Rose Amornpat or “London Rose” is seen by some as an “Angel of Democracy.” Her Facebook name/page is “Chatwadee Rose Amornpat.” The petite 34 year-old Thai-born British citizen has been causing quite a stir on social media with her sometimes poetic challenges to monarchy and monarchists.*
Her Facebook page is direct in its attacks on royalty and those who support blind royalism. Royalists in Thailand and outside the country, particularly in the UK, have been angrily tracking her down and trying to silence her, even protesting against this dissident voice that seems to haunt them. They have even held protests in front of embassies and consulates. Worse, but reflective of the intolerance symbolized by the lese majeste law, they vow to harm her or even kill her. She has sought police protection in the UK.
At Facebook she has some 100,000 views a day and her YouTube clips have gone viral. She is opposed to the lese majeste law and its associated repression. She challenges the whole royal family and lampoons them on a daily basis. She opposes the taxpayer handouts to the fabulously wealthy royal family.
The latest news is that the royalist extremists have been harassing Rose’s parents to the extent that they have themselves lodged a lese majeste complaint against their own daughter (see here and here also). They claimed that their life has been made hellish as they have received numerous phone calls blaming them for the daughter’s behavior. They said they had disowned her a long time ago and never promoted her action. They apparently felt that taking allegations of lese majeste to the police would clear them.
Rose has said: “All I want is to tell the world the truth about Thailand without regard of the grave consequence of their draconian lese majeste law…. Lese majeste law must be erased…”. She explained: “I have been stalked by Thai royalists in London constantly. I am not afraid at all. Let it be known that, if I die or am harmed, it is by someone associated with this group or some agents from Thailand. I’d rather die fighting for democracy and the freedom of Thai people. I hope to see all political prisoners on lese majeste law set free, if I should die or be killed.”
*All of the information and links in this post were supplied by a long-time PPT reader. We thank that reader for the information supplied to us and for permission to use it.
Update: Khaosod now has an English-language account of this case. It seems it pretty much follows the material we have in our post above. It observes that Rose’s parents are “urging police to take legal action against their daughter…”. They even provided police with “seven clips of footage, which purportedly show Ms. Chatvadee making offensive remarks toward the monarchy, as evidence of her wrongdoing.” Her father added: “I want people to understand that just because a daughter is doing something wrong, it doesn’t mean the parents are also guilty, because we don’t condone such actions.”
It is also stated that Rose has “recently acquired British citizenship.” But this means nothing when it comes to the bizarre lese majeste law: “The police said they will investigate the accusation and stressed that lese majeste is still considered a crime in Thailand even if the wrongdoing is committed outside the Kingdom.”
Political Prisoners in Thailand 