The government on Monday urged all sides to help defuse tension between protest groups demanding monarchy reform and ultra-royalists, to avoid a potential violent confrontation.
"We have to prevent both sides from clashing with one another," said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. "You know what? There are millions of people who are loyal to the monarchy and they are in all provinces. So, please help us defuse the tension."
The premier was responding to a question over the possibility of violence erupting between groups demanding changes to the monarchy and those highly loyal to the institution.
He encouraged everyone to think more clearly as to what the protesting groups hoped to achieve and how they could help the government and authorities to prevent unrest.
If these protest groups continued to flout the laws and disrupted the government's work of ruling the country, more conflicts would arise and escalate to a point where the country was severely impacted, he warned, referring to youth-led, anti-government movements United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) and the Free People Group. Gen Prayut also urged the protesters to exercise their democratic rights without breaking the law.
Protesters are due to carry out another demonstration on Oct 14, in pursuit of several demands, including charter amendment, the resignation of Gen Prayut as PM and monarchy reform.
The UFTD yesterday posted on its Facebook page that a group of pro-democracy student activists in the northeastern province of Maha Sarakham now planned to hold an anti-coup protest at Mahasarakham University on Oct 4.
In Bangkok, three Silpakorn University students submitted a petition to the Fine Arts Department calling on officials to track down two missing items: the Khana Ratsadon plaque and the Constitutional Defence Monument.
The monument, which marked a victory over the royalist counterrevolution in 1933, was removed to make way for the construction of the Green Line electric train.
The brass plaque vanished in 2017.