Bowornsak Uwanno on lesè majesté

PPT readers will surely be interested in the Bangkok Post’s printing of Bowornsak’s defence of the lesè majesté law (7 April 2009: “The law of inviolability in Thailand”).

Bowornsak is a royalist legal scholar who has made himself available to a number of governments over the years. Most recently he was appointed by  the military junta to the National Legislative Assembly. That appointment came under critical comment because he had also worked for Thaksin Shinawatra’s government and was a late defector.

In a story in the Nation, it was reported that: “NLA member Bowornsak Uwanno said he also had forgiven all critics who opposed his appointment. “I have been appointed to the job by royal command and am determined to work and abide by the teachings of revered monk Buddhadassa Bhikku,” he said. Bowornsak was reacting to criticism of his legal services for the Thaksin Shinawatra government.”

Now Bowornsak argues that the lesè majesté law is an integral element of Thailand’s democracy. PPT finds it hard to fathom the logic of this argument, but consider it a reflection of the “liberal royalism” that Australian scholar Michael Connors thinks is important for Thailand’s democratic development. If this is royal liberalism, then it is a remarkably conservative “royal liberalism.”

Bowornsak’s main claim is for “ethical relativism”, which involves this: “On the other hand, if we believe that no country is right or wrong but that each is democratic in its own way based on its own social, cultural and ethical norms, thereby creating diversity, then we will better and more easily appreciate others without passing judgement on them based on our own standards.”

Such a position will allow for a remarkable variety of illiberal “democratic” variations, and would be an underpinning of “Thai-style democracy” that royalists and PAD have promoted that is no democracy at all. When pressured, Thailand’s “royal liberals” seem to lose their liberalism in favour of royalism.