Via AFP
BANGKOK: Masses of headbanging metalheads rock out to the roaring guitars and thundering drums of Thai band Defying Decay, chanting alongside to their newest politically charged track.
The gang’s unmarried “The Regulation 112: Secrecy and Renegades” is a raucous, defiant anthem with a taboo-defying message — difficult Thailand’s draconian lese majeste regulations.
Criticising the royal circle of relatives is punishable via as much as 15 years in prison, however requires royal reform — as soon as utterly off-limits — spilled into the open all through a sequence of primary youth-led side road protests in opposition to the junta in 2020.
Saturday evening’s vigorous Bangkok crowd used to be the primary in Thailand to peer a reside efficiency of the track, which had already discovered an target market on US rock stations in November.
The 112 of the identify refers back to the lese majeste segment of Thailand’s legal code, however the track’s lyrics keep away from criticising someone or establishment via title.
“I love to have the lyrics open for interpretation and for everybody to have their very own that means… after I write my songs,” vocalist and lyricist Poom Euarchukiati instructed AFP.
A line within the track about corruption may additionally to find reinforce from royalists or the police, no longer simply anti-government protesters, mentioned the 25-year-old frontman.
In spite of the track’s contentious identify, the primary supply of inspiration comes from the plot of the delusion online game “Darkish Souls”, wherein corruption is a big theme, Poom mentioned.
Political song
The protests calling for political reform that rocked Bangkok in 2020 uncovered a generational break up in Thailand between kids craving for alternate and a extra conservative older era.
Poom mentioned his mom used to be no longer glad when information of the track’s contentious identify emerged.
“My mom in the beginning mentioned ‘you’ll be able to’t do that’. However then I confirmed her the lyrics and she or he used to be tremendous with it,” he mentioned.
Defying Decay are the newest Thai band to make use of their song to problem the status quo.
Launched greater than 3 years in the past, Rap In opposition to Dictatorship’s “Prathet Ku Mee (My Nation Has)” made headlines at house and in a foreign country with its politically pushed lyrics and competitive rhymes, narrating a slew of corruption circumstances.
The hip-hop collective’s in-your-face song video, which incorporates a re-enactment of a infamous 1976 pupil bloodbath, additionally despatched an impressive message to the worldwide target market concerning the nation’s darkish previous.
With a restricted marketplace for their emblem of different steel in Thailand, the seven-member band basically specializes in traveling in a foreign country.
Requires reform
At its height in the second one part of 2020, the protests not easy royal reform and the resignation of High Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha — who took energy in a 2014 coup — drew tens of hundreds to the streets of Bangkok.
However the motion petered out as coronavirus restrictions hampered rallies and demonstrators had been hit with lese majeste fees.
There were 170 people charged beneath the royal insult regulation since November 2020, consistent with the Thai Attorneys for Human Rights organisation.
Political activist Parit Chiwarak, identified via his nickname “Penguin”, faces probably the most fees with 23. He has been held in pre-trial detention since August.
At a UN rights assembly remaining yr, the Thai authorities’s consultant defended the lese majeste regulation, pronouncing it “displays the tradition and historical past of Thailand, the place the monarchy is likely one of the major pillars of the country”.
However from a musician’s point of view, the regulation must be “up to date” to be appropriate with the trendy global and save you “misuse,” Poom mentioned.
A “transparent usual” of wrongdoings dedicated beneath lese majeste regulation will have to even be established to verify honest trials, Defying Decay lead guitarist Chitipat Wanyasurakul, 26, instructed AFP.
However forthcoming alternate may well be some distance away.
“Individuals who pay attention to (rebellious) song are most commonly youngsters and younger staff — society is not made out of this team of other folks on my own,” 29-year-old concertgoer Chawanut Rattanaphun instructed AFP.
