The newly appointed board of the Student Federation of Thailand (SFT), widely regarded as pro-red, assembled at the October 6, 1976, memorial at Thammasat University to introduce its members yesterday afternoon.
The last time the SFT board did not have a secretary-general was back in 2007, a year after the September 19, 2006, coup when many members of the federation pulled out because of political disagreement.
This year, the SFT is boycotting the reform committees led by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun and social critic Prawase Wasi, because it believes the government cannot be a mediator when it is responsible for 91 deaths between April and May.
"It is just a soap opera staged to fool the people," said Soonyata Mianlamai, the SFT's newly elected spokeswoman. "These committees are not true representatives of people from all sectors. Reconciliation cannot be achieved when the roads are paved with the blood of people. Trying to reconcile in a climate of hatred cannot bring about peace.
"The government killed a group of people, placed the blame on them, and then tried to persuade others to forget what happened and stop hating so a new happy beginning can ensue. However, this cannot by accepted by those who have a conscience."
Soonyata, in her final year at Chulalongkorn University's journalism faculty, read out a statement saying the government had for three months failed to bring the people behind the deaths to justice and instead "shamelessly placed the blame on those killed" by branding them as terrorists.
"There has yet to be anyone who has come out to take responsibility," the statement read. "The government continues using the media to distort information ... and the only thing relatives [of those killed] can do is wait to take revenge.
"We have a dictatorial regime that looks at the people as an enemy that needs to be crushed."
Aware that there were very few of them, no more than 100 - a mere shadow of what the SFT was two decades ago when it played a crucial role in ousting prime minister General Suchinda Kraprayoon in May 1992 - some of the board members held placards defending themselves.
"Though we may not represent all students, we represent 'what is right'," said one.
Another placard read: "Students' [activism] is not disappearing. It's 'freedom' that is missing."
Asked whether the SFT had become too red, Soonyata, who regularly attended the red-shirt rally in May, replied: "The SFT is part of the red-shirt struggle. But mind you, I would like to recall the past too, when once [in 2006] it joined the yellow-shirt [People's Alliance for Democracy] movement. We are still students and consider ourselves a 'pure force' and will speak on behalf of students," she told The Nation.