On Oct 6, 2007 Jon Ungphakorn, Chair of the NGO Coordinating Committee on Development, delivered the keynote speech at the 31^st anniversary of Oct 6, 1976, which commemorated the killings of students at Thammasat University. 

Jon said he was not one of the so-called October people, as he did not join the events on Oct 14, 1973 and Oct 6, 1976.

Despite his absence, the October events considerably affected his life.  After Oct 14, 1973 he was introduced to modern thinking.  At that time, students and teachers saw the need to overhaul how to learn and teach with students' participation.  Nowadays no university has that kind of idea.

There were two significant ideologies then: Democracy and Socialism, Jon said.

"The essence of the Oct 14 movement was Democracy and Socialism.  In my opinion, those two ideologies are still relevant and significant these days."

"After Oct 14, 1973 I learnt what the students were thinking, and worked with lecturers from 6 universities.  We went to the Hara factory where women labourers had seized the buildings and brought things for sale here [Thammasat auditorium]. That was an important thing to learn."

"The students wanted to go out to the rural areas.  At that time, Mao Zedong's ideas were influential through the Communist Party of Thailand.  He encouraged intellectuals to learn from farmers or the poor.  I think it is a good idea.  There were many things in those days that could be of use today, but regrettably they seem to be of no interest now."

"In the case of the Hara dispute, there was the idea that workers should not be just employees, but co-owners who shared the interests of the business.  Such ideas can be found in certain western countries like Germany.  So I think we could learn something from the Hara case.  Don't see it as out of date."

"But now things seem to be the other way round," Jon said.

He talked about China, a country that had been understood to provide free health services, but now it was found that the income gap was dramatic, and there was so much poverty.  Fundamental things that used to be welfare now are no longer free such as tuition fees, and medical care.  China has come to betray the good ideas of socialism, he said.

"I said things have turned the other way round.  After Oct 6, 1976 I was abroad, and campaigned to free the political prisoners and call for Democracy.  Samak Sundaravej went to the UK and said that Thammasat University was a weapons storehouse.  On the pictures of the hangings and killings in Sanam Luang, he said it was done by the Vietnamese, not the Thai people."

Jon said Samak was an antagonist at Oct 14, and Oct 6, but had now come around to collaborate with the October people in politics.

He talked about the killings in Tak Bai that was muzzled, but the video of the incident was circulated.  Sutham Saengpratum, who was a student leader during Oct 6 and became a member of the Thai Rak Thai party, said that the video was banned.  When Jon met him, he asked if the pictures of Oct 6 were banned too.

"At least, we expected people of the Oct 14 and Oct 6 generations would have been consistent, but many of them have lost their senses."

"The people's movements from the Oct 14 to Oct 6 and in May 1992, I think, have been consistent overall, still anti-dictatorship, calling for democracy and social justice.  However, the rifts [among the people's movements] began to appear during the Thaksin administration."

"At the beginning of the Thaksin administration, I remember one person was very excited: Pipob Thongchai of the Campaign for Popular Democracy and later a leader of the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy.  He was excited that this government would work for the people."

Jon said that the universal health care scheme, which was one of the outstanding policies of the Thaksin government, was actually the brainchild of a progressive doctor, Sa-nguand Nityarumpong, one of the October people who collaborated with 11 people's networks to collect 50,000 signatures to push for the law.

"The Thaksin government was very capable.  Many October people [in the government] were good at dealing with the masses, with some good initiatives like [the prime minister] having lunch with the Assembly of the Poor.  It was exciting to see proponents and opponents debating the opening of the [Pak Mun] dam's sluice gates on TV.  But that was never to happen again."

Jon said that the good side of the Thai Rak Thai was good policies and real implementation, while other parties like the Democrats had never done anything for the people.  But Thai Rak Thai also had the bad side, for example, the scrapping of educational loans for poor people.  But this also happens with the current Surayud administration.

In dealing with the Thai Rak Thai, most people talk about corruption cases.  But in Jon's opinion corruption is not the forefront, as every government is corrupt.  The big issue with the Thaksin government was ‘policy corruption' which is difficult to scrutinize  And Jon said he did not believe in ‘moral integrity'.

"I think the word ‘moral integrity' is nauseating.  It makes demands of other people.  What we should call for is not moral integrity, but ethics and accountability.  Thai society has become unethical; everything can be bought."

"The Thaksin government might look modern, but it used the old means; buying people, and using the patronage system.  After the Sept 19 coup, the patronage system still remains.  While the Thaksin government destroyed the system of checks and balance, the anti-Thaksin movement emerged, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy.  That was where the rifts among the people's sector began."

"I had a question why the October people remained with the Thaksin government, despite the extra-judicial killings, the killings of lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, and southern people.  When I raised this question with them, they mostly answered that if they had not remained, things would have been worse with people like Newin [Chidchob] and Yongyuth [Tiyapairat] kept unchecked."

Jon said the same answer would apply for those who support the Council for National Security; things would have been worse.

He said he himself was not innocent in this regard, as he felt relieved when Thaksin was ousted.  The Thaksin government was dangerous because of its being elected and its popularity.

No one seems to think that the way the junta has dealt with Thaksin is discrimination that makes him a hero.  The CNS has made him a hero.  Everything that has been done to him is illegitimate, for example, the political banning of the 111 Thai Rak Thai executives.

"After the general election, the first thing to do is to collect 10,000 signatures to revoke all the CNS announcements," Jon said.

"Instead of the coup, I believe that if the people continued to fight Thaksin, although he would have won the election, his popularity must have fallen.  The problems cannot be solved with a coup, but with democracy."

"Leaders of the People' Alliance for Democracy are attached to one camp, so they had to support the awful constitution.  It's not done in good faith, but because they belong to a certain camp.  This constitution is anti-democratic, distrustful of the people.  Judges will fetch the highest prices.  Don't think that they cannot be bought.  They were, in [Thaksin's] asset concealment case."

"Bad things that the Thaksin government did, the CNS also does.  Remember, Thaksin always shuffled around the provincial governors in the areas Thai Rak Thai lost.  The CNS also moved governors whose provinces rejected the charter."

Jon said the Thai people must collectively fight for:

Grassroots democracy, not just the right to cast ballots, but rather community rights to natural resources;

A welfare state, which will create justice in the society; and

Structural reform, including the institutions, the people's sector, particularly labour unions, and reforms of education and the media.

Jon ended his speech by proposing the formation of a people's political party that is free from financiers.  This has to start and will take time.

Translated by Ponglert Pongwanan