Princess mystery

A few days ago an Australian website posted “The mystery surrounding the hospitalisation of Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha.” It is a timely reminder that the palace has simply locked down on news about the presumed death of the king’s eldest daughter.

As the report states, “Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha has been mysteriously away from the spotlight after being hospitalised last December, with no word from the palace since.” Well, not after a couple of Royal Household bulletins.

The report reminds readers that she was probably “heir to the Thai throne,” and that she collapsed on 14 December 2022, “after which she was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok, where she was said to be in stable condition on December 15th.” Stable means on a life support system but probably dead.

Nationwide prayers were organized for the 44 year-old, but “there was no word for a while,” when an odd statement was released “on January 11, 2023 … sharing that Bajrakitiyabha was still unconscious, being treated for severe heart arrhythmia, resulting from inflammation from a mycoplasma infection.” That seems remarkably unlikely.

As the report says, there “have been no updates on her condition since then…”.

So, mystery reigns. We might also ask where Koi is. Disappearing royals….

No update on princess

No news is hardly a headline, but in this case, the failure of the Royal Household Bureau is like a scream in the dark. There’s no update on the state of Princess Bajrakitiyabha.

Royal Central provides the story and notes the silence:

[She] … remains in a Bangkok hospital after a heart problem placed her there in mid-December….

Since [11 January], there have been no official updates from the Thai Royal Family, but we know that Bajrakitiyabha remains in hospital with equipment supporting her vital organs.

What’s the point being made by the palace?

Updated: Bodies

There has been a minor social media kerfuffle following a Facebook post by Pavin Chachavalpongpun that was interpreted as saying that the king’s first wife Princess Soamsawali passed away. Of course, she has been seriously ill and incapacitated for several years.

While the still unreported death of her daughter Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol did get some attention on social media and official announcements that have parked her in non-death, there’s been no reporting on Soamsawali.

Likewise, there’s been no reporting on the fate of Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi/Sineenat Bilaskalayani who disappeared from public view months ago. We note that her Wikipedia page stopped adding to her profile following her restoration in 2020. 

PPT knows no more than what is reported in the media. The problem is that nothing is now reported on these three women. Even the Royal Household Bureau, which usually has announcements on royal health is tellingly silent.

Update: We changed expression and added a couple of points to the last paragraph.

Succession and elections

Singapore’s Mothership reports on a talk by Chulalongkorn University’s Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang who (bravely) asserted:

One of the biggest concerns for the country would be the matter of succession. Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, the eldest daughter of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was hospitalised [PPT: she’s dead] and eventually put on life support after she collapsed while training her pet dog on Dec. 14 last year.”

He explained:

While the Thai palace has never declared Bajrakitiyabha as the successor to the throne, she has been widely assumed to be next in line for succession.

“She studied law, she’s intelligible, approachable, and well-loved by many of the elite community,” Khemtong said, while “Prince Dipangkorn, the only male heir of [King] Vajiralongkorn, is said to be mentally challenged,” though Khemtong also stressed that as a “Thai person, [he] can neither confirm [nor] repudiate that accusation.”

We think that’s reasonably accurate, although Dipangkorn’s brief recent visit to Thailand suggested that there may have been some quick rethinking. In any case, dopey princes have previously become kings. It’s blood that matters.

His point is about the election:

“Now the king is in some kind of crisis. So the question is whether this crisis [will cast a] political shadow. Will we still have the election in May 2023?” Khemthong asked.

According to Khemthong, Thailand’s 2023 election is supposedly the biggest event of the year. It was expected to occur in May, but many believe the election might happen much earlier.

On the election:

Khemthong sounded pessimistic about the election, as he said, “The election will not be a transition. Actually, the election will help normalise this very unfree and unfair political arrangement of Thai politics.”

On linking palace and election:

But big questions remain. Given the Thai princess’s condition, how will the palace crisis affect this year’s election?

“The main question is that in times of crisis, will the palace resort to some extra-constitutional convention?” Khemthong asked. “At the very least, if there’s a state funeral, will it delay [the] election and for how long? And that’s the question that we don’t know the answer yet.”

Further updated: While we were away….

It seems that a decaying regime and a largely tame mainstream media means that bizarre things happen and are reported as if they are “normal.” Likewise, some things – mostly to do with Article 112 are simply ignored. And then there’s the strangeness of The Family (the dysfunctional family that for many years has looked like something between The Addams Family and The Munsters but without much family togetherness or the good humor of those television families).

