Same old royalist tales

Thai PBS chooses to “review” the story around a YouTube animated film that is said to be “controversial.”

The film’s “creator” is Wivat Jirotgul. He provides an interpretation of the 1932 revolution that reproduces the long-held royalist reading of that event, as expressed by numerous princes and other royals since 1932.

Wivat “lists him as the managing director of Nakraphiwat Co Ltd, a creative production house, and president of Pegasus Creative, a marketing and branding consultancy.” The report states that Nakraphiwat Co “was involved in the production of a music video for the song ‘Duay Rak Lae Phakdi’ (With Love and Loyalty) in honor of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn on his 70th birthday in 2022.” It adds that that “video was made in collaboration with the Royal Thai Army Band and numerous Thai corporations.” It also observes that the company “was paid almost 4 million baht by the Army between 2020 and 2022.”

The royalist filmmaker makes it clear that he is the latest in a line of royalist propagandists when he says “his animation aims to present a picture that is fair to all sides involved, particularly King Rama VII, who he says has been unfairly portrayed in Thai history despite his attempts to avert a bloody revolution and ensure a smooth transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy.”

Berlin, Germany….. Two heads that bow as one, Herr Adolf Hitler, Dictator of Germany (left), bids bon voyage to King Prajadhipok of Siam, when the latter, accompanied by his queen, left Berlin following their extended visit to Germany’s capital. This modern ruling family does all its traveling by airplane, while in Europe, at least.

This view has been, especially during the 9th reign, the standard view of 1932. It is also a perspective that is seen in many texts and some schoolbooks from the second half of the 20th century.

That Wiwat thinks “[m]any history books belittle the sacrifices King Rama VII made,” seems to reflect royalist anger at revisionist historians who have done the research that challenges the previously hegemonic royalist tale.

Repeating the royalist’s account, the “film portrays King Rama VII as the driving force behind Thailand’s political reform, with plans for a constitution to prepare the mostly uneducated population for democratic rule.” That is the standard view and one long held and promoted by the military and the establishment. Just think of the King Prajadhipok Institute, established in royalist celebration of exactly this political position.

Royalists are worried that their perspective is now under challenge.

Wiwat then reproduces a royalist narrative that began around 1932,, that depicts Pridi Banomyong “often … with an octopus in the background – a metaphor for the spread of Soviet communism.” At the time, Prajadhipok, royalists and restorationist princes referred to Pridi’s “Bolshevism.”

The good news is that the “need” royalists feel for reinforcing their narrative is that it reflects a broader rejection of that ideology.

Chaiyapoom was murdered

After years of legal action and state cover-ups, the Supreme Court has ordered the Royal Thai Army to pay two million baht in compensation to Chaiyapoom Pasae‘s family.

It is likely that ethnic Lahu human rights activist Chaiyapoom was murdered by soldiers at a checkpoint in Chiang Dao district of Chiang Mai in 2017.

Earlier, the Appeals Court had found the Army not responsible as troops “were merely defending themselves when they shot at Chaiyaphum Pasae.”

Of course, the military took the CCTV coverage of the events and have hidden them ever since. We can only presume that the military found the footage showed a murder and so have never made the video available, not even to courts.

The army claimed that on March 17, 2017, Chaiyaphum resisted the troops and tried to assault them, prompting the troops to open fire with automatic weapons in self-defense.

As we understand it, this was not a criminal case, so the military continues to enjoy impunity for their murder of civilians.

Thaksin and 112

Back when Thaksin Shinawatra first returned from exile, and spent a few hours somewhere in the prison system before being taken to a hospital, some ultra-royalist anti-Thaksinists wanted one lese majeste case against Thaksin processed. Those involved included the electorally unpopular Thai Pakdee Party. The party mentioned an army-instigated 112 case that was said to have been accepted by the Criminal Court in 2015, with an arrest warrant issued.

In fact, Thaksin has accumulated a long list of lese majeste cases over the years, with the earliest being when police recommending an indictment for comments in 2009. The 2015 case the ultra-royalists pushed was from an interview in South Korea on which PPT has a full report. Thaksin had commented on the links between military and Privy Council in orchestrating the 2014 military coup. He stated:

Gen Udomdej

The military listened to the Privy Councilors…. When they didn’t want us to stay anymore, they made Suthep [Thaugsuban, leader of anti-government protests] come out, and then had the military help him. Some people from the palace circle also provided help, which made us powerless.

