"From 10pm onward there are [military] trucks patrolling around. People dare not walk outside their homes. They think we're Thaksin's people," Prateep said.

She was referring to the fact the slum - Bangkok's largest - voted largely for deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai Party.

Prateep said not all of Klong Toei supported Thaksin and urged the media and the public to be fair to the community. She urged the military to stop its patrols as local people felt harassed by such actions.

Prateep, who was born in Klong Toei, tells residents not to go out at night. The Magsaysay award winner said she opposed the September 19 coup as illegitimate and has since been accused of accepting money from the ousted former premier to run a campaign against the coup makers - an allegation she discounted as absurd.

She admitted, however, that local residents would have to try hard to prove to the public that it was no different from others and not party to patronage from Thaksin.

Sanchai Chamsan, a resident of Klong Toei's Lock 1, said only five to 10 per cent of Klong Toei residents sold their votes and, within the community, there were people who supported and opposed the coup. "I hope the middle class takes another look at us," he said.

Serm Thongphoom, a former community leader, said the media stereotyped Klong Toei people, which had led to the presumption that all of them were bent on illegal activities such as drug dealing.

However, many of the residents supported the former administration's controversial crackdown on drug dealers through extrajudicial executions. "Nothing is plain white or black," he said.

Nittaya Promphochuenbun, head of community development at the Duang Prateep Foundation, said she regretted that the military had torn up the 1997 Constitution - as she was involved in drafting it.

"The coup will only pass on a tradition of violence to younger soldiers, and people have forgotten how many rights and liberties have been curtailed by the junta."

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation