Amid the unstable and regressing political situation in Thailand, PEF has begun to develop a program area focusing on the promotion of democracy in the country. With particular concern about the predominance of political dialogue by extreme oppositional views, we are now in the initial stages of a project that aims to foster open spaces for critical analysis and meaningful discussion about democratization in Thailand. Targeted primarily at the urban middle-class through online platforms in the first year, the program has subsequently expanded to the grassroots community level in the form of focus group and issue-based discussion forums on people’s conceptions and experiences of Thailand's democratization process.

Activities

• Focus group and issue-based community discussion forums on democracy
• Human rights documentation related to Thai political conflict, training workshop and report (organized with Forum-Asia)
• Open Forums for Dialogues on Thai Democracy website (http://www.openthaidemocracy.com)
• Public seminars on democracy concepts and their relation to Thailand