements.^[4]

Thirayuth fue a los Países Bajos para estudiar Filosofía, Sociología y Antropología en el Instituto Internacional de Estudios Sociales de La Haya y la Universidad de Nijmegen , obteniendo un doctorado ( equivalente a una maestría ). ^{[ 5 ]} En 1985 regresó a Tailandia. Durante muchos años ha enseñado en la Facultad de Sociología y Antropología de la Universidad de Thammasat . En 1997, fue nombrado uno de los diez intelectuales públicos más influyentes de Tailandia . ^{[ 6 ]} En 2008, Thirayuth se convirtió en director del Instituto Sanya Dharmasakti para la Democracia en la Universidad de Thammasat. En 2012 fue nombrado Profesor de Antropología. ^{[ 7 ]} En 2015, se trasladó a la Facultad de Estudios Interdisciplinarios de la Universidad de Thammasat.

Thirayuth fue un crítico declarado del primer ministro Thaksin Shinawatra (2001-2006), para cuyo gobierno acuñó el término " Thaksinocracia ". ^{[ 8 ]}

• Paul M. Handley (2006). El rey nunca sonríe . Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10682-3.
• Suchart Sriyaranya (2000). «Inteligentes influyentes en la sociedad tailandesa: rol e influencia en la esfera pública de Bangkok» (PDF) . Documento de trabajo (329). Centro de Investigación en Sociología del Desarrollo, Universidad de Bielefeld. ISSN 0936-3408 . Archivado del original (PDF) el 27 de septiembre de 2006. 

• Giles Ungpakorn, Purificando la democracia del socialismo