Teerayut Bunmee is a Thai

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 public intellectual and a former student activist.

Student leader

While a student at Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University is the oldest university in Thailand and is the country's highest ranked university. It now has nineteen faculties and institutes. Regarded as the best and most selective university in Thailand, it consistently attracts top students from around the country...

 during 1973, Teerayut led the National Student Center of Thailand (NSCT) in coordinating political activism against the military dictatorships of Thanom Kittikachorn

Thanom Kittikachorn

Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn was a military dictator of Thailand. A staunch anti-Communist, Thanom oversaw a decade of military rule in Thailand from 1963 to 1973, until public protests which exploded into violence forced him to step down...

 and Praphas Charusathien. The NSCT led tens of thousands of people in public protests against the regimes. However, one of the first activities of the NSCT was a 10-day boycott against Japanese products, in protest against Japanese investments in Thailand.

In 6 October 1973, Teerayut along with 12 other students were arrested by the Praphas government for sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

 after they distributed leaflets demanding a new constitution

Constitution of Thailand

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand is the supreme law of Thailand. Since the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy in 1932, Thailand has had 17 charters and constitutions, reflecting the high degree of political instability and frequency of military coups faced...

. Rumors spread that they had been killed, sparking massive protests against the government. Protests reached their peak in 13 October, when 400,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Democracy Monument and parliament. That afternoon, Teerayut and the 12 other students were released and the King

Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej is the current King of Thailand. He is known as Rama IX...

 agreed on plans to draft a new constitution within 12 months.

Teerayut also played a role in exposing the Internal Security Operations Command's

Internal Security Operations Command

The Internal Security Operations Command is a unit of the Thai military devoted to national security issues. It was responsible for suppression of leftist groups during the 1970s and 1980s during which it was implicated in numerous atrocities against activists and civilians. The modern ISOC was...

 role in a massacre of villagers at Ban Na Sai village in the Northeast.

After the student massacre at Thammasat University

Thammasat University

Thammasat University , or in brief TU , is Thailand's second oldest university. Officially established on 27 June 1934, the university was originally named by founder Pridi Banomyong, University of Moral Science and Politics , reflecting the political fervor of the time...

 on 6 October 1976, Teerayut, as well as many other students and intellectuals fled from the cities to join the Communist Party of Thailand

Communist Party of Thailand

The Communist Party of Thailand - CPT was a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Thailand, active from 1942 until the 1990s. Initially known as Communist Party of Siam the party was founded officially on the 1st of December 1942, although communist activism in the country began as early...

 (CPT) in their jungle strong-holds. Teerayut increasingly became critical of the King, noting in a broadcast on 1 April 1977 that the monarchy was "obsolete and deteriorating," and that "I think that if our people were to destroy it, there would be no adverse effects." After the CPT dissolved itself in the early 1980s, Teerayut returned to the mainstream of Thai intellectual life and renounced socialism.http://www.2519.net/newweb/doc/englisharticle/clean.doc

Contemporary activism

Teerayut currently teaches at the Faculty of Sociology of Thammasat University

Thammasat University

Thammasat University , or in brief TU , is Thailand's second oldest university. Officially established on 27 June 1934, the university was originally named by founder Pridi Banomyong, University of Moral Science and Politics , reflecting the political fervor of the time...

. As of 1997, he was named one of Thailand's ten most influential public intellectuals.http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/tdrc/publications/working_papers/wp329.pdf