The result was that Thaksin’s passport was revoked and a lese majeste investigation began. On 29 May 2015, Army chief General Udomdej Sitabutr filed a lese majeste charge.

Those complaining ultra-royalists went quiet when the king pardoned for most of his 8 year sentence. They had to accept the king’s action, even if they hated it.

It is therefore a little surprising that the case has come up again – perhaps hatred of Thaksin trumps subservience to the king.

It is reported that Praphrut Chatprapachai, described as “a legal expert and former Democrat MP candidate,” urged called on the government to take legal action against Thaksin on his 2015 lese majeste case. Praphrut “urged Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to instruct the police to take legal action against Thaksin” on this case.

Thaksin’s grubby deal

We are a couple of weeks late posting this leader from The Economist, but still consider it useful commentary. We reproduce it in full:

Thaksin Shinawatra shows his true colours

A grubby political compromise with the army has enraged Thai voters

Aug 24th 2023

On the face of it, the deal struck this week between Thailand’s military establishment and its second-biggest party, Pheu Thai, represents progress. The new coalition will end nine years of military-dominated government in South-East Asia’s oldest democracy. Under the influence of Pheu Thai’s de facto leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist tycoon and former prime minister who returned this week from a long exile, the new government should be less incompetent than its army-run predecessor. Democratically, too, Pheu Thai seems an improvement, having come a close second in the general election in May.

Credit: Kahosod

But that would be to gloss what has really happened. The deal is not a win for Thai democracy so much as for the monarcho-military elite’s latest effort to stifle it. The elite is out to foil the election’s actual winner, a reformist party called Move Forward which is popular because it promises to break their grip on power. In helping to sabotage Move Forward, by doing a deal with the army establishment that his party had promised to shun, Mr Thaksin has revealed that he is no friend of Thai democracy but rather an instrument of the status quo.

The details are damning. In return for betraying Move Forward—once its comrade in the fight to restore democracy—Pheu Thai could at least have minimised the establishment’s hand in its new coalition. It appears instead to have used up its leverage on securing Mr Thaksin’s return. He has been arrested and jailed on long-standing corruption charges, but is expected to receive a royal pardon shortly. His party will go into government with some of the establishment’s most unapologetic stooges—cheerleaders for the coups that ended Mr Thaksin’s government in 2006 and his sister’s in 2014. Meanwhile, even as Mr Thaksin awaits release from jail, Thailand’s rightful next leader, Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat, could face imprisonment on trumped-up charges.

In the short term, Mr Thaksin’s dealmaking should bring stability to an economy that has fared miserably under military rule. As recently as 2005 to 2009, Thailand’s economy, the second-biggest in South-East Asia, enjoyed the highest foreign direct investment of any of its regional peers, reflecting Thailand’s status as a manufacturing hub, particularly of electronics and vehicle parts. But over the past five years investment inflows have lagged behind those of neighbours such as Indonesia and Vietnam. Under the premiership of Pheu Thai’s Srettha Thavisin, another mogul with a populist touch, the new government should improve on that dire record. It will also have a strong incentive to maintain its disparate 11-party coalition—though not one that Thaksinists should find reassuring. If the government founders, new elections will be held in which Move Forward could do even better than in May.

That reflects the depth of Thais’ unhappiness with the establishment politics that Mr Thaksin is helping perpetuate. Launched by liberal activists only three years ago, Move Forward did surprisingly well across the country, including in Pheu Thai’s rural strongholds. If it had Thailand’s best interests at heart, the Thaksin party would take on some of Move Forward’s liberal reforms, including trustbusting and scrapping the country’s absurd lèse-majesté laws. But that is not likely for a government cobbled together to stave off change.

Thailand’s best longer-term hope is that the reformist forces Move Forward has unleashed become too powerful to deny. In a way, Mr Thaksin has made this likelier. His grubby compromise has enraged pro-democracy activists, leading to rowdy protests outside Pheu Thai’s headquarters. Move Forward’s leaders must now do their part, by striving to ensure the opposition remains peaceful and united. They have already performed wonders, inspiring Thais with the promise of a better future. If they can hold together, despite the establishment’s provocations, they will probably be able to honour that promise in the end.

