With König Vajiralongkorn back in Bangkok, his enormous cost for the country mounts.
The Bangkok Post reports that Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has warned protesters “not to disrespect the monarchy during their rally on Wednesday…”. He has attacked them as anti-monarchists and monarchy haters, and rejected proposals for reform of the monarchy. In doing so, he used terminology reminiscent of the far right murderers of 1976: “Can we allow what they have proposed, that they hate and disrespect the monarchy? Should everybody allow? [If so], I don’t think Thailand can survive…”.
All of this because “the protesters’ plan to occupy part of the route which the royal motorcade will follow to reach the ceremony.” No detours for the king it seems.
Gen Prayuth also appeared to call out royalists to “greet” the king and queen, suggesting that clashes are possible.
To “deal” with this possible “clash,” Gen Prayuth has mobilized “[a]lmost 15,000 police officers will be deployed to ‘provide safety’ for a planned anti-government rally on Wednesday.” Even though the regime reckons there will be far fewer protesters than the last rally, where there was no violence, the number of police is far larger.
Police also say they are still considering charges against the organizers of the previous rally. Arrests of those leaders before or on Wednesday could spark outrage.
The protest leaders have stated several times that they will not obstruct the royal motorcade.
As Arnon Nampa has explained: “If chaos breaks out, the police will be to blame, not the protesters…”.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 
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