The royal family seems a bit short on posteriors to be buffed. Hence, Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse’s manic efforts at what looks like self promotion, but with the palace – presumably the king – backing him him in.
We can’t help wondering is his sister isn’t involved. Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana is a proper royal and he isn’t. Not yet, anyway. With blood being so significant, it is reasonable to think that she might prefer a tubby full brother than a challenged half brother, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti.
Of course, her brother’s current promotion and management as likely successor to the king goes together with her own shameless self-promotion. After years of being portrayed as excellent at everything, the buffing of Sirivannavari’s backside continues unabated and unabashed. Whatever takes her fancy gets media attention and the claims she’s the best thing since rice was first boiled are never-ending.
A recent effort was not about her sporting prowess – horse riding, badminton – or her scholarly brilliance, bit focused on her long-term dalliance with fashion and design. The Bangkok Post, which regularly “reports” this kind of royal PR buffalo manure, has yet another story on the royal’s “patterns.”
According to the “report,” the Puea Thai-led coalition government is throwing more taxpayer money into “promoting royal fabric patterns designed by … Sirivannavari … under a project aimed at preserving traditional handicrafts, improving local people’s living conditions and boosting sustainability in villages.” Yes, seriously.
With nothing better to do with his time than to belly slide before royals, “Suttipong Juljarern, permanent secretary for the Interior Ministry, recently presided over a ceremony to present the princess’ royal fabric patterns to all 76 provincial governors at a hotel in Bangkok.” Yep, all 76. And they are required to also give time and money to another royal PR scheme.
Of course, some of these “designs” are dedicated to her dad’s birthday. According to the polishers, the princess has studied “local fabric patterns from all regions of the country.” Villagers have no copyright, and even if they did, they’d have to hand over their intellectual and cultural property to the acquisitive royal.
But never fear, the “royal patterns will be passed on to local weavers and fabrics makers so they can blend them with local patterns and traditional wisdom in making hand-woven fabrics to innovate new designs.”
Unremarkable too, the royal designs “will be certified by the ‘Sustainable Fashion’ logo…”. Where did the logo come from? Of course, it was “bestowed and designed by the princess.” That squares the circle!
And, with but a bat of eyelid, she’s her grandmother’s progeny, apparently inheriting the genes that the now queen mother who had herself recognized as a promoter of local products, “helping weavers earn better wages and improve their living conditions…”. Wages? Yep, converting cultural capital into a means of capitalist exploitation.
Suttipong reckons the princess is talented, creative, trendy, and more. He promises that the “Community Development Department (CDD) under the Interior Ministry and provincial governors nationwide are working together to promote Thai fabrics through the ‘Pha Thai Sai Hai Sanuk’ (Thai Fabrics Are Fun to Wear) project initiated by the princess.”
He reckons the “project is aimed at improving the livelihoods of local weavers and textile makers…”. We reckon the project is aimed to promote royals and royalism.
The formation of the post-election government was based around a premise that the monarchy was being protected from reformists. It was underpinned by a deal done between the palace and Thaksin Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party.
Of course, Thaksin was ousted by the military and yellow shirts in 2006 to allegedly protect the monarchy. He also has numerous outstanding lese majeste cases. But that all seemed forgotten to protect the monarchy from an even larger threat: the monarchy reform movement channeled through Move Forward.
Srettha Thavisin’s coalition government is doing its part. For example, where Puea Thai had promised constitutional reform when campaigning for votes, this was about reform that would not touch the monarchy. As recently reported, the first referendum question to voters “will ask whether people want to amend the Constitution without amending chapters relating to the monarchy.” If the people reject this, there will be no constitutional reform. The monarchy will be protected as it is.
Despite these political victories, the king still seems fearful. For us, this is made clear in Vajiralongkorn’s call to “Thais to unite …, join forces to overcome obstacles and challenges lying ahead, and steer the country towards prosperity and stability.”
Not at all very different from the tuneless babble that once emanated from his father. And that seems to be the point. The king, and presumably his closest advisors, recognize that Vajiralongkorn faces challenges. Some of these are related to his personal traits which make him unpopular. So it is that the effort is to make the link to his father and the way he is recalled by many in Thailand.
When the king referred to “several important events took place in our country” over the past year, he refers to events related to his dead father.
