Silence of the Wolf: The Perpetrators of the 1976 Massacre in Bangkok 30 Years Afterwards

Professor Thongchai Winichakul (University of Wisconsin)

The perpetrators of the massacre in Bangkok on 6 Oct 1976, who were jubilant after the carnage, have fallen silent. Primarily, democratization in Thailand for most of the past 30 years has been the condition of the changing discourse and public memory of the massacre, from the triumph that saved the country from communism to the tragedy of the democratic movement. Most former perpetrators defend what they did and show no remorse. Despite that, they have been living with, or gone through, many conditions that contributed to their silence, from a sense of guilt to bitterness for being betrayed and abandoned, and of frustration due to the current public perceptions of them.

This talk will relate intriguing stories drawn from encounters with the speaker’s “former enemies” - from a dusty archive, to meetings with the betrayed and disillusioned militia and with an alleged murderer whose past is entirely sanitized, and the admonition by a once most influential royalist broadcaster who may be the only person who spoke the truth.

Professor Thongchai Winichakul

Thongchai Winichakul is a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed undergraduate studies at Thammasat University and undertook doctoral research at the University of Sydney. His publications include Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of a Nation (1994). Thongchai’s interests are in the intellectual history of Siam, particularly the transition to modernity as manifested in the contention between indigenous and Western ideas, worldviews, and forms of knowledge. He is also working on memories of the October 1976 massacre in Bangkok.

Organiser: CCLPS, South East Asia Research

Contact email: ad48@soas.ac.uk