A Harry Potter Themed Anti-Government Protest Was Held In Thailand
By George Robbins
The ‘Harry Potter‘ franchise is one that very quickly caught on and became a worldwide phenomenon that persists to this day. The series has always been one that has drawn people in because it has a mix of everything people like in the fantasy genre. This has resulted in people the world over taking countless forms of inspiration from the films and novels. What came to be as a result was the birth of an entire generation that took strong influences from the stories and did something with them. Most recently, in fact, the protests happening in Thailand have had some interesting themes and results.
As of now, there are a large number of people in Thailand who are protesting the government because they are unhappy with the monarchy. The kingdom of Thailand is ruled by a coalition of parties that are endorsed by the military who launched a coup in 2014 that overthrew the democratically-elected government. This essentially turned the country of Thailand into a military state where civilians are constantly under the watchful eye of the new government. People in the country are no longer allowed to speak their minds as this has essentially become an illegal act against the government. King Maha Vajiralongkorn has even made it illegal for anyone to speak ill of him or the royal family, including criticism.
As with much of the rest of the world, the citizens of Thailand have recently taken to protesting against this regime and the king himself. No one would willingly go along with the rules that are in place, so then why should they sit around while not doing anything. This is the thinking behind what they are doing, for the most part, but also they are tired of the tyranny they now see in their daily lives. Within the recent months, protests have sprung up all over the country to try and make a difference the same way other protests have been trying to do the same thing. Thus, a group of university students took a little bit of inspiration from the ‘Harry Potter’ series.
Very recently a group of students from two universities in the Thai capital of Bangkok has taken to the streets to protest the government dressed in Harry Potter costumes. Not only are they wearing costumes, but they are carrying around signs with Voldemort’s face on it in order to suggest that the king is the same as the villain in the series. Even more than that, they started referring to him as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” in reference to the laws that he made that keep people from talking ill of him. They are doing this in a bid for the monarchy to dissolve the new government and establish a proper democracy once again, taking from the themes of the franchise. It is clear that they are taking the strongest lessons offered by the ‘Harry Potter’ stories and trying to make them a reality.