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A two-year prison threatens an American in Thailand who wrote a bad review about a resort. The hotel sued its former guest under the draconian defamation law of a Southeast Asian country, saying the rating, in which it allegedly accused the hotel of modern slavery, was “fabricated, recurring and malicious.” And the authorities took the matter seriously. If one thought that imprisonment for a defamatory evaluation in Thailand is unheard of and very severe, one has never heard of what happens if the royal family is taken by mouth.
In Thai society, the royal family is sacred and inviolable, and its worship has been obligatory since childhood. The ruler and his family members are characterized by splendor, gold, luxury, and complete isolation from the people. They are almost rising to the divine state. And the gods cannot be directed by the average mortal, they can point out to them, through prayers, rites and sacrifices, only their modest existence, to which the deity pays attention or not. So it was a historic turn that the demonstrations in recent months not only targeted the current king, but also criticized and even articulated open demands for reform on the part of the young.
Divine splendor in life and death
Bhumibol Aduljadez was the Asian Sun King of our time. After his death in 2016, the nation mourned him for a year and then burned him at the stake in a five-day ceremony.
The bonfire was built separately for this occasion, starting at $ 30 million (9.3 billion florins). An additional $ 60 million (HUF 18.7 billion) was spent on the funeral.
The cult of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs was evoked by the royal crematorium, which in Buddhist and Hindu religion symbolized Mount Meru, the center of the universe. The building was decorated with mythical creatures and statues of Bhumibol’s favorite dogs.
The king equals the country
The king’s dog is (also) sacred and inviolable
A factory worker faced several decades in prison in 2015 for making fun of a dog on Facebook. Not just any dog, but Bhumibol’s favorite dog, Tongdaeng (Copper), which the king found in an alley years before. The late king also wrote a picture book about this, which also became the hero of a 2015 Thai animated film.
The current Thai protests are against the government formed by the 2014 military coup. The junta, led by General Prajuth Chan-ocsa, who replaced the old corrupt and nepotist democracy, favored the lèse majesté, tell violation of the law of sovereignty, under which even the slightest criticism of the royal family can be punished with prison. The conservative and strict junta was fundamentally better supported by the royal court, and Bhumibolt apparently did not bother with the draconian application of the insult laws.
To criticize the king’s government is to criticize the king, to criticize the king, in addition to being a major crime, and to criticize the king’s government. It is a symbiotic relationship.
And by applying lèse-majesté, the junta suppressed in its germination all the thoughts that had criticized the political and state system. There was a case in which two university students were sentenced to two years in prison for making a play that symbolically criticized the monarchy.
In this situation, the military government also saw its power realized: it banned the press media, banned websites, banned political rallies of more than five people and in 2016 adopted a new constitution that expanded the powers of the military.
The only thing for the subjects is humility
The demonstrations in Thailand began in February after a court ruling dissolved the New Future Party, popular with young people. The background for this is that the consolidation, which performed well in the 2019 elections, was accused of overthrowing the kingdom. And last year’s parliamentary elections were aimed at restoring democratic order before the military took power, but electoral rules favored the pro-army Palang Pracsarath party led by Chan-ocsa, turning the leader of the junta into the prime minister of the country.
Although the protests were also halted due to the coronavirus epidemic, they took on new steam in June following the disappearance of a pro-democracy activist who was forced into exile in Cambodia in 2014. Protesters say the Thai government has solved it, with almost a dozen of exiled opposition groups that have disappeared without a trace in recent years. Last December, the two were dumped ashore by the Mekong River and found concrete in their stomachs.
The demonstrations led by university students, increasingly frequent in the summer and unhappy, among other things, due to the lack of prospects in the labor market, reached their inflection point in August.
Hairy people got sick of hairy people
Panuszaya, 21, read a ten-point proclamation on August 10, demanding the reform of the monarchy and the legal limitation of its power, by Sithizsiravattanakul.
And this is an unprecedented twist in a country where the state elevates the royal family to a divine level. The 19 modern constitutions of Thailand have included one by one:
- the King will be placed on the throne with due reverence for the gods
- no one can offend the King with any charge or fact
He to tabukkal!