Royal Household photo, clipped from The Nation
He points to an event that only he and his family probably think “important”: “As you all know, Oct 13 has been declared Navamindra Maharaj Day to mark the anniversary of the passing of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great.” This “event” was arranged at taxpayer expense to unveil a statue of the late king.
He then refers to his mother, the gravely ill Queen Mother Sirikit, who seemingly influences culture from her death bed, in “khon” performances “organised by the SUPPORT Foundation. These, he says, were “also a great success…”.
And, again, he speaks of his dead father:
May you be protected by the sacred forces and the virtues of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great from ills and perils, and may you be blessed with strength, wisdom and success in achieving your aims throughout the year and always….
It is as if the king, now in his seventh decade but still insecure, is made a child again.
This message is reinforced by the official photo and added above. He is portrayed as a late teenager, inferior to his parents. Yes, this is about showing appropriate respect, but it is more than that. Oddly not even central in the frame, his supports are his parents and his military regalia.
Such insecurity bodes ill for Thailand’s politics.
This is the fifth in our multi-part update on 112 from the past 3-4 weeks:
On 21 December 2023, Prachatai reported that the Criminal Court had, that day dismissed a lese majeste charge against online influencer Aniwat Prathumthin, also known as Nara Crepe Katoei, for the Lazada video advertisement.
The videos featured Aniwat and two other online influencers, Kittikhun Thammkittirath and Thidaporn Chaokuwiang and were released on Aniwat’s TikTok account in May 2022 to push a Lazada sales campaign.
Clipped from Thai PBS
The first video features Thidaporn in what is now widely assumed to be “traditional Thai dress” but is better viewed as royalist styling, sitting in a wheelchair. Kittikhun, also the same style of dress, is standing next to her. Aniwat is shown giving her skincare products. The second video features Thidaporn, still in royalist-style dress and sitting in a wheelchair, while Aniwat accuses her of stealing her clothes and recommends that she buy clothes from Lazada during their sales campaign. Thidaporn then gets up from her wheelchair in shock.
Ultra-royalist groups were aghast, claiming the videos:
made fun of members of the royal family, [who they] thought to be Queen Sirikit … and Princess Chulabhorn … and launched a boycott campaign against the platform. Lazada and Intersect Design Factory, the media agency in charge of producing the videos, later issued a public apology for the videos.”
Royalist snitch and serial complainer Srisuwan Janya filed a complaint against the three and the two companies, alleging multiple 112 infractions.
In the Criminal Court the charges against Aniwat were dismissed:
on the grounds that the content of the videos does not constitute an offence under the royal defamation law, because they were produced as part of a marketing campaign and contain no “anti-monarchy symbols,” such as one that communicates the demand to amend the royal defamation law. The speech used in the videos are also normal speech, and the videos did not use the personal coat of arms of a member of the royal family, while traditional Thai dress is something anyone can wear.
The court said that while the prosecution presented evidence that the videos are an act of parody, they do not constitute defamation since the defendants were only playing a role to promote their products, although the content may be seen as inappropriate by some groups of people.
The case against Thidaporn is scheduled for August–September 2024. Kittikhun fled Thailand “in July 2023 and is seeking political asylum in Germany.”
Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Wednesday he could neither confirm nor dismiss whether former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s formal application for a royal pardon has been filed.
He could only confirm the application has yet to reach him, Mr Wissanu said in his capacity as caretaker justice minister.
Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, in his capacity as the acting justice minister, says he has received an application for a royal pardon for Thaksin Shinawatra.
Speaking to reporters at Government House on Thursday, Mr Wissanu declined to say whether the former prime minister or his family had written the application. He said only that the application was for a pardon for an individual, as opposed to being part of a number of royal pardons and sentence reductions normally granted to mark certain spacial days.
Under the law, prisoners can submit a pardon application that is passed from the justice minister through the prime minister to the Privy Council before going to His Majesty the King.
Officials have said the process takes one to two months, if all the paperwork is in order.
The current caretaker government has only a few days left…. But it would not take long to process the application, said Mr Wissanu.
Asked to elaborate, he said: “It is purely based on royal grace. The procedure from the government is not long, but it depends on the length of (the king’s) consideration.”