Nothing much changes

Under the monarchy-military regime nothing much changes, even as the arrangement of the regime’s deckchairs is changing. There are so many recent stories that fir the “here-we-go-again” scenario that has marked the years since 2006. Here’s a selection from the past few days, leaving out the myriad of what are now everyday corruption stories:

At the Bangkok Post: It is 13 Years since the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime permitted the Royal Thai Army, commanded by Gen Anupong Paojinda and Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, to murder red shirts. On Monday, former red shirt leaders “called on national police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas to speed up investigations into the deaths of red-shirt protesters during their 2010 clashes with the military.”

“Speed up” is an interesting term given that since the 2014 military coup, there’s been no progress. We assume that Gen Prayuth’s administration has ordered that nothing be done.

At least 62 cases of remain unresolved. The regime has no interest in doing this as when cases were investigated, it was clear that the Army killed protesters.

From Thai Newsroom: Gen Prayuth has been urged to give up his free house currently provided by the Army:

Thai Liberal MP Napaporn Petjinda insisted that Prayut, who is seeking to retain power for two more years after the next general election, leave the army house in the premises of the First Infantry Regiment in Bangkok provided as free accommodation for him since the last several years.

Others who get taxpayer-funded housing on Army bases are Gen Anupong and Gen Prawit Wongsuwan. Why? Who knows.

The report adds: “Those who are contesting the general election including members of cabinet are legally prohibited from using government property or personnel during their electoral campaigns.” One of the tame “anti-corruption” agencies that never finds against the regime once declared this corrupt practice to be fine and dandy.

Good people can be as bad as they like.

From The Nation: Some of the unelected dolts in the Senate reckon the regime, in all its splintering parties, might need some “legal” vote-buying by suggesting that every voter be given 500 baht for voting. Of course, Thailand regularly has very high voter turnout, but these brainless dyed hairs probably reckon that the “voluntary” voters are not the right ones, so an incentive is needed.

We don’t think this proposal will go anywhere, but it reflects the growing anxiety about the election and demonstrates (again) the vacant craniums the are strewn around the regime’s house of parliament.

From Thai PBS: The great fear that opposition parties might win an election is rattling the Thai PBS news desk. They reckon “[m]any were surprised to see master powerbroker Thammanat Prompow kneeling on stage to present a garland to Palang Pracharath leader General Prawit Wongsuwan, in a symbolic apology and show of remorse.” We assume that by “many,” they mean the Thai PBS news desk because everyone knew this was about to happen. But their real story is the fear that Thaksin Shinawatra is coming back.

Ho hum. Every campaign leading up to coup and election since 2006 has run this line. It remains to be seen if this call to yellow arms will again rally the faithful anti-Thaksin crowd.

From Prachatai: Reader might recall the case of Tun Min Latt and others arrested on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, and the “lucky” escape of one of the junta’s approved senators Upakit Pachariyangkun. This report is about a court case, but the “fun” is in the details about what seems like Thailand’s largest criminal organization, the Royal Thai Police:

On the same day of the arraignment, the Inside Thailand news show reported that Pol Maj Kritsanat Thanasuphanat, the officer in the Metropolitan Police who took charge of the arrest of Tun Min Latt and the others, was ordered to be reassigned from Bangkok to an equivalent position in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum. The news show interpreted this as a form of retribution for his bold performance.

“Bold performance” means doing what the police are usually empowered to do. Not running scams, cooperating with criminals, organising wealth extraction, running all kinds of crime activities, torturing and murdering people, arranging escapes for the rich and powerful, and all the other stuff that is reported on a daily basis as the Royal Thai Police’s “normal work.”

“Integrity” and “”transparency”

There are times when one reads newspapers and wonder if the journalists involved have recently suffered as severe head knock or if they are lazy or perhaps think that the starkness of a report damns those involved.

