Ultra-royalists and modern politics

Burapat Chanpratad at Prachatai has come up with a really useful short documentary on ultra-rightists/monarchists. We love the King: The far-right in the age of three-finger salutes became available a week or so ago, but PPT didn’t have an opportunity to post it back then. We felt it a really useful discussion with Thai academics. The only thing we felt missing was a discussion of the role of the military and ISOC in managing these groups.

Activist accused of lese majeste

Prachatai reports that activist Tanruthai Thanrut has been charged under Article 112 “over a speech given during a protest on 14 July at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), which took place following attempts to disqualify Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat and block his bid to become the next Prime Minister.”

As is now the norm, a deranged royalist filed a complaint. Anon Klinkaew, the self-proclaimed leader of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy is responsible for yet another vigilante action.

Clipped from Prachatai

Tanruthai reported to Pathumwan Police Station on 7 August 2023.

The 14 July protest saw ‘[a]ctivists gathered at the courtyard in front of the BACC and gave speeches. They handed out flyers calling for the abolition of the Senate, while a large piece of cloth was laid out for people to write messages, many of which condemned the Senate’s actions for disrespecting the people and disregarding election results by not approving a Prime Minister candidate nominated by the winning party.”

Anon’s “complaint against Tanruthai was filed because she gave a speech saying that no institution is above the people and demanding that the Senate and House of Representatives respect the result of the election.” Yep, that seems to be it. Anon and police think Thailand is an absolute monarchy.

On meeting police, Tanruthai asked them “to amend the record to say that Anon has previously threatened her on social media and that the complaint against her was filed because of differences in political ideology.”

She also stated that she is “confused about the legal proceedings because she was told that the process involving a royal defamation charge is different from the normal process.” She should not be confused as 112 charges are always special and often follow no known lawful pattern – we assume she was simply giving voice to this unlawful and unconstitutional pattern.

Now, Tanruthai faces continual harassment from other mad monarchists.

A resurgence of mad monarchists?

Some readers may recall that the ultra-royalist Thai Pakdee Party was resoundingly rejected by voters across the country. Some of their constituency candidates battled to collect more than a few dozen votes. But electoral defeat does not bother these mad monarchists because they reject the results. More, they reject the current political system.

Their positions are staggeringly bereft of truth in favor of conspiracies and lies. Of course, this is not that different from extremists in other places. Indeed, Thai Pakdee borrows from their tactics and ideology. While we would have thought that these deranged conservatives were funded by military/ISOC sources, their language and “ideas” give an impression of external funding.

Here’s recent example of their mania, fittingly appearing with Manager Online and is our very rough translation.

Thai Pakdee, new blood, announced that it’s time to wash away the legacy of the people. It’s time to RESET Thai politics

Warong

Published: 5 Aug 2023 17:58 Update: 5 Aug 2023 17:58 By: Manager Online

Statement of the Thai Phakdi New Blood Party RESET Thailand on establishment of a monarchy according to the constitution

For 91 years Thai politics has fallen under the sinful legacy of the People’s Party, impersonating democracy with the monarch as head of state instead of a constitutional monarchy according to the constitution, which is the correct regime for Thailand.

All over the world, constitutional monarchy is the regime recognized as one of the best forms of democracy in the world. That’s according to EIU’s Democracy Index (Economist Intelligent [sic] Unit) rating.

Sondhi and Chamlong in royal yellow

With the sinful inheritance of the People’s Party, the intent was to claim democracy to oppress the monarchy aiming to cut off monarchy out of the structure of Thai government by acting as if to raise the monarch to be above politics.

After that, a fake democracy was created claiming the constitution, claiming elections, to deceive the public and seize power, leading to military dictatorship and then capitalist dictatorship.

The latest movement is of political parties as Western puppets aiming to overthrow the monarchy and establish a federal system or even a republic instead of a monarchy under  the constitution.

This movement can be seen from the recent case where  the Puea Thai Party claimed that it would not amend Article 112, as Move Forward would. But Puea Thai also proposes to amend the entire constitution by elected MPs. The consequences of this will be worse than the amendment of Article 112 because:

1. The 14 May 2023 election was a shameful election under the influence of digital fraud that deluded people into voting, and

2. The progressives will draft a new constitution that will greatly reduce royal power and the role of the monarchy to the utmost.