The goal of the Thai youth-led protest movement is not to overthrow the kingdom, but to provoke the taboos associated with it.
we want to modernize, adapt to our society
Panuszaja said.
In the young university student’s opinion, limiting the king’s power is the first step in the return to democracy. On September 20, protesters were affixed with a large gold disc next to the Royal Palace in Bangkok, which was:
The people revealed that the country belonged to the people, not the king.
The placement of the disc was greeted with greetings by those who demanded the reform of the monarchy, including the scandal that
Down with feudalism, long live the people!
Bhumibol’s son and successor, King Maha Vazsiralongkorn, 68, is reportedly far from enjoying the same respect as his late father. The “young” king, widely regarded as a prodigal son, spent much of his life abroad, eating women and taking court duties lightly. He is also not the most suitable man for a moral guide, since he also hired a concubine in addition to his fourth wife, who was not, incidentally, a member of the royal guard. The incident was unusual, as the Thai monarch had not designated a royal bed a hundred years ago, and at the naming ceremony, the reptile walked at the feet of Vazsiralongkorn. The queen was also present at the event, sitting next to the king.
According to rumor, the king had many mistresses in addition to his wives, and it was the former bodyguard who was officially made his concubine. Let’s say your current wife was also the bodyguard. The ladies probably assumed their duties in the strictest sense of the word.
Since his accession to the throne in 2016, he has expanded his powers, also the most important units of the army.
He put it under the direct control of the State Treasury.
Furthermore, according to his critics, the Thai monarch, who views the treasure as his personal wallet, spends most of his time in Germany and blatantly squanders Thai taxpayers’ money.
Therefore, the claimants for the reform of the monarchy want to achieve the opening of the budget of Vazsiralongkorn and the separation of his personal wealth from his country.
Presumably, young Thais do not feel the respect legally imposed by the ruler as they do for their father. By placing the gold record, Panuszaya again did something that could not have been imagined before in Thailand:
in his speech he addressed the king.
I am the one you look at as dust under your feet. I want to let you know that dust particles also have rights and voices.
The Hunger Games
The new generation of Thais no longer calls for the conservatism of the monarchy. The opposition movement has three demands:
- The authorities must stop persecuting critical voices.
- dissolve the government of Prajuth Chan-ocsa
- amend the constitution
And all three demands are directed indirectly, but against the institution of the monarchy.
Once again, the anti-government protests included a banned three-finger salute after the 2014 coup, a symbol of protest against the seizure of military power from the book The Battle of Hunger.
Most Thais say all three are new
- condemnation of the coup
- freedom
- democracy
symbolizes. The three fingers also meet the current demands of protesters, and when we consider the battle of the hungry, the tribute is a symbol of rebellion against the authoritarian regime.
The mischief of the young is not so disturbing. Still.
For now, it appears that the Vazsiralongkorn regime is unable or unwilling to do anything about the new protests yet and is showing its most forgiving face. After placing the disc, Panuszaya handed over a letter of demands for reform to the royal bodyguard, who promised to send it to the police headquarters. The presentation of the petition was considered a historic moment by the protesters,
if only through the bodyguard, but they could go to the royal court. Another taboo was broken.
Although the gold record in question was withdrawn the next day, Thai political history of the past ninety years can be described as a “coup-democracy-coup-democracy cycle”. Ergo, protests are common and power has ways of quelling protests when they are already very disturbing.
According to Prajuth Chan-ocsa, at the request of the ruler, the insult law is not widely applied, which does not mean that it cannot be taken against protesters who are already clearly violating the law. And if they want to comply with the demands of the reform, the so-called rebellion law can still be modified by the Thai Penal Code, which can easily take on the role of lese majesty.
Source: npr / Guardian / BBC
Top Image: Images depicting Maha Vajiralongkorn, that is, King X. Rama of Thailand and his wife, Queen Suthida, and the late King Bhumibol Aduljadez at a demonstration in support of the monarchy in Bangkok on August 30, 2020. Royalists began to organize in response to protests in support of the reform of the monarchy in support of the old democracy. MTI / AP / Szakcsaj Lalit
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