Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 26. October 3 1977
[Introduction]
This Thursday, October 6 marks the first anniversary of the bloody military coup that began in the early hours of the morning on that date in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. As most students would know, the Thai military replaced a democratically elected government that had held sway for three years, since the overthrow by a mass movement of Thais of the former military dictatorship in October 1973.
Most students probably ask the question, every time they see articles on Thailand, or other international issues, the question, "What the hell has all this got to do with me"? Our reply to such questions is that firstly, just because an issue arises outside the shores of this country is no reason for New Zealanders not to be concerned about it; secondly, that the denial of democracy and basic human rights to anyone in any country of the world should be of concern to all people; thirdly that the New Zealand government is closely connected with the Thai military government, a fact which deserves some attention because of various statements made about the connection by our Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon.
We should be concerned that democracy in Thailand has been thrown out the door by violent means, that the country's constitution has been abrogated, that opposition of any description to the present Thai leaders is illegal, that workers, students and others still languish in gaol a year after the coup, that hundreds of students were shot down in cold blood during the coup and hundreds more wounded or forced to flee for their lives.
No decent New Zealander can support such things, obviously. The question to ask ourselves, therefore, is what can we do about it?