How to explain digital fraud? It led to the selection of anti-monarchists to become MPs who will lead the writing of a new constitution to establish a federal system or a republic.

2006 and the coup. Clipped from the Bangkok Post

The 91 years of evil descent under the legacy of the People’s Party sins has reached a crisis point in the historical path of Thai politics. Will Thailand be a normal, happy country under the royal protection of the King or will it be a nation without its main institutions and be a under the control of Western powers?

It’s time for the Thai Pakdi Party to stand up again. It’s time for the Thai Phakdi New Blood Party. We cannot tolerate the pain of the politicians, political capitalists, puppet parties, and foreign-funded organizations that collaborate to harm and destroy the main institution of the nation [monarchy] under the lies that continue the legacy of the People’s Party.

The army’s real task: coups

It’s time to join together and wash away the legacy of the People’s Party. It’s time to RESET Thai politics and establish the political system with the King, the people and political parties as one to be a free and peaceful land forever under the constitutional monarchy.

This is considered better than a universal democracy with a monarchy that has been and will always be and to be above democracy ruled by the American Empire. [PPT: We are guessing a bit here. The original is: อันถือว่าเป็นระบอบ ประชาธิปไตยสากล ของประเทศ ที่มีสถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์ ที่เป็นมา เป็นอยู่ และให้เป็นตลอดไป และให้อยู่เหนือระบอบประชาธิปไตย อันมีจักรวรรดิอเมริกาเป็นผู้บงการ]

Thai Pakdee Party

These ideas are remarkable. To call Thai Pakdee conservative is misleading. They are troglodytes. Yet several of the reincarnations of yellow shirt began with troglodytes stirring a pot of discontent, building, sucking funds from the military and capitalists, invariably supported by Manager, until a street-level movement resulted. Those street movements led to two coups. Is this the beginning of another such movement? Or is it dinosaurs fighting extinction?

Mad, mad, monarchism IV

Prachatai updates a story that began in 2018 when mad monarchists, led by “academic” Chaiyan Chaiyaporn, of the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, who has proclaimed himself a defender of everything royal, who detected “errors” in a thesis by historian Nattaphol Chai­ching.

Chaiyan decided the errors amounted to falsified information in the thesis. This led to a lawsuit filed against Nattaphol, his publisher, Same Sky Books, and the historian’s supervisor former Faculty of Political Science lecturer Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead.

The recent Prachatai post explains that the suit against Kullada has been dropped. Meanwhile, those against Nattaphol and Same Sky Books will continue.

The plaintiff is Mom Rajawongse Priyanandana Rangsit, a granddaughter of the Prince of Chai Nat, who is demanding 50 million baht in damages for two books she alleges contain misleading information about her grandfather, Prince Rangsit, damaging his reputation. The books are: “Dream the Impossible Dream” (ขอฝันใฝ่ในฝันอันเหลือเชื่อ) and “The Junta, the Lords, and the Eagle” (ขุนศึก ศักดินา พญาอินทรี).

Today’s royalists view Nattaphol’s books and their wide popularity as a threat. Make no mistake, this is royalist vengeance seeking to maintain a royalist story about Rangsit who is known as one of the driving forces for the political and economic restoration of the palace and for steering it through the difficult times after Prajadhipok’s abdication and the death of Ananda Mahidol.

Rangsit spend several years in detention, accused of treason and of plotting a coup in 1938, but was released at the end of WW2. He became regent in 1946 and was quick to support royalists and military men opposed to the People’s Party.

We would have hoped that the courts would dismiss such a malicious actions by mad monarchists, But the courts are contorted and royalist.

Updated: 1932 in 2023

Pridi

Back in 2009 on 24 June, PPT marked the 1932 Revolution by reprinting the first announcement of the khana ratsadon or People’s Party. The announcement is attributed to Pridi Phanomyong. We do so again today.

In 2009 we noted that in recent years the anniversary of the event was barely noticed among the cacophony surrounding the celebration of various royal things.

Since then, and especially under the government that grabbed power with the 2014 military coup, there has been a determined attempt to erase the symbols of 1932 and to erase anti-monarchism.