Take, as an example, The Nation’s report on Nok Air’s skid off a landing strip at a provincial airport. Of course, not all accidents require an emergency evacuation, but the “explanation” from Nok Air was a doozy: “Nok Air said it decided against evacuating passengers via slides immediately because the ground had many puddles due to heavy rain. Also, it said, it was worried about their safety as it was dark outside and there may be dangerous animals lurking in the area.” Do we take it that snakes, tigers, and bears are loose inside the provincial airport? Surely a truthful statement that the pilot did not consider emergency evacuation necessary might have been a competent statement?

Truth is always fraught among the elite in Thailand.

Then there’s the report, also at The Nation, that announces the results of the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s integrity and transparency assessment that “the Royal Thai Air Force, the Royal Thai Army, the Royal Thai Navy and the Supreme Command passed the criteria of 85 ITA points.” In addition, “the three main courts – the Central Administrative Court, the Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court – passed the assessment with an average score of 90.06 per cent,” while the “agencies of Parliament – the King Prajadhipok’s Institute, the Senate Secretariat and the House Secretariat – also passed the assessment with an average score of 95.55 per cent.”

No doubt many choked on their coffee or rice soup when reading this. What about secret trials, corrupt commission payments, torture, buying parties and parliamentarians, convicted drug dealers in parliament, illegal military coups, the Constitutional Court’s partisanship, and so on and so on?

As it turns out, the NACC’s ITA is largely a box-ticking effort at managerialism in administration. And, as the Bangkok Post points out, even this bureaucratic transparency washing exercise failed to meet the NACC’s own targets.

So, no, the world has not been turned upside down, except for some box-tickers. These agencies are as corrupt as they have ever been and having a military-backed regime in place just makes it all less transparent.

Mad, dumb, and more

Now that the police have arrested Aniwat Prathumthin, aka “Nara Crepe Katoey”, Thidaporn Chaokuwiang, aka “Nurat”, and Kittikhun Thamkittirath, aka “Mom Dew,” and charged all three with Article 112 offenses, the Royal Thai Army has lifted restrictions on trade with Lazada.

If we weren’t so used to dumb-assed “explanations” from the lot in green, the statement by Army Deputy Spokesperson Col Sirichan Ngathong “said yesterday (Monday) that the lifting of the boycott was … in line with the further relaxation of restrictions, to allow business to resume normal operations and reopen the country to overseas arrivals.” What’s that got to do with monarchy and Article 112? We can only imagine that there may have been pay-offs, whispers in ears emanating from the Chinese Embassy, or orders from the boss. Or maybe all of them. We will never know.

Senate Speaker Pornpetch Wichitcholchai is supposed to have legal training. But he’s also a “good” person, meaning he enjoys being a dumb-ass with impunity. He’s defended his Senate colleagues – also “good” people – who employ dozens of their relatives. He says it “is not illegal.”

Pornpetch says “certain positions in public office may require someone, who the senators can trust, to fill.” We recall that Alexander MacDonald reported similar nepotism and the same “explanation” back in the 1940s (look for his Bangkok Editor on Library Genesis). Thai Enquirer has him saying: “[Nepotism] is not wrong because it is not against the law.” Taken aback, “reporters acknowledged that even though nepotism was not technically illegal, wasn’t it still morally wrong?” No, Pornpetch retorted, “nepotism, in government, is not morally wrong.”

Having trusted relatives means they are not likely to blow the whistle on their relatives as they supp at the public trough. It’s a family protection racket.

While on “good” people, we must mention a letter to the SCMP by Wiwat Salyakamthorn, said to be president of the World Soil Association and former vice-minister of agriculture and cooperatives of Thailand. You might have thought the sufficiency economy fertilizer might have leached away. But you’d be wrong. There’s now an effort to attribute everything that’s ever happened in Thai agriculture to the dead king and his “idea.” More, there’s an effort to transfer sufficiency economy to King Vajiralongkorn.

Wiwat claims: “Much of Thailand’s resilience in food security is due to … King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s development projects for the betterment of the Thai people’s livelihoods based on his philosophy of sufficiency economy.” Yes, farmers are all Thaksin-voting dolts. Only the royals know, and although Vajiralongkorn would have trouble growing a flower, Wiwat comes up with this guff: “Building upon his father’s legacy, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua has guided the Thai people in applying the Khok Nong Na model to ensure that resilience of the food system remains one of Thailand’s crowning achievements in the years to come.”

That’s enough for today!