Obviously, the story that has been most difficult to comprehend is the death of Princess Bajrakitiyabha that the palace has not yet acknowledged. That story was scooped by Andrew MacGregor Marshall.

About three weeks ago the palace stated that, after a heart attack/aneurysm, her condition was “stable to a certain extent.” As the BBC added:

Medical bulletins from the royal palace in Thailand are typically vague and cryptic, and from the single statement issued about Princess Bajrakitiyabha, it is difficult to gauge how serious her condition is….

The statement says nothing about her state of health now. Some reports have suggested it is a lot more serious than stated.

Those reports stated that she was brain dead, being kept “alive” by machines. As the king’s favorite, her death is a personal blow, especially as she was only 44. It is not known why her death is not announced or even why there are no updates.

Meanwhile, millions of Thais are being regimented into “praying” for the princess’s miracle “recovery.” Uniformed Thais have led the “good wishes.”

Leaving aside the nutty stuff about what caused her demise, it does seem that succession has again become an issue. This seems to be based on assumptions that King Vajiralongkorn favored her. In fact, though, when succession was said to be in “crisis” a few years ago, it was Princess Sirindhorn who was the center of attention. Why she’s not in the mix now is not explained. Prince Dipangkorn is considered to have “health issues” (which royal doesn’t?) However, he’s now looking pampered, “handsome” to royalists, and must be a chance. But who knows?

A couple of points though. When there was last attention to a “succession crisis” and now, the one thing that has changed is that Bajrakitiyabha was the only full royal by blood. What hasn’t changed is that Dipangkorn is the only male (leaving aside the disowned lot in the USA). None of the royal princesses have male offspring and none of the female offspring seem intent on marriage and the production of offspring.

In the end, the dynasty seems to have reached its biological limits. Minor royals will be positioning themselves while more reasonable people would be looking to a republican future.

Update 1: A reader disputes that there are any “minor royals.” By “minor royals,” we mean those families that might claim royal blood from decades ago. There are still MRs and MCs around. Some of these have recently been seen in royal news undertaking royally-assigned tasks. The point is, as the reader acknowledges, in royalist Thailand, “anything is possible.” In that sense, some of the offspring in the USA might have royal thoughts.

Update 2: According to Prachatai, a new palace report has been released on Bajrakitiyabha. This time, the statement, released on 7 December, has it that “Princess Bajrakitiyabha collapsed due to severe cardiac arrhythmia relating to a mycoplasma infection. She is unconscious and is being given antibiotics, while her heart, lungs, and kidneys continue to be treated with medication and medical equipment.”

Koi is gone

Andrew MacGregor Marshall has a new Secret Siam post “Koi gone.” Marshall doesn’t answer the burning question: What has happened to Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, known as Koi, the king’s official concubine?

She’s been gone from public view since 5 December 2021. No one is saying what has happened to her. She was there one day and then she disappeared. Her unexplained disappearance is not something usually associated with “celebrities” in the modern world. It is strange. But so is the Thai royal family.

If he can’t say what has happened to her, Marshall puts together the story of Koi as it is currently known. It will be of interest for many who follow the erratic Vajiralongkorn. Here’s some of the conclusion to Marshall’s account:

The royals finally returned to Europe in November 2021, taking over much of the airport hotel in Munich for their mandatory two weeks of coronavirus quarantine. They made day trips to Thailand on November 20 for the changing of the clothes of the Emerald Buddha, and on December 5 for the birthday of the late King Bhumibol.

The December 5 visit was the last time Koi has been seen in public. She has been missing for eight months. Here is the last image we have of her.

It remains unknown what happened during December last year between Vajiralongkorn and Koi….

The king flew back to Bangkok via Zurich on December 28 for Taksin Day, bringing [Queen] Suthida but — very unusually — not Koi, who stayed in Bavaria. He planned to stay in Thailand less than two weeks.

We are PPT don’t think it is certain that Koi remained in Bavaria.

But the plans were repeatedly changed…. Clearly there was some turbulence in the palace, with plans being changed so frequently.

Eventually, Vajiralongkorn decided he was not going to return to his pleasure palace in Bavaria for now. He has not been back to Germany since December and has not seen Koi since then.

