Nawaphon
The Nawaphon organization (Thai: ขบวนการนวพล, alternatively transcribed as Navapol, Nawapol, Nawaphol, translated variously as 'new force', 'ninth force',[1]) or 'nine new forces'[2]: 80 was a Thai extreme right-wing,[3] patriotic,[4] Buddhist[3] and anti-communist[5][6] propaganda organization[7] active during the country's short democratic period in the mid-1970s. Nawaphon has been described as a psychological warfare unit. Its mission: to support the Red Gaurs and propagandize the Thai population.[8]
Nawaphon was set up by Wattana Keovimol in 1974. Wattana had been the head of the Thai Students Association in the United States, when he studied at Seton Hall University.[4] Nawaphon was supported by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) of the Thai military[8] and the Ministry of Interior.[1] The group was said to have links to wealthy businessmen, politicians, the National Security Council, and Thai military intelligence.[3] Nawaphon rallied merchants, businessmen, and monks who were opposed to social change and democracy, fearing for their wealth.[8] The organization attracted a number of Buddhist monks, the most prominent being Kittiwuttho Bhikkhu, who infamously said that killing communists was not a sin.[8][9]
The movement was opposed to
After the coup re-establishing the military rule following the massacre, Nawaphon's popularity diminished due to suspicions that it had become a means of catering to the ambitions of the military clique.[4]
An alternative view on Nawaphon's membership has been given by historian Thongchai Winichakul, who pointed out that unlike the Red Gaurs and the Village Scouts, the other right-wing groups involved in the massacre, information on Nawaphon is scarce and much of it seems to derive from boasts made by Wattana. In addition, photos of large gatherings attributed to the group came from mixed crowds, not allowing different right-wing groups to be distinguished. Thongchai therefore suggested that Nawaphon may have been "a phantom organization intended to inflate the image of the right-wing movement" that had no base of its own but took credit for counterinsurgency operations by the ISOC.[10][11]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9780521767682
- ^ ISBN 9971902435. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
- ^ ISBN 9781412815666
- ^ ISBN 0415238757
- ^ Elinor Bartak (1993). The Student Movement in Thailand, 1970-1976. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University. p. 27.
- ^ Alan Klima (2002). The Funeral Casino: Meditation, Massacre, and Exchange with the Dead in Thailand. Princeton University Press. p. 26.
- ^ Karin Zackari (2016). Bettina Koch (ed.). Violence on the Periphery of the Thai State and Nationhood. Springer VS. p. 86.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ . Retrieved 2019-04-03.
- ^ Politics and Religion Mix for Asia's Activist Monks, USC Annenberg School for Communications, 11 September 2007
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ISBN 9780824889999.
- ^ "ไม่มีนวพลใน 6 ตุลา: องค์กรผีของ กอ.รมน. - waymagazine.org | นิตยสาร WAY". waymagazine.org. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-11.