King Vajiralongkorn has granted a royal pardon to the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, resulting in a reduction of his prison sentence to one year.
The announcement … states that King Vajiralongkorn granted the pardon to enable Thaksin to “contribute his knowledge, expertise, and experience for the benefit of the nation, society, and the people.”
According to the announcement, the King made his decision based upon the pardon request submitted by Thaksin, which cited advanced age and health issues that require medical treatment from specialist doctors.
The request also stressed that during Thaksin’s tenure as a Prime Minister, he governed the country for the benefit of the nation and its citizens.It notes as well that Thaksin is loyal to the monarchy and that when legal proceedings were initiated, and the court issued the prison sentence, Thaksin respectfully accepted the sentence and expressed remorse.
The royal pardon was granted for sentences, cumulatively set at eight years in prison, from three cases that were handed down by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions….
With credit for 10 days already served, Thaksin was facing a sentence of 7 years, 11 months, and 20 days in the special Bangkok Remand Prison before the pardon was granted.
If there was ever any doubt about a deal being done between palace officials, the old regime, and Thaksin, that doubt is swept aside by this swift and special treatment for Thaksin. This is the deal that effectively smashed the election and tells voters they do not matter. Thaksin returns to the ruling class to defeat the people.
Of course, Thaksin and Vajiralongkorn have had a long and sometimes troubled relationship. A quick tour of Wikileaks reveals some of this and much of the rumor and gossip about it, as does a scan of The King Never Smiles by Paul Handley.
Here’s some of what Handley had to say back in 2006:
Few Thais, most of whom had never lived under any king but Bhumibol, could imagine the next reign, whoever the monarch. But at least one person was planning for it, and he showed just how ready some people were to abuse the royal image, and at the same time how risk-laden the prince’s elevation might be. That was telecommunications tycoon and politician Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin had parlayed his multibillion-dollar fortune into building a large political party and capturing the premiership in January 2001. He also insinuated himself into military and palace politics, getting dangerously close to Prince Vajiralongkorn….
… Thaksin used his money to buy off the palace. Early in the 1990s, his generous donations reaped him entry into Queen Sirikit’s circle and closeness to Ubolrat, reportedly funding some of her daughter Ploypailin’s piano recitals. Rumors spread that he and Ubolrat were lovers. More calculatingly, Thaksin used his wealth to get close to the crown prince. At the end of the 1990s many well-informed Bangkokians talked of Thaksin having taken on many of the prince’s larger expenditures, including the refurbishment of the old palace of Rama VII, which the prince wanted to move into. Until then it had been entrusted to Princess Sirindhorn, but in giving it up to her brother she received instead the Srapathum Palace of Queen Sawang. That too was refurbished with Thaksin’s money, it was said.
Thaksin also bailed out the CPB while buying himself media control. The only independent television station was the all-news cable channel ITV. ITV’s biggest financier and a key shareholder was Siam Commercial Bank, and palace public relations adviser Piya Malakul’s Pacific Communications also had a significant shareholding. The other major shareholder was the decidedly non-royalist Nation media group. After the devaluation and economic crash, ITV became insolvent. The Nation group offered to take it over completely, assuming the debts. Instead, in 2000, Siam Commercial Bank insisted on selling to Thaksin…. With little likelihood of ever recovering the investment, Thaksin was effectively bailing out the bank and the palace.
Update 1: We should have pointed out that the the royal pardon was published on Friday but signed on Thursday, adding more to the conviction that this deal really had been in the works for a long time. PPT’s suspicion is that ISOC and other regime intelligence determined that Move Forward was more of an electoral threat than Thaksin’s party and that the long-awaited, much negotiated deal was concluded to “save” the ruling class from progressive politics.
Update 2: A reader asks about how the Thaksin deal will sit with ultra-royalists. We guess there will be some who will never much have liked the incumbent king and have always worried about his links to Thaksin. We suppose their negative perspective will be reinforced. However, royalists are now somewhat hamstrung about negative responses as it is crystal clear that the deal had the king’s approval. Opposing a royal pardon, once given, is difficult political and ideological terrain.
Back in May, royalists went berserk over a TikTok advertisement produced for the Chinese firm Lazada, screaming lese majeste.
