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The news that Ms Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi is back in the favor of King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand took citizens by surprise last Wednesday, but the event put the focus back on the king’s personal life.
No one expected Ms. Sineenat to return to the royal fold. Then again, no one could have predicted her rapid fall from grace 10 months ago either, less than three months after she was made noble royal consort.
The latest palace intrigue comes amid widespread protests in Thailand by pro-democracy groups calling for more transparency and reforms in the royal institution.
“(The reinstatement of Sineenat) will add fire to the demonstrations and calls for reform,” Professor James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, told the Sunday Times.
The Royal Gazette, in its August 29 announcement, stated that Ms Sineenat, 35, had restored all her titles because “it is not contaminated.”
The phrase became a trending hashtag on Twitter in Thailand on Thursday morning.
The group of high school students Bad Student, which organized a protest at the Ministry of Education yesterday, declared on Friday that any student who makes a three-finger salute “is not contaminated.”
The three-finger salute has been used by anti-government protesters as a symbol against the dictatorship.
The former royal bodyguard was stripped of her titles for “misconduct and disloyalty against the monarch” last October. She was also accused of attempting to sabotage the appointment of Queen Suthida in an attempt to take office herself.
“(She) was acting against the royal marriage and the appointment of the queen,” the Royal Gazette said in a detailed condemnation of the disgraced consort.
Soon after, the king fired nearly a dozen palace officials, all of whom received a harsh reprimand in the Royal Gazette, for reasons such as “extremely malicious misconduct.”
ADD FUEL TO PROTESTS
(Sineenat’s reinstatement) will fuel protests and calls for reform.
PROFESSOR JAMES CHIN, Director of the Asian Institute at the University of Tasmania, on the news that Ms Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi is back in favor of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Following her royal excommunication, Ms Sineenat disappeared from public view and all mention of her was removed on the palace’s website.
It is unclear why Ms Sineenat, who is believed to be now in Germany, is being reinstated.
The announcement refocused attention on the 68-year-old monarch’s personal life, a subject of speculation both in his homeland and abroad for a long time.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who ascended to the throne in December 2016 after the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, two months earlier, spends most of his time abroad, especially in Germany where he has a home.
In March, after a Thai activist abroad posted online that the king continued to travel in Germany during the coronavirus pandemic, the Thai hashtag #whydoweneedaking became one of the hottest topics on Thailand’s Twitter.
The government subsequently went out to warn citizens about online posts that questioned the monarchy.
Thailand is strictly governed by lese majesty laws that punish those who insult or defame the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison.
Facebook has removed content and groups that the government deemed insulting to the monarchy, the latest being a group with a million members that has criticized the King.
Although Thailand abolished the absolute monarchy more than 80 years ago, the king still wields significant power.
Since ascending to the throne, King Maha Vajiralongkorn has consolidated his power by taking personal control of the multi-million dollar assets of the Crown Property Office and two army units.
He also ordered the government to rewrite parts of the Constitution that addressed the role of the king, including the procedure for appointing a regent in the king’s absence and whether royal edicts needed to be countersigned by a government minister.
Since July, protesters have gathered in large numbers across the country calling for amendments to the military-backed Constitution, a new election and a democracy “with the monarch under the Constitution.”
King Maha Vajiralongkorn has been married four times.
His first wife was his cousin whom he divorced in 1991.
In 1994 he married actress Sujarinee Vivacharawongse.
She had been his steady companion since the late 1970s and gave birth to four sons and a daughter.
However, the marriage did not last long and Ms Sujarinee fled to Britain in 1996 with her children.
She now lives with her children in the United States, while her daughter returned to live with her father in Thailand.
The king married in 2001 to Ms Srirasmi Suwadee, who had been his “maid of honor” in the 1990s, and they have a child together. The marriage ended abruptly and bitterly in 2014 when she was purged and stripped of all titles while members of her family were jailed for insulting the monarchy.
He married Queen Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya in May last year and raised his eyebrows two months later when he anointed Ms Sineenat as “Chao Khun Phra” or Noble Consort, a title that was last used nearly a century ago. .
Born in Nan province in northern Thailand, Ms Sineenat, nicknamed Koi, is a trained pilot and former nurse.
After the unexpected elevation of her status, came the unprecedented release of a series of candid images featuring the new consort, from her in a crop top to the controls of a fighter plane, to her and the King dressed in combat uniform. , with a royal poodle in his arm, which drew so many visitors to the palace’s website that it got blocked.
However, those photos, along with his reputation, were deleted less than three months later.
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