Dear Jong-young Lim,
I would like to thank you for your kind support of my work
and would like to say that I am most honoured and proud to be involved in your
prestigious exhibition, “The Truth_To Turn It Over” at Gwangju Museum of
Art.
I would also like to thank you for your open mindedness in
allowing me to refute the accusations leveled against me. In brief, I appear to
be accused of supporting the current military regime and, worse, of prior
political activism as advocate for a military coup.
I flatly deny both charges and would like to stress that my
very active art/political activities in recent years was not in favour of the
military but was in opposition to the abuse of parliamentary majority by the
government of Yingluck Shinawatra. I and literally millions of other Thais
exercised our democratic rights to take to the streets to protest against gross
abuse of power by her government.
During these protests her government turned a blind eye to
use of violence against protestors by government supporters. More than 20
deaths were recorded. Her intransigence and lack of proper democratic sense of
responsibility directly led to the impasse and political vacuum that allowed
the military coup to take place.
The abuse of power that led to the mass demonstrations from
October 2013 included the attempt to use the government's majority to push
through a law that would have granted amnesty for crimes of corruption to
Thaksin Shinawatra (Yingluck's brother and a former Prime Ministers). It should
be noted that the Thai Supreme Court had convicted Thaksin to a two-year jail
term and that several other charges remain pending. Thaksin has never
acknowledged his crimes and has been on the run for the past several
years.
In addition, Yingluck's rule was itself rife with corruption
of historic proportions. Official estimates of corruption and damages from her
rice-pledging scheme alone is in excess of USD 10 billion. She and relevant
ministers and officials are facing charges for these crimes in civilian courts.
These activities were clearly undemocratic, and gave rise to
the broad sense of betrayal felt by millions, of whom I was one. I am proud to
have exercised my democratic duty as a citizen in protesting against the
betrayal of votes that her government received from the People. Furthermore, I
do sincerely believe that my activities and beliefs are perfectly consistent
with the democratic aspirations of all those who participated in the Gwangju
Uprising in 1980.
Indeed, Dictatorship comes in many forms, both military and
civilian. The current military government will face the same opposition from me
and others if they do not put the interest of the people first, and if they do
not return the country to Democracy as they have promised to do.
I should also note that the movement to slur my name has
been promoted by those who are known sympathisers of the Yingluck government.
It is a political game that I do not wish to be a part of, and I sincerely hope
that you do not fall prey to their tactics.
I look forward to being able to participate in your
exhibition, and trust that you are not deterred by the unfair accusations that
are clearly designed to score political gains for a group that must take its
share of responsibility for creating the situation for military rule
today.
Yours sincerely,
Sutee Kunavichayanont
