Before she stepped onstage at a recent pro-democracy rally in Bangkok, the keynote speaker said she trembled with fear. She was about to do something few in Thailand have dared to do: publicly question the nation’s powerful monarchy. Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a 21-year-old sociology and anthropology student at Thammasat University, called for sweeping changes that would decriminalize insulting the royal family, curb its powers and make palace spending auditable.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 15, 2020 10:52 UTC