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A Message Recorded Prior to Arrest: Sombat Boonngamanong to the People

 
At approximately 9.30 pm on 5 June, Sombat Boonngamanong was seized in Phan Thong district in Chonburi province. The team that seized him was composed of officers from the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) working with members of the 21st Army Infantry Regiment.   The National Intelligence Agency located him by tracing his IP address. 
 
In the event of arrest, he left this pre-recorded message to be circulated on social media and YouTube. This is a translation of the transcript of his message, which can be viewed in the original Thai by following the link in “Source” below.
 
 
“From Polka Dot Editor to Those Who Love Democracy and Do Not Accept the Coup”
 

 
“…Hello, brothers and sisters, the people, all those to whom the sovereign power belongs. This is Sombat Boonngamanong, Polka Dot Editor.…If you are listening to this message, it indicates that I have been detained, or am unable to be found.
 
… I want to convey a message to you. First, I ask you to believe that “sovereignty” belongs to all of the people: this means that “the highest power” belongs to the people.
 
… On the basis of the above principle, it is a legitimate right for us to come out to express that “fomenting a coup” constitutes the destruction of this principle. This is not only a political matter,   but it is an issue of human rights, because this is a “fundamental right.” It is a fundamental political right of the “people” to maintain that, “We are partners, we are one part of this country,” as those who are “the people who together possess sovereignty.”
 
Even though I was summoned to report myself and it was announced that I was seized and detained,  and even though I have been threatened in many ways, I would like to tell you that I do not feel that I am a wrongdoer. But I feel, always, that “I possess sovereignty.”
 
This is what I am accused of and I stand on this principle.
 
And whatever happens to me, as it may be, this was not a mistake on my part.
But it is that one must insist on one’s rights until the end. Even if I am imprisoned, beaten, or whatever else, no matter. This is not  “the price that I must pay,” but is an act of political crime against the people of this country who yearn for liberty and equality.
 
… Please carry on your historical mission to make democracy evolve and become ever stronger and wider. Although I am unable to join the action, for various reasons, no matter. 
 
May the brothers and sisters hold fast to, seek, and invent peaceful paths
in order to restore our democratic system that has been destroyed over and over again
until it can rise again.  
 
With thanks to everyone, goodbye.” 
 
 
 

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