BANGKOK: Thai university students lampooned the military at afootball game on Saturday in a rare act of open defiance against the junta, which has strangled political expression since seizing power two years ago.

In a colourful parade around the Bangkok stadium where crowds gathered to watch a match between two of kingdom’s top universities, students brought out elaborate hand-made floats and banners mourning prolonged military rule.

The parade is a long-running tradition at the annual game between rival universities Thammasat and Chulalongkorn and is often provocative and political.

But the show has taken on new significance in the past two years as a rare chance to speak out under the military junta that outlawed all political activities in Thailand after toppling an elected government in May 2014. “What is the reason we have soldiers [in power]? No one dares to ask,” read one banner marched around the arena by students before the game.

Coup leader turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-cha says he was forced to take power to restore order after months of mass street protests.

But critics have questioned his intentions in response to his sliding timeline for fresh elections.

Police allowed Saturday’s parade to go forward despite a ban on political gatherings, but officers did detain a student activist leader who attended the game and had a standing arrest warrant for a previous protest against military corruption.

Police also ordered students to adjust one parade float by sawing off part of a paper mache gun to make it look “less real,” students said.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2016