Photographic realism and communism: the twin spectres in the image of the student skit in Dao Sayam

ABSTRACT

The violent crackdown at Thammasat University on 6 October 1976 was one of the bloodiest massacres in the history of modern Thailand. The incident has never been fully investigated or resolved, despite many attempts by scholars and activists to recover memories and re-examine the incident. This article analyses the role of a photograph on the front page of a right-wing royalist newspaper, Dao Sayam – showing a student skit at the university – in the lead-up to the massacre. It examines the entanglement between the discourses of photography, the performativity of photographic image and the spectral image of communism made by the royalist-military propaganda. The article argues that the facial resemblance between the performer and Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, which was central to the debate around the photograph, is a phantasma: a delusive appearance of communism as a spectre called up by imagination. It elaborates on how this picture transformed from a photograph of the skit into a haunting image by which the spectre of communism became representational, and how it worked in arousing rage among the Right wing. The skit photograph turned into an offensive image and contributed to the nightmarish event on the morning of 6 October 1976.

KEYWORDS:

• Photography
• spectre
• 6 October Massacre
• Dao Sayam;
• communism
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Thongchai Winichakul, Sayan Daengklom, Pattaraphon Phoothong, Daorueang Naeothong, Documentation of 6 October, Thammasat University Archives, National Archives of Thailand and the Thai Journalist Association. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers and editors who offered me invaluable advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article adheres to the phonetic transcription for most Thai words, but without tonal marks. I follow the ‘General System of Phonetic Transcription of Thai Characters into Roman’ devised by the Royal Institute, Bangkok, in 1999. In the case of a name which is widely known or which can be checked, the owner’s preferred transcription has been used. I refer to Thai people by their first names as is Thai convention.

2 The United Artists’ Front of Thailand (UAFT) was founded in 1974 by a group of artists, art lecturers, art students and art professionals. It organized art and cultural activities as well as exhibitions in Bangkok and other provinces, and it produced billboards, posters and visual signs for the protests. The UAFT was disbanded following the October 6 massacre.

3 Translation of headline from Thongchai Winichakul (2020, 45–46).

4 Lèse-majesté law or Section 112 in the Thai Criminal Code imposes jail terms for those who defame, insult or threaten the King, Queen, Heir-Apparent, or Regent. After the 6 October Massacre, the maximum penalty for lèse-majesté increased from seven to fifteen years' imprisonment. Lacking a clear scope, the law has been subject to extensive interpretation and used in order to criminalize a variety of actions.

5 “Lamdap het kan korani 6 tulakhom 2519 [Timeline of the 6 October Massacre].” In Documentation of October 6. Accessed 3 December 2023, https://doct6.com/learn-about/timeline.

6 There is no evidence that the expropriated film went from the Special Branch Police to Dao Sayam or to the right-wing group. Bangkok Post was accused of doctoring the skit photographs and, together with Dao Sayam, suggesting that the students intended to insult the Crown Prince. Bangkok Post has clarified many times since 1988 that it did not do so (Bangkok Post 7 October 1988; 7 October 1996; 25 February 2012).

7 Available at the archive Documentation of October 6 “Ekkasan kham hai kan phayan faichot 004 nai Narong Neramitwanchai [Document 004 Testimony of Narong Neramitwanchai in the 6 October Trial].” 20 October 1976. Accessed 8 June 2023, https://doct6.com/archives/1479.

8 Somsak Jeamtheerasakul remarked that Dao Sayam published two editions per day: the morning edition and the afternoon edition. He proposed that a copy of Dao Sayam that contained the skit photograph (that it claimed to have enlarged and given to the right-wing groups) was the afternoon edition of 4 October (which appeared as the 5 October edition). This edition has not yet been found. He assumed that the afternoon edition of 5 October (which appeared as the 6 October edition) reprinted the photograph from that missing edition (Somsak 2001, 153). I searched for that missing edition in the National Library of Thailand, the Thammasat University Archives and the Thammasat University Library but did not find any copies.

9 Available at the archive Documentation of October 6, “Ekkasan kham hai kan phayan faichot 003 phan tho Uthan Sanidvongse na Ayutthaya [Document 003 Testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Uthan Sanidvongse na Ayutthaya in the 6 October Trial].” 7 December 1976.” Accessed 8 June 2023, https://doct6.com/archives/1471.

10 I referred to Marcel Barung’s translation (2006). He translated ‘peesart’ as ‘ghost’.

11 Peesart by Seinee has been popular among leftists throughout several decades, reappearing at times of struggles for social justice and democracy (Prajak 2015). The latest reappearance was sparked by the dissolution of the progressive Future Forward Party (Phak Anakhot Mai, literally ‘new future party’) on 21 February 2020. Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a law scholar and the party’s Secretary-General, made a statement that referred to peesart, changing ‘I’m’ to ‘we’re’: ‘This is not the end, but this is the beginning, because we’re the peesarts that time has fashioned to scare those who live in the old world, to give nightmares to those who hold to the old ways of thinking, and nothing can comfort you, just as nothing can stop the march of time, which will produce more and more peesarts’ (Matichon 2020).

12 On the American intervention in Thailand during the Cold War, see, for example Benedict Anderson (1977); Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead (2012) and Nattapoll Chaiching (2013).

13 The Thai state employed several other words to invoke the fear of communism: intruders (phu rukran), barbarians (khon pa), animals (sat), savage thieves (chon thamin) and filthy disease (singsokhrok rokrai) (Puangthong 2006, 32–42).

14 Buddhism had been an instrument in countering communism since the early 1950s. See, for example, Bowie (1997) and Ford (2017).

15 The book Phramaha Kasat Thai Nai Rabob Prachathippatai (The Thai King in the Democratic System) written by the interim prime minister Thanin Kraivichien confirmed this perception. The content includes several interviews of individuals who answered the question of what to do if anyone tried to overthrow the institution of monarchy. The answers were to kill or to support the killing of those who might try to do so (Thanin 1976, 42–48).

16 The photographs of the massacre were printed on the evening of October 6 before the NARC issued a censorship order, and they appeared in the October 7 editions of some newspapers such as Dao Sayam, Thai Rath and Ban Mueang.

Additional information

Funding

This article was derived from the research project entitled Prism of Photography: Dispersion of Knowledge and Memories of the 6th October Massacre (MRG6280037) completed in 2022. The research project was originally supported by the 2019 Research Grant for New Scholars of Thailand Research Fund (TRF) and transferred to National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) in 2020. The project includes a six-month collaboration with artist Kornkrit Jianpinidnan, which is resulted in a form of photo book under the same title (2019).