The UDD movement and political reform discourse :|bthe desecuritization of Thai politics within The Public Relation Department English website

Abstract

Arguably, the Copenhagen School and the theory of Securitization has mainly been applied or linked to western driven security issues within International Relations such as immigration, drug trafficking, global warming, global war on terror amongst others. As such, much criticism has been directed towards its Eurocentric upbringings. However, despite these comments, securitization has also started to gain its presence outside of western Europe. This paper attempts to gauge as to how might the theory be applied in the context of Thailand. Political movements (Yellow, Red, Multicolour) in Thailand have remained a fixture in public debate and on the political agenda since 2005. The paper investigates if there has been a Desecuritization of the Red Shirt movement within official media between the end of the violent demonstrations of May 2010 to the end of September 2011. As such, it focuses on how securitization/desecuritization has affected human rights, specifically vis-a-vis Thailand’s adherence to the ICCPR during the post protest period. Given the specific time period of the study, the paper aims to draw comparisons as well as contrasts between the Ahbisit and Yingluck administration. As such, the case remains both a test case to the Securitization theory’s underlining assumptions on political and security dynamics and logics as well as to provide a different angle to Thailand’s ongoing political conflict and its development.