On 16 June 2022, the police arrested Aniwat Prathumthin, aka “Nara Crepe Katoey”, Thidaporn Chaokuwiang, aka “Nurat”, and Kittikhun Thamkittirath, aka “Mom Dew,” and charged all three with Article 112 offenses. Aniwat has also been charged under the computer crimes law.
The three were arrested by Technology Crime Suppression Division police, Thidaporn in Ayutthaya, Aniwat at Don Muang airport, and Kittikhun in Bangkok’s Wang Thong Lang district. Each was released on bail of 90,000 baht.
The charges stemmed from a “Lazada clothes shopping clip features Thidaporn in traditional Thai costume and sitting in a wheelchair, while Aniwat was seen accusing Thidaporn, who plays her aristocratic mother, of stealing her clothes.”
The video immediately drew criticism from ultra-royalists who claimed the video mimicked royals, including Princess Chulabhorn who is sometimes seen in a wheelchair. The royalists also reckoned the advertisement mocked the disabled, but that was a smokescreen for their real complaint based on their own hypersensitivity on things royal. Their immediate reaction led to a hashtag campaign on Twitter to boycott Lazada, a call taken up by the Royal Thai Army, Royal projects and foundations, among others.
Clipped from Thai PBS
Lazada issued an apology, as did “Intersect Design Factory, the company which hired the influencers to promote the Lazada sales campaign…”. It was serial campaigner and royalist activist Srisuwan Janya who lodged a complaint with the Technology Crime Suppression Division police, “accusing Aniwat of offending a member of the royal family.”
Aniwat refused to “issue a public apology or show regret has only added fuel to fire.” Quite correctly, but further angering ultra-royalists, in a television interview, Aniwat said that “anyone has the right to wear a traditional costume,” and that “the so-called reference to a Royal was imagined by the netizens.”
Army chief Gen Narongpan Jitkaewtha quickly announced “that he has banned members of all military units to stop buying goods from Lazada. He also banned all Lazada delivery trucks and motorbikes from entering Army compounds.”
Joining the royalist pile-on, Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed his “concern about the clip on May 7 and noting that Thais love and respect the monarchy.” Meanwhile, the “Digital Economy and the Society Ministry also instructed the Police Technology Crime Suppression Division to check if the TikTok clip violated any laws.”
Aniwat had earlier gained online followers “among youngsters fed up with General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s style of governance. She has openly pushed for the PM’s resignation and often criticized his supporters.”
Of course, Princess Chulabhorn is not covered by Article 112 but that has never stopped bizarre lese majeste cases in the past.
Update: Coconuts Bangkok reports on the arrest of Kittikhun “a transgender blogger and model known as Mom Dew, [who] was being held Thursday afternoon at the Technology Crime Supression Division in Bangkok’s Lak Si over a complaint that she impersonated the Queen Mother Sirikit in an ad campaign that was quickly pulled after it aired last month.”
Like Chulabhorn, Sirikit is not covered in Article 112. To refresh memories, Article112 of the Criminal Code states, “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”
Following up on our last post, the media has been reporting that the state has been especially energetic in promoting silk royalist ideology.
Thailand is not at all short of royalist celebration days, but yet another has been added. According to The Nation, August 12 has been declared “Thai Fabric Day,” in another posterior polish for the Queen Mother, Sirikit.
On Tuesday, a Cabinet meeting was brought forward to approve Culture Minister Itthiphol Kunplome’s proposal “to declare the birthday of … Queen Sirikit as ‘Thai National Fabric Day’ to mark the 90th of birthday of the Queen Mother…”.
Clipped from The Nation
Itthiphol also revealed that “the Cabinet also instructed government agencies to carry out PR campaigns on the royal activities of the Queen Mother so that Thai children and people would learn from various royal projects.” In another report, he claimed the old queen played a “role in boosting the country’s prosperity and raising people’s standard of living.”
Prime Minister and one of the old queen’s acolytes, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha chimed in, blathering about “her tireless promotion of Thai textiles [and]… the revival of the domestic industry.” He claimed that Sirikit had “advised local weavers on ways to improve their skills as well as the quality of their fabrics…”. In essence, it is the great, the good, and the all-knowing who tell the lower classes how to do the things they’ve done for centuries.
