Khamsing Srinawk - Political Action and Exile

Political Action and Exile

Khamsing continued writing and working on his farm in Khorat until the beginning of the 1973 student democracy movement. After the military and police crackdown on student demonstrations at Thammasat University on October 14, 1973, Khamsing became politically active and was elected vice-chairman of the Socialist Party of Thailand. It is said that on two occasions in the early 1970s, Khamsing sold off many of his milking cows to finance unsuccessful campaigns for election to Thai parliament. Khamsing's involvement with the Socialist party of Thailand continued throughout the early 70s, and after the second, bloodier military crackdown on student protesters at Thammasat on October, 6 1976 (known as the Thammasat University massacre), Khamsing fled into the jungles of Thailand with many of his fellow socialists. Due to his ideological differences with the Communist party of Thailand, however, Khamsing and his family fled to Sweden in 1977, where they remained in exile until a few years later. While in Sweden, Khamsing began again working on his novel ˈMɛɛw (Thai: แมว), which is a metaphor for Thailand itself. Khamsing first began working on ˈMɛɛw after the events of October, 14 1973, however, the manuscript was lost after the Thammasat massacre of 1976. Eventually, the novel was published in 1983 after Khamsing had returned to Bangkok.