Birthday nonsense

At the National New Bureau of Thailand, which has an internet site sprinkled with royal propaganda, see here and here, the state propaganda arm has something called a “Special Report” on Princess Chulabhorn’s birthday. Of course, there’s no real “report,” for it is just the usual royal posterior polishing that is required whenever one of the conglomerate has an anniversary.

Buffing the image

NNT is kind of the Thailand equivalent of the Korean Central News Agency or Kabar. To add to its royal burnishing, at the home page of NNB, if a reader clicks something called “royal news,” the stuff served up is not in any shape or form “news.” It is propaganda pure and ever so simple.

It’s report on Chulabhorn is the usual royal nonsense, which has her having “made great contributions to the fields of chemistry and medicine in Thailand with her strong dedication and determination to develop the country in the footsteps of His Majesty the King.” You get the picture: she’s the king’s daughter, so she too must certainly be great. It really is North Korean logic.

The whole report is full of words and phrases like “first-class honors,” “conducted extensive research,” “renowned,” “scientific accomplishments,” and so on. Not to belabor the point, for PPT has made it before, we’ll just point out that she is said to have been “Professor of Chemistry at Mahidol University since 1985,” meaning that she was so prolific and so research excellent that at the very tender age of 28 she was a professor. Find her here and here.

Readers may want to see some of our earlier posts on this person. In one we briefly mention the queen and Chulabhorn being attracted to Mormons and, like many evangelical Americans, Chulabhorn claiming a special bond with Israel. We had several posts on her politics, including her very odd interviews with Woody, letters (here and here) that were the basis of the Army’s lese majeste accusation against Somsak Jeamteerasakul. More relevant to this particular “report,” we posted on Chulabhorn’s academics.

After looking at all of the above, if readers think PPT is being altogether too harsh to another politicized royal, read the last paragraph of the “report”:

HRH Princess Chulabhorn has been following the footsteps of Their Majesties the King and Queen by working for the betterment of all Thais. Her great achievements and dedication for the country are the key to her status as “Princess Scientist” who is the light of Thailand.

Even the Dear Leader would have been hard pressed to beat that.