Further updated: Pavlov and Srisuwan

For those who don’t recall, Pavlov trained – conditioned – animals. When referring to Pavlov’s dogs it is a nod to the experiments Pavlov did in conditioning dogs to salivate through a learning process that results from this pairing, through which the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a salivation response that usually provoked by the potent stimulus of food.

From SimplyPsychology

PPT has referred to Pavlovian political responses in several posts over the years (see here). But today’s report that the forever complaining Srisuwan Janya has made yet another complaint takes the cake.

In the parliamentary debate on the 2023 Budget Bill on Thursday, Move Forward MP Jirat Thongsuwan raised a question regarding the “Defence Ministry spent as much as THB7.57 million to hire the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) to examine 757 GT200 devices, or THB10,000 per device.”

The GT200 is “a fraudulent ‘remote substance detector’ that was claimed by its manufacturer, UK-based Global Technical Ltd, to be able to detect, from a distance, various substances including explosives and drugs…. [T]he device has been described as little more than ‘divining rods’ which lack any scientific explanation for why they should work.”

The controversy over these money-making devices for the heads of agencies that purchased almost 1300 of them in Thailand has gone on for more than a decade. As Jessada Denduangboripant, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Science, pointed out, the “GT200 is amazing. It can waste the state budget all the time. The devices have been locked up for 14 years, but they are still moved out to waste the budget. It’s really a tool to make money.”

What’s remarkable in the story on Srisuwan’s salivating response. Raised by an opposition politician – Srisuwan hates them – the serial complainer made PR by stealing the limelight:

Activist Srisuwan Janya said he will petition the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to look into the army’s hiring of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) for 7.5 million baht to examine fraudulent bomb detectors purchased years ago.

Mr Srisuwan, secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Thai Constitution, on Saturday on Facebook said the procurement of GT200 detectors reflects poor budget planning that lacked proper scrutiny.

This additional case involving the GT200 warants investigation, but so does the procurement by some who remain in power – think Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha who when Army boss in 2012 stated that not only was the device still used, he defended it: “I affirm that the device is still effective. Other armed forces are also using it…”. In fact, with”four army commanders in a row spoke glowingly and positively of their effectiveness.” That’s Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who led the 2006 coup and Gen Anupong Paojinda, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha and Gen Prawit Wongsuwan who all led the 2014 coup and now lead the military junta.

So Srisuwan now puts the spotlight on himself, and we’d expect that, like thousands of other complaints he’s made, that this is nothing more than a PR stunt. Why isn’t he following up on the “investigations” on the GT200 that go back more than 10 years. Which of the military bosses has been charged for this massive fraud? Where’s Srisuwan on those cases?

Frankly, we think Srisuwan’s complaints costs the taxpayer a huge amount of money for little good. He promotes himself but not much else. Maybe someone should investigate his serial complaining?

Update 1: It is reported that the “Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) has said that the army does not need to examine fraudulent GT200 bomb detectors as a lawsuit seeking compensation from the distributor has been finalised.”

Update 2: The Army has now “stopped conducting expensive tests on the bogus GT200 bomb detectors after the issue sparked an uproar about taxpayers’ money being wasted.”

 

Wither the (in)justice system

Over several years, the (in)justice system has been crafted to ensure that “good” people are protected from the law. That protected species is made up of criminal masterminds, the well-connected, murderous generals, coup-makers, police, army, the wealthy, and more.

In the never-ending saga, dating back to 2012, of getting the wealthy Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya off all charges associated with his murder of a lowly policeman, The Nation reports that. as expected, the “cocaine use charge against … [the fugitive is] nearing the end of its statute of limitations.”

An AFP photo clipped from ChannelNews Asia

The office on Wednesday released a statement on the results of the year 2021 and the direction of proactive action in 2022.

That will leave one charge: “rash driving causing the death of another person…”.

The only question now is how the corrupt (in)justice system can make that one go away. In the meantime, there’s stalling, delays and so on that mean justice is dead and those responsible for that death have probably become wealthier.

Meanwhile, to add emphasis to the death of justice, the Bangkok Post reports that an Appeals Court “upheld a Civil Court ruling dismissing a lawsuit filed against the army for compensation over the death of Lahu human rights activist Chaiyaphum Pasae, who was shot dead at a checkpoint in Chiang Mai province in 2017.”

