Radio Australia (1 December 2009: “Thai King limits public outings for birthday celebrations”) has an interview with Chulalongkorn University’s Thitinan Pongsudhirak.
A couple of his impressions are worth noting. First, he notes that the lese majeste law and Computer Crimes Act have “an intimidating coercive effect in suppressing dissent, suppressing even fair-minded views.” He sees the combination of repression via these laws and “official indoctrination through the media, through education, through government propaganda” as being entirely unhealthy for Thailand.
Thitinan says that “most people know that we are seeing the end of Thailand as we know it…”. The “new” Thailand that is emerging is being contested.
Taking this point further, he says the “emerging Thailand” is seeing competition “for position ahead of the Royal succession,” which is not discussed openly.
He says that the rules of Thai politics “will have to be revamped and restructured to placate and accommodate the new demands and grievances and expectations of the Thai electorate.” And observes that “on the one side a conservative royalist movement who is understandably fearful of the things to come” is faced off against “the Red Shirts …[who] have new expectations and demands, they want to see Thailand move into the 21st century, somehow be compatible in its democratic rule and its constitutional monarchy. So that is really the fundamental underlying force and contention at work; the capability, somehow the adjustment between constitutional monarchy and a working democracy.”
