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REMOVED IN DEAD OF NIGHT


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http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2018/12/28/monument-marking-defeat-of-royalist-rebels-removed-in-dead-of-night/

REMOVED IN DEAD OF NIGHT
 
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Photos circulated on social media that claim to show the Constitution Defense Monument being taken down on Thursday night.

BANGKOK — A historic monument that commemorated government victory over a pro-monarchy rebellion eight decades ago was removed Thursday night without notice or explanation.

Activists and historians fear that the Constitution Defense Monument, which stood at the Laksi Intersection in northern Bangkok, could be destroyed after security forces were seen taking it away in the early hours. Officials declined to comment on its fate...

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Went from being in the middle of a large roundabout, to a traffic light intersection, which changed to and intersection with tunnel, and was basically a parking lot for government vehicles the last few years. The past year or so has been part of a construction site for the extended electric train so I think is being 'moved' to make way for the MRT station slated for that site. It is of less significance than that of the Victory Monument (where they built the track to go around it) so in some ways no surprise.

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Pibun Songram, the "hero" of the battle of Lak Si (he commanded the artillery that stopped the troops marching on Bangkok), just a few years later became the virtual military dictator of Thailand, remaining so until near the end of WWII. Pibun is the one who built Democracy Monument, intending it to honour the 1932 coup that ended the absolute monarchy. Much to his displeasure, the people chose to regard it as an honour to King Rama VII, who had been pro-democracy himself and was planning to announce a constitution at the time the coup moved against him.

The famous words of Rama VII when he abdicated the throne in 1935:  "I am willing to surrender the powers I formerly exercised to the people as a whole, but I am not willing to turn them over to any individual or any group to use in an autocratic manner without heeding the voice of the people."  

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