The “court ruled to dismiss the lawsuit and said the army has no need to pay compensation to Chaiyaphum’s family. The court considered the M16 rifle that a soldier shot Chaiyaphum with was used in self-defence and out of necessity.”

This relates to a case where “officers claimed they found drugs in Chaiyaphum’s car and had to shoot him because he resisted their search and tried to throw a grenade at them.” Of course, witnesses had a different story, saying “Chaiyaphum was dragged out of the car, beaten and shot.” And, the CCTV footage of the military’s actions was taken away by Army bosses and never provided to any court. That’s because the military is more powerful than the courts, enjoys almost complete impunity for its crimes, and has the power to murder civilians as it sees fit.

Of course, occasionally a court does its work properly, but these occasions are surprises rather than the norm. Wither the justice system.

Monarchy propaganda as fake news

The Bangkok Post has published palace propaganda. We know they have little choice in the matter, but we also guess the tycoons who run the paper also love this kind of fake news.

As we write this post, the story has become inaccessible. It remains a searchable story at the Post, and might come back, but there’s also an excerpt here.

With King Vajiralongkorn turning 70 later this year, the military is busy not just crushing opposition to the monarch and regime, but is promoting him and link between monarchy and military.

Reminiscent of elements of then Army commander Gen Apirat Kongsompong’s royalist rant in 2019, the Post article promotes the martial monarch.

It reports that the Royal Thai Army “will upgrade Ban Mak Khaeng Thed Phrakiat Park in Loei,” building a “sculpture of the King, and open[ing] a museum to portray the historical moment when the King, who was Crown Prince at the time, fought alongside troops against communist rebels in Ban Mak Khaeng…”.

Such a propaganda effort promotes monarch, monarchy, military and the bond between monarch and military.

The park was first constructed “by the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) of Loei to mark the battlefield in which [Vajiralongkorn]… joined soldiers in fighting Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) insurgents in tambon Kok Sathon of Dan Sai district” in 1976.

As the Post story notes, the “1970s was the height of the Cold War, when communist revolutions toppled governments and monarchies in Laos and Cambodia and when relations between the Thai monarchy and military were reshaped by dramatic and rapid shifts in domestic politics.” The best example of that relationship was the royalist massacre of students on 6 October 1976.

Vajiralongkorn had hurriedly returned from counterinsurgency training in Australia to be there for the massacre and he took up arms with the military to fight the battle against those identified as opponents of the military and monarchy.

The Post reports that: “On Nov 5, 1976, King Rama X, who was [a] … captain at that time, received a direct order from … King Bhumibol Adulyadej … to contain the situation [the anti-CPT fight in Loei].”

A myth in training

Lt Gen Chanvit Attatheerapong, director of the Army Tourism Promotion Agency – who knew there was such a thing – declared: “As a soldier, when the king had fought alongside army troops, it was a moment of incomparable rejoicing for us soldiers. And he [the king] is courageous…”.

It is important to both king and military to create stories of the king-as-soldier in a period when the ruling elite is reliant on  the military-backed regime.

The propaganda is myth-making as “villagers, police and soldiers who witnessed the events tell the magnificent story of the bravery of … the King.” From a soldier taking part in a fire fight, the then crown prince is re-made as a hero:

Pol Lt Suvin Viriyawat, a 69-year-old retired police officer, said the CTP insurgents had nearly managed to surround and cut off a police stronghold….

However, they never thought His Majesty the King would arrive to support his troops. Due to the mountainous area, the chopper could not land, so His Majesty the King suddenly hopped down with his seven royal guards onto the heated battlefield. “His Majesty the King said he was just a soldier, no need to be formal, just carry out our duties. He was so kind to us and ate alongside us too,” said Pol Lt Suvin.

“If His Majesty didn’t show up, around 20 survivors of the 48 might not be alive as we were surrounded with limited supplies for eight days. It was like we were drowning and His Majesty pulled us up. We survived because of him,” he said.

With such embellished stories, ISOC and the Army want to display the martial king, the brave soldiers and the people as one. Such propaganda is believed to be critical for the maintenance of the ruling elite. And, it blots out the critical role played by royals and royalists in the murder of civilians.