TheNawaphon organization (Thai:ขบวนการนวพล, alternatively transcribed asNavapol,Nawapol,Nawaphol, translated variously as 'new force', 'ninth force',[1]) or 'nine new forces'[2]: 80 was a Thaiextreme right-wing,[3]patriotic,[4]Buddhist[3] andanti-communist[5][6] propaganda organization[7] active during the country's short democratic period in the mid-1970s. Nawaphon has been described as a psychological warfare unit. Its mission: to support theRed Gaurs and propagandize the Thai population.[8]
Nawaphon was set up byWattana Keovimol in 1974. Wattana had been the head of theThai Students Association in the United States, when he studied atSeton Hall University.[4] Nawaphon was supported by theInternal Security Operations Command (ISOC) of the Thai military[8] and theMinistry of Interior.[1] The group was said to have links to wealthy businessmen, politicians, the National Security Council, and Thai military intelligence.[3] Nawaphon rallied merchants, businessmen, and monks who were opposed to social change and democracy, fearing for their wealth.[8] The organization attracted a number of Buddhist monks, the most prominent beingKittiwuttho Bhikkhu, who infamously said that killing communists was not a sin.[8][9]
The movement was opposed toparliamentary democracy and campaigned for the three principles of nation, religion, monarchy.[4] Nawaphon attracted considerable support due to the common feeling that these national principles were threatened by left-wing forces.[4] In 1976, the group was thought to have 30,000–50,000 members.[2]: 82 Nawaphon played a key role in the anti-leftist agitation that led to theThammasat University massacre on 6 October 1976,[4] in which members of the organization were involved.[3]
After the coup re-establishing the military rule following the massacre, Nawaphon's popularity diminished due to suspicions that it had become a means of catering to the ambitions of the military clique.[4]
An alternative view on Nawaphon's membership has been given by historianThongchai Winichakul, who pointed out that unlike the Red Gaurs and theVillage Scouts, the other right-wing groups involved in the massacre, information on Nawaphon is scarce and much of it seems to derive from boasts made by Wattana. In addition, photos of large gatherings attributed to the group came from mixed crowds, not allowing different right-wing groups to be distinguished. Thongchai therefore suggested that Nawaphon may have been "a phantom organization intended to inflate the image of the right-wing movement" that had no base of its own but took credit for counterinsurgency operations by the ISOC.[10][11]