BANGKOK: Mitree Chitinunda was such a devoted Thai royalist that he had the king’s portrait cut into his hair last year, but politics like fashion and hairstyles is changing in Thailand.
Mitree latest hairstyle shows the “Hunger Games” salute of the pro-democracy protesters who are demanding reforms to curb the power of King Maha Vajiralongkorn in addition to a new prime minister and new constitution.
“I support all of the three demands,” said Mitree, 48, who regularly joins the protests.
“The protests happened because people had enough,” he told Reuters. “If we don’t get real democracy, we will not stop and I will continue to support and come to protest.”
Mitree’s change of heart reflects the dramatic transformation in a country where reverence for the monarch is obligatory under the constitution, but tens of thousands of people have joined protests to demand royal reforms.
The government and royalist groups say loyalists remain in the majority, but there are…