Royalists and the king seek to erase an event they consider horrendous for reducing royal powers and granting sovereignty to common people. Of course, for many years, the royalist aim has been to push the events of 1932 from the public agenda and to “forget” that the 1932 overthrow of the absolute monarchy.

As we did in 2009, we invite readers to consider the People’s Party Announcement No. 1, which would probably constitute lese majeste if the mad monarchists could get away with it.

PPT has extracted and lightly edited this document from the excellent book Pridi on Pridi, translated by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, and published by Silkworm Books. It is available from the Pridi/Phoonsuk website.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S PARTY NO. 1 (1932)

All the people

When this king succeeded his elder brother, people at first hoped that he would govern protectively. But matters have not turned out as they hoped. The king maintains his power above the law as before. He appoints court relatives and toadies without merit or knowledge to important positions, without listening to the voice of the people. He allows officials to use the power of their office dishonestly, taking bribes in government construction and purchasing, and seeking profits from changes in the price of money, which squanders the wealth of the country. He elevates those of royal blood (phuak chao) to have special rights more than the people. He governs without principle. The country’s affairs are left to the mercy of fate, as can be seen from the depression of the economy and the hardships of making a living – something the people know all about already.

The government of the king above the law is unable to find solutions and bring about recovery. This inability is because the government of the king has not governed the country for the people, as other governments have done. The government of the king has treated the people as slaves (some called phrai, some kha) and as animals. It has not considered them as human beings. Therefore, instead of helping the people, rather it farms on the backs of the people. It can be seen that from the taxes that are squeezed from the people, the king carries off many millions for personal use each year. As for the people, they have to sweat blood in order to find just a little money. At the time for paying government tax or personal tax, if they have no money, the government seizes their property or puts them on public works. But those of royal blood are still sleeping and eating happily. There is no country in the world that gives its royalty so much money as this, except the Tsar and the German Kaiser, in nations that have now overthrown their thrones.

The king’s government has governed in ways that are deceiving and not straightforward with the people. For example, it said it would improve livelihood in this way and that, but time has passed, people have waited, and nothing has happened. It has never done anything seriously. Further than that, it has insulted the people – those with the grace to pay taxes for royalty to use – that the people don’t know as much as those of royal blood. But this is not because the people are stupid, but because they lack the education which is reserved for royalty. They have not allowed the people to study fully, because they fear that if the people have education, they will know the evil that they do and may not let them farm on their backs.

You, all of the people, should know that our country belongs to the people – not to the king, as has been deceitfully claimed. It was the ancestors of the people who protected the independence of the country from enemy armies. Those of royal blood just reap where they have not sown and sweep up wealth and property worth many hundred millions. Where did all this money come from? It came from the people because of that method of farming on the backs of the people! The country is experiencing hardships. Farmers and soldiers’ parents have to give up their paddy fields because cultivating them brings no benefit. The government does not help. The government is discharging people in floods. Students who have completed their study and soldiers released from the reserves have no employment. They have to go hungry according to fate. These things are the result of the government of the king above the law. It oppresses the minor government officials. Ordinary soldiers and clerks are discharged from employment, and no pension is given. In truth, government should use the money that has been amassed to manage the country to provide employment. This would be fitting to pay back the people who have been paying taxes to make royalty rich for a long time. But those of royal blood do nothing. They go on sucking blood. Whatever money they have they deposit overseas and prepare to flee while the country decays and people are left to go hungry. All this is certainly evil.

Therefore the people, government officials, soldiers, and citizens who know about these evil actions of the government, have joined together to establish the People’s Party and have seized power from the king’s government. The People’s Party sees that to correct this evil it must establish government by an assembly, so that many minds can debate and contribute, which is better than just one mind.

As for the head of state of the country, the People’s Party has no wish to snatch the throne. Hence it invites this king to retain the position. But he must be under the law of the constitution for governing the country, and cannot do anything independently without the approval of the assembly of people’s representatives. The People’s Party has already informed the king of this view and at the present time is waiting for a response. If the king replies with a refusal or does not reply within the time set, for the selfish reason that his power will be reduced, it will be regarded as treason to the nation, and it will be necessary for the country to have a republican form of government, that is, the head of state will be an ordinary person appointed by parliament to hold the position for a fixed term.