The real reason [for Koi’s disappearance], royal sources say, is that Koi’s ambitions were causing so much conflict that Vajiralongkorn became increasingly angry and bored of the drama. Surprisingly, Suthida seems to have won the power struggle for now, with the help of Bajrakitiyabha and Sirivannavari….

On July 28 [2022], the royals gathered to mark Vajiralongkorn’s 70th birthday. It was exactly three years since he had anointed Koi his royal noble consort, but she was nowhere to be seen.

For the moment, Koi is gone.

A royalist ode

According to Royal World Thailand, King Vajiralongkorn, his queen and his favorite consort have been briefly back in Thailand before returning to Switzerland and Germany. In Thailand:

… King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida of Thailand, with … Princess Bajrakitiyabha, … Princess Rajsarini Siribajra​ and Princess Sirivannavari, along with the Royal Noble Consort Sineenat Bilaskalayani presided over the ceremony of changing the seasonal attire for the Emerald Buddha into winter attire. The tradition of changing the robes seasonally; Rainy, Winter, and Summer, held at the Temple of Emerald Buddha….

There is quite a lot to think about in this event. First, why did he and his huge entourage decamp to Europe just a little more than a week ago, to return for just day? Was he trying to be out of the country when the Constitutional Court was promoting absolutism? Or is he just being his usual erratic and dull self? Second, why is the royal family unmasked, especially when they have been in Germany, where the virus is raging. Third, who pays for these expensive jaunts to and from Europe? Finally, why do royalists continue to turn out and support a king who has made it clear he’d rather not be in Thailand? The latter question sent us to poets, with apologies to Thomas Ford:

There is a king erratic and (un)kind,

Was never a face so pleased my mind;

I did but see him passing by. And yet I’ll love him till I die. His gesture, motion, and his grimaces,

His lack of wit, but his voice my heart beguiles,

Beguiles my heart, I know not why,

Yet, I will love him till I die.

Further updated: Fake reporting and conscientious non-reporting

In a recent post, we observed that the royal family appeared, until a couple of days ago, to be on holiday. Until Chinese New Year, there had been very few appearances by any of them for about a month. Sometimes there were stories of royal good deeds, but as social media commentators noticed, these often involved collages of old photos.

This creates problems for the mainstream media, who are always pushed to give the impression that the royals are wonderful philanthropists rather than lazy, grasping, and self-interested. When the king spent most of last year in Germany, the average royalist might have thought the king was in Thailand. No mainstream outlet reported his residence in Germany or the antics he got up to there. Thus there was fake reporting and conscientious non-reporting.

Such trickery has also been at work over the past month, although the royal news is a bit of a problem for the palace has had a habit of reporting some royal thing, happening or event every day. But, as the Bangkok Post has demonstrated today, faked reporting is one way of filling a gap. It has the headline “King and Queen swoop in to help Covid-affected workers.”

That gives the impression that the king and queen were actually out and about: “Their Majesties the King and Queen gave 7,500 meal boxes a day to people affected by Covid-19 in Samut Sakhon from Saturday.” That reads a bit odd, so we looked further into the story and it turns out that the king and queen were somewhere else – in a palace perhaps – and the food boxes were presented to the governor to “hand over to officers tackling the coronavirus and people affected by the pandemic as they were concerned about hardship caused by the disease.”

It also turns out that these are “subsidised … meals” and that the king “designated the Thai Restaurant Association and Restaurants club in Samut Sakhon to arrange the food to serve medical officers, soldiers and police who combated with the coronavirus at hospitals, field hospitals and surveillance centres in all districts,” along with a few average citizens. It is stated that “the restaurant club in the province has joined hands with 30 restaurants to cook the meals.” Sounds like some orders have been issued.

So we wonder who “swooped,” who paid, and who decided to make the story appear like the king was out of the palace? Old tactics die hard.

Update 1: The fake reporting includes the military and palace. The military released several photos and video a day or so ago purporting to show the newly-shown, newly-minted general, Princess Bajrakitiyabha skydiving at the military’s Lopburi base. Turns out that this was not true, with the military scrambling to say it was not fake, but a “rehearsal” for a jump she will make at some other time. The “rehearsal” was so faked that it seemingly included a lookalike “Princess.”

