The brass plaque installed at Sanam Luang on Sunday as a sign of defiance by protesters demanding reforms of the monarchy has been removed.
Thai PBS news team found the spot where the plaque was embedded was covered with fresh cement. It’s still unclear when or by whom the plaque was removed.
The anti-government installed the plaque in a mock ceremony Sunday morning which they said symbolized a revival of the spirit of the 1932 revolution that ended Thailand’s system of absolute monarchy at their rally site where they camped overnight.
The protesters named the marker “Plaque of Khana Ratsadon (People’s Party) 2020”. Khana Ratsadon is the name of a group of military and civil leaders who staged a bloodless coup that toppled the government of King Prajadhipok and ushered in Thailand’s first government with a constitutional monarchy.
“At this very spot, we the people declare that this country is a possession of the people and not of the monarch…,” says part of the inscription on the marker which was meant to symbolically replicate a similar plaque planted by Khana Rassadorn at the Royal Plaza after the revolution but mysteriously disappeared in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Fine Arts Department is planning to lodge a complaint with Chanasongkhram police against protesters responsible for the alleged intrusion into Sanam Luang, which is an archaeological site, and for causing damage to the site by installing the plaque, in violation of the National Museums and Archaeological Sites and Objects Act.
The maximum penalty for such an offence is seven years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 700,000 baht.
