Holding up the keystone

This is the royalist silly season, when they get in a lather of joy and watch eagle-eyed for any “threats” to their beloved monarchy. This is all about keeping a crumbly keystone in place: the ruling elite’s keystone.

Propaganda about the palace becomes even more unbelievable than usual and the self-appointed guardians of the ruling class become especially watchful.

So it is that Sonthiya Sawasdee is at it again, finding threats to the monarchy coming from all directions. It was only a week ago that he decided the military-monarchy regime needed to be protected from comparisons with Sri Lanka, leading to a mad claim of sedition. Sonthiya’s other royalist barking was linked in that post.

Now he’s decided that parliamentarians of the opposition variety need more taming. Of course, his target is the usual suspects from Move Forward and the progressive movement. Prachatai reports that Sonthiya has made a complaint to the National Anti-Corruption Commission over an alleged “serious ethical breach.”

He was not amused when said Move Forward MPs held photos of two activists currently imprisoned under Article 112. The act did not bring down the house, even in the seemingly shoddily constructed parliament building, but Sonthiya spied an attempt to bring down the sky.

He complained that the whole party is at fault. He claims “raising portraits of Article 112 prisoners, that’s a serious ethical breach.”

To reasonable people, it is not clear how this is a breach, but Sonthiya is not reasonable and seems to believe that attacks on 112 are attacks on the palace.

Sonthaya and his brethren worry that any chips being taken out of the keystone will bring the whole thing down and with it their access to small pieces of power, nepotism, impunity, and rewards.