Update 2: We are now seem to have confirmation of the princess jumping from a plane, with another video released, looking remarkably like the rehearsal video.

Back in the news

Royal World Thailand has published pictures of the “missing” Queen Suthida and a newly shown “Princess Patty.” After the social media hullabaloo about the missing queen, this appearance will simply set off more speculation about her whereabouts over the past month.

Clipped from Royal World Thailand

Princess Bajrakitiyabha’s military-style haircut seems to be a part of her father’s promotion of her to full Army general and her taking up that new role. Like kings of yore, Vajiralongkorn likes to have favorites and family running things.

Clipped from Royal World Thailand

All of the recent hyperventilating speculation about the queen did send PPT to the royal news more often. What we noticed was an absence of royals generally from the news. After the huge profile taken in putting down the anti-monarchists, it seems that almost all of them are resting or convalescing. Never has the royal news been shorter than in the past week. There are some small mercies.

Updated: Royal matters

We don’t follow Royal World Thailand all the time, but reading a story at the South China Morning Post regarding Queen Suthida not being seen for some time and observing “anxiety among some diehard royalist supporters” about her “disappearance.” The SCMP stated:

Neither has the palace moved to discredit rumours swirling online that Suthida might suffer the same fate asKing Maha Vajiralongkorn’s three former wives, who were either forced into exile or publicly humiliated.

We guess that, based on his past bad behavior, suspicions could be aroused.

However, a search of Royal World Thailand found a story about the king and queen handing out more virus stuff – mobile units – which the story claims have been funded from “their own personal wealth.” The total said to have been “paid” is almost 30 million baht,

This outing is dated 26 January 2021.

Skeptics might think this fake palace propaganda, hiding something more sinister….

Also at Royal World Thailand, is the story of the king promoting his first daughter in the military – he loves handing out military rank to his favorite women.

Vajiralongkorn has made Princess Bajrakitiyabha a full general. The detail is worth reproducing:

Clipped from SCMP

According to the Royal Gazette, following His Majesty’s Royal Command to transfer the Public Prosecutor to the Military Officer relies on the Article 15 the Kingdom’s Constitution 2017, together with Articles 4 and 9 of the Royal Service Administration Act 2017, Articles 10, 13, 14, 15, and 18 of Royal Decree Organising Governmental Affairs and Personnel Administration for Royal Service 2017, and Articles 4 and 5 of the Military Rank Act 1936.

Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha, The Princess Rajasarini Siribajra who holds the position of Expert Public Prosecutor (Grade 5) Region 2 Public Prosecutor Office of the Office of the Attorney General, has been transferred to the military position of Chief of Staff of Royal Guard Unit, The Royal Security Command with the rank of General on 2 February 2021.

As the King is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, he hence acts as the central unity of Thai army. Various military ranks have been granted to many royal members for decades. Some really works in military fields, e.g., teachers or specific commanders. Some attended trainings for gaining experiences. And some did not even join any trainings. Ranks were hence granted to be a personal honour.

For The Princess’s military pathway, she started the first military career in 2000 and received various ranks throughout the years:

• • 10 November 2000 – Second Lieutenant with Honorary Officer of the 1st Infantry Regiment
  • 23 October 2002 – Lieutenant with Honorary Officer of the 29th Cavalry Squadron
  • 10 September 2004 – Captain
  • 4 March 2018 – Major General with Honorary Officer of the Royal Guard Unit
  • 27 September 2019 – Lieutenant General
  • 2 February 2021 – General with Chief of Staff of Royal Guard Unit, The Royal Security Command

Besides working in judicial field as the Expert Public Prosecutor (Grade 5) of Region 2 Public Prosecutor Office of the Provincial Juvenile and Family Litigation in Rayong Province, the Princess attended the military training at Special Warfare School in Lopburi Province.

The Princess started the military career at the age of only 22, and received the respective ranks in general steps before pausing for almost 15 years. She was then skipped to the General ranks instead of Colonels’. Princess ‘Patty’ has unsurprising growing in military life for her 20 years of service, unlike Queen Suthida who has rapid military growing less than 10 years.

Updated: Several readers have commented that the story about the king and queen mentioned above was shown on the nightly royal news and did not include any video of the pair, just still photos overlaid on backgrounds. They suggest that it remains true that Suthida has not been seen “live” since late December.