Further updated: Sexism as politics

Several readers emailed us about our comment in a previous post regarding the very nasty and deeply sexist remarks that attacked Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra as a whore for her speech in Mongolia airing several truths about the anti-democrats who oppose her. Khao sod has now commented on this.

That report notes that red shirts have rallied in protest against Thai Rath newspaper cartoonist and political commentator Chai Ratchawatra (Somchai Katanyutanon) who went to Facebook to write: “Please understand. Prostitutes are not evil. They just sell their bodies. But an evil woman sells her country”, saying that Yingluck had betrayed Thailand.

Chai is well-known as an illustrator of stories attributed to the king that have been published as cartoon books, mostly for children. He is a deeply yellow royalist well known for his anti-red shirt stand.

As we noted in our earlier post, royalists are anti-democrats and, it seems, so deeply challenged by elected governments that they resort to exceptionally crude politics.

Update 1: 2Bangkok.com has posted more material on this story. One item it posts is a list of Chai’s rabidly yellow-shirt cartoons from Thai Rath. Another is a link to a further Khao sod piece that reports the Puea Thai Party response. That response is worth repeating here in full:

Vice spokesman of Pheua Thai Party criticized Thai Rath newspaper′s cartoonist who caused a furor among the Redshirts by implying PM Yingluck Shinawatra is worse than a prostitute.

In a statement released on Pheua Thai website, Mr. Anusorn Iamsa-ard said that the cartoonist “Chai Ratchawatra” has long held anti-democratic attitudes, and has “lost his mind” by using abusive language against the female Prime Minister.

“Chai Ratchawatra has not just insulted the nation′s leader, but also insulted the gender of his own mother,” the statement said

Mr. Anusorn stressed that his criticism did not extend to Thai Rath newspaper, saying that the paper houses many respectable journalists.

“We believe Thai Rath will solve the matter on its own with professionalism,” Mr. Anusorn said, “We only wish to single out Chai Ratchawatra for condemnation.”

Update 2: The Nation reports that Yingluck’s “lawyers on Friday seek legal action against Thai Rath cartoonist Chai Rachawat for comparing the premier to a prostitute.  The lawyers filed the complaint against the cartoonist at Dusit police station…”.