From April 10, 2010 to Date: Nicha Hiranburana Thuvatham’s Struggle for Justice through Media for her Late Husband

Abstract

On November 1, 2013, around 4 o’clock in the morning, PM Yingluck Shinawatra’s government attempted to force the Thai Parliament to pass an amnesty bill to whitewash the act of criminals, rioters and others who committed unlawful acts while gathering in political protest over the period from 2004 until August 8, 2013. This attempt had terrible consequences for the justice issues affecting those who were killed in those incidents, including General Romklao (Christopher) Thuvatham, who was fatally shot while performing his duty, unarmed, at Khok Wua Intersection in Bangkok on April 10, 2010. Consequently, such an operation by the PM and her government pushed Nicha Hiranburana Thuvatham, General Romklao’s wife, on presenting her grievances via the media, to plead for justice for her late husband. This paper aims to analyze Nicha’s strategies in her combined roles as wife, citizen and government officer in struggles with Thai government over the issue of justice. The analysis was made using Nicha’s public speeches selected from the three media: her address to the forum of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee televised on BlueskyTV on November 24, 2013; an interview with Pak-Soi-Roi-Neung, a radio program aired on January 20, 2014; and a letter Nicha wrote to the wife of Suthin Tarathin, the renowned social activist assassinated while participating in a protest for advance voting for the national election on January 26, 2014. Also considered were some parts of Nicha’s narrative in the book named In the Memory of Love which she published for the first anniversary of her husband’s death.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p278