Red Coffee shop on Sri Don Chai Road in Chiang Mai has held activities in support of Nitirat’s calls for amendments to Article 112 and the nullification of the 2006 coup’s legal effects, providing live broadcasts of the Thammasat academic group’s events in Bangkok and offering its customers a sign-up campaign to amend the lèse majesté law.

Nitirat’s events were also transmitted live by local community radio stations, including 99.15 MHz in Chiang Mai and 100.5 MHz in Chiang Rai.

Mangkorn, an elderly villager from Pa Tan village in Muang district of Chiang Mai, said that he wished that Nitirat would hold public talks in major provincial cities such as Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, and others, to propagate their ideas to a wider audience.

Asked whether he felt afraid to sign on to the campaign, he said no as he did it within the scope of the law.

Min, 41, a trader from Chiang Mai’s San Sai district, said that he was not afraid to sign on to the campaign because he thought that it was his constitutional right.  However, he found that many of his red-shirt neighbours were reluctant when he asked them to sign, because they did not understand the process, which required copies of their ID cards and house registrations.  They were afraid that their identities would be revealed, and they would be targeted by the authorities.

Although red shirts in his neighbourhood have installed satellite dishes to watch Voice TV or Asia Update, and are informed on the issue of Article 112 to a certain extent, they belong to ‘several shades and have several degrees of understanding or courage,’ he said.

Jakkraphan Borirak, a host of FM 99.15 MHz in Chiang Mai, said that since his station’s broadcast of the Nitirat event on 15 Jan over 50 of his station’s audience had signed on to the campaign to amend Article 112, and they had volunteered to take documents for their neighbours to join the petition. 

He believes that more and more people will join the campaign if more activities continue to be held and information is distributed. 

He said that his station had been providing its audience with information and distributing copies of the Nitirat petition form in various places including other community radio stations, noodle and local food shops, garages and lottery stalls in Chiang Mai and neighbouring provinces such as Lamphun, Lampang and Chiang Rai.  

Those who are interested can sign on to the campaign by bringing copies of their ID cards and house registrations to the following places in Chiang Mai: Red Coffee, Book Republic on Liab Kan Klong Rd, 9 Lines Bookstore on Soi Chom Jan, Rassadorn noodle shop on Soi Kanom Ban Ajarn (behind Chiang Mai Rajbhat University), and Bua Thep noodle shop in Tha Kwang subdistrict, Saraphi district.