By this method the people can hope to be looked after in the best way. Everyone will have employment, because our country is a country which has very abundant conditions. When we have seized the money which those of royal blood amass from farming on the backs of the people, and use these many hundreds of millions for nurturing the country, the country will certainly flourish. The government which the People’s Party will set up will draw up projects based on principle, and not act like a blind man as the government which has the king above the law has done. The major principles which the People’s Party has laid out are:

1. must maintain securely the independence of the country in all forms including political, judicial, and economic, etc.;
2. must maintain public safety within the country and greatly reduce crime;
3. must improve the economic well-being of the people by the new government finding employment for all, and drawing up a national economic plan, not leaving the people to go hungry
4. must provide the people with equal rights (so that those of royal blood do not have more rights than the people as at present);
5. must provide the people with liberty and freedom, as far as this does not conflict with the above four principles;
6. must provide the people with full education.

All the people should be ready to help the People’s Party successfully to carry out its work which will last forever. The People’s Party asks everyone who did not participate in seizing power from the government of the king above the law to remain peaceful and keep working for their living. Do not do anything to obstruct the People’s Party. By doing so, the people will help the country, the people, and their own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The country will have complete independence. People will have safety. Everyone must have employment and need not starve. Everyone will have equal rights and freedom from being serfs (phrai) and slaves (kha, that) of royalty. The time has ended when those of royal blood farm on the backs of the people. The things which everyone desires, the greatest happiness and progress which can be called si-ariya, will arise for everyone.

Khana Ratsadon
[People’s Party]
24 June 1932

Update: PPT notes the Bangkok Post’s editorial on the 1932 revolution. It is as if the reading of history stopped with high school texts that are royalist propaganda. The editorial gets off to a bad start with revolution in inverted commas, which always means the writer thinks the word improper. It refers to the People’s Party as “a group of young Khana Ratsadorn elites who were educated abroad took a bold step towards democracy on June 24.” The notion that it was “elites” and that all were “young” misses quite a lot: recent historical writings confirm that there was considerable support for the revolution and across generations. The idea that the People’s Party were “elites” and “educated abroad” suggests, as royalists have done since 1932, that the end of the absolute monarchy was premature and a notion outside Thai culture. You get the picture.

[Thanks to the reader who pointed out a error in our hyperlink to the Bangkok Post.]

Royalists continue to damage the monarchy

As well as making lese majeste a topic that may not be discussed (except when making complaints), claiming that Move Forward is communist and anti-monarchist, mad monarchists now want to have Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat investigated for lese majeste.

The “King Protection Group,” which seems to be a group of Facebook friends who dress in martial style clobber have filed a complaint against Pita under 112 and the computer crimes law “alleging that his interview with BBC has affected the country’s highest institution.” They mean the monarchy. Exactly what they consider contravenes any law in that interview remains unclear.

The Technology Crime Suppression Division, usually dead keen to pursue 112 complaints against the regime’s political opponents has, unusually, requested that these ultra-royalists “provide additional testimony before the complaint is processed further.”

As far as we can tell, these mad monarchists are likely to bring down (lom chao) the monarchy they seek to “protect.”

More conspiracy madness

Conspiracy theories have long been in the royalist-rightist toolkit for defeating those who win elections. To mention just a few, there was the Finland Plot, the Marxist network, and the Illuminati secret society. All have been concoctions, but all had real political impacts. Each of these was taken seriously by elements of the state and elite.

Take the Illuminati nonsense as an example. In July 2019 crazed royalist Nathaporn Toprayoon, a former adviser to the Ombudsman, lodged a complaint, claiming that the Future Forward Party was anti-monarchy because it was a part of the Illuminati. Future Foward denied the dopey claims.

Part of the “evidence” for this bonkers claim was that Future Forward’s logo was triangular, which was a bit like an Illuminati sign, albeit rotated 180 degrees. Nathaporn claimed the “secret Illuminati sect [was] ‘believed to be behind the unseating of monarchies in Europe’.” Other concocted “evidence” was that the party’s did “not use the standard phrase ‘democracy with the king as head of state’, but instead uses the words democracy according to the constitution’,” and that it was “party policy [to ]… have Thailand ratify the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, a body that does not grant immunity to the head of state, which is against the Thai constitution.”

The anti-monarchist claims were taken seriously and resulted in a Constitutional Court case. Although dismissed, as the royalists hoped, Future Forward was damaged.

The mad monarchists are at it again. The Bangkok Post reports that the Election Commission has asked the Move Forward Party to explain “why it included a hammer and sickle in its campaign cartoon, after a complaint that it suggested opposition to the constitutional monarchy.”

From Bangkok Post

The cartoon is from a party social media post on April 18 that introduced “its list-MP candidates from the labour sector, ahead of the … general election.”

The EC said a “complainant asked it to investigate if the party was against constitutional monarchy, which would be a violation of the constitution.”

So the claim is that Move Forward is made up of communists intent on overthrowing the monarchy, and the stooges at the Election Commission take it seriously.

Updated: Mad monarchists get mad(der)

It came as no surprise to PPT that monarchy and 112 reformers Orawan Phuphong and Tantawan Tuatulanon were among the winners at The People Awards 2023.

Of course, mad monarchists have responded by becoming even madder attacking online magazine The People and others associated with it.

Social media lit up following the 5 April  ceremony. Prachatai reports that “right-wing media such as Top News and ultra right-wing groups like the Thai Move Institute, who also directed criticism at the Nation Group, which owns the magazine, and the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of Thailand, who they claim is a sponsor for the awards.”

Sadly, the result has been considerable spinelessness.

According to Prachatai,

The Nation Group issued a statement on 6 April that neither the company nor other media outlets it runs are involved in the awards, and that the company allows each editorial team to work independently. It also said that The People’s editorial team are the sole decision-makers behind the awards.

It seems to be throwing its employees under the royalist bus.

The statement also noted that the Nation Group is planning to sell its shares in the magazine, and has already negotiated a sale with a potential buyer.

Of course! Run and hide!

“The Nation Group is a professional media institution and will steadfastly stand by our principles in our duty of being providers of useful information for the Thai public and to preserve the institutions of the nation, religions, and the monarchy,” said the statement.

Just a tip for the jellyfish at The Nation: in Thailand, you can’t do both. You either suck up to the monarchy or you tell the truth.

Update: Of course, as a reader writes, The Nation has long been hopelessly short on spine. That’s well known, but the idea that it thinks of itself as “professional” and as having “principles” stuck out in this report, where the groups antics demonstrated exactly the opposite.

Ultra-royalists are ultra-rancid II

As observed in a previous post, ultra-royalists are busy trying to lock-up ever more young Thais.

Prachatai reports that the truly deranged ultra-royalist Warong Dechgitvigrom of the far-right Thai Pakdee Party  has “displayed an official letter from parliament on his Facebook page, announcing that his request to collect signatures to propose an amendment to Section 112 of the Criminal Code has been authorized.”

Warong and his bonkers monarchists want to expand the draconian law to include “insults” against “former Thai kings of the current Chakri Dynasty and princes and princesses with the rank of Pra Ong Chao or above…”. Madly, they also want the very word “monarchy” to be “protected.”

Warong also promises that if any of his rancid lot become MPs, they will seek to prohibit MPs from using their position as security when requesting bail for political activists.

Who is brave enough to protect the people from the mad monarchists? So far, only Move Forward has stepped up.

Further updated: Mad, mad, monarchism III

For those wanting an update on the mad royalist effort to prevent serious academic study of the monarchy in Thailand, Prachatai has it.

The story there opens with this:

Chaiyan

After it was disclosed that an investigation report into allegations that historian Nattapol Chaiching falsified information in his PhD thesis may itself contain falsehoods, political scientist Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead has published an open letter to the Chulalongkorn University Council, calling on it to reject the report.

Much of the royalist fervor can be attributed to Chaiyan Chaiyaporn, of the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, who has proclaimed himself a defender of everything royal. In claiming “errors” in Nattapol’s work (since corrected), Chaiyan has himself made errors. In the mad world of royalists, however, his error is an “honest mistake” by a “good person.”

Update 1: PPT has yet to obtain a copy of the Bangkok Post article published on 18 December 1950, which the Post stated it had reproduced. Any reader have a copy they can send us?

Update 2: While on the topic of academic research and monarchism, we noticed that Pavin Chachavalpongpun’s recent article “On His Majesty’s Service: Why is the Thai Foreign Ministry Royalist?” is available for free download.