All of the time, effort, and taxpayer funds expended on this event was “rewarded” with an appearance by the king and queen, suggesting that the palace has been heavily involved in yet another propaganda event.
There were some seriously weird “fashions” on show. None more weird than the king’s suit. While the king has repeatedly demonstrated a strange fashion sense, this fashion travesty resulted from his daughter’s design “skills.” Sadly, as bad as the suit is, we can only assume that it will now be taken up by the sycophants in government and in the higher reaches of the business community.
Readers may have noticed a recent article in the Bangkok Post regarding the regime “promoting Thai silk as part of its efforts to make Thailand’s soft power conquer the world…”. That’s according to the execrable Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam who for some unexplained reason is “chair of the committee organising the 11th Celebration of Silk, Thai Silk Road to the World…”, which seems to plagiarize Chinese jargon.
Interestingly, the effort is a state-royalist effort, with a “Thai silk fair” held at the Royal Thai Navy Convention Hall in Bangkok, and meant to “honour … Queen Sirikit the Queen Mother for her dedication to the development of Thai silk and the promotion of silk products at an international level.”
Part of the “fair” is a “Big Silk Designer Contest” which “showcases Thai culture and heritage attached to Thai silk” and is meant to “attract … young Thais interested in traditional fabrics and encourages them to incorporate Thai silk into modern fashion design.” Culture Minister Itthiphol Kunplome described this as “a new area of Thailand soft power…”.
From Wikipedia
So important is this state-royalist effort that “the permanent secretaries of all 10 ministries displayed on the catwalk Thai silk collections designed and produced in recent months.” Presumably permanent secretaries don’t allocate time from presumably busy schedules unless there is some kind of incentive or directive. In this case, we presume it is the royal dimension.
In reading this “report,” we were reminded of a recent post at Fulcrum by Alexandra Dalferro: “Princess Sirivannavari’s Textile Initiative and Royal Power: Will Thai People Take the Hook?” (we suggest ignoring the sub-heading which does not appear to reflect the article). This article explains yet another state-royalist effort to promote the princess (previously promoted as a talented scholar, talented national badminton player, talented equestrian, talented entrepreneur, talented, designer, etc.). It also recounts the opposition to the “use of taxpayer money (to the tune of 13 million baht) to market her brand abroad.”
As it was under the Sirikit “brand,” the Sirivannavari “brand” is not so much about Thai “soft power,” but royal “soft power,” using buckets of taxpayer funds to promote the monarchy. For Sirivannavari, it is also an effort to make the often ridiculed princess appear more “likeable” and more popular.
The article at Fulcrum concludes:
Many producers relate that they are willing to make the pattern to earn money, but they are unwilling to wear it, explaining that it has no source. To them, the pattern has not been shared across generations and is not related to locally meaningful motifs; it exists only for civil servants to wear to fulfil their mandates. ‘They are forced to wear it because they have no freedom,’ one weaver from Northeast Thailand emphasised in a recent conversation with the author. Many Thai people are refusing the lure of the S hook by keeping it away from their bodies, a decision that is also a challenge to entrenched but now shaky royal power.
In the recent case, police detained “Lt Col Dr Amraporn Visetsuk, chairwoman of the Tiao Puea Chart (Travel for the Country) project, and three others, on charges of public fraud and collaborating in fraudulent public borrowing. All of them denied the charges.” The one who got away was “suspected ringleader Prasit Jeawkok, chairman of the Kuen Khun Pandin (Paying Back the Land) project…”.
The story gets more interesting:
Last year, Pannika Wanich, spokeswoman for the Progressive Movement, accused Mr Prasit of being behind the army’s now-discredited “information operation” (IO) and allowing the army to use the servers under his control for free.
Prasit himself has “boasted of his royalist credentials and unbuttoned his shirt to show a ‘Long Live the King’ tattoo on his chest. Even if he supported IO, he declared, it was a ‘good IO’.”
Prasit has been praised by the wealthy Yuenyong Opakul or Add Carabao who is also a mad monarchist, writing “the song ‘Prasit the Giver,’ praising his good deeds under the Kuen Khun Pandin project in July 2019.”
All of this is vaguely familiar to anyone old enough to remember the fantastic Mae Chamoy fraud case in the mid-1980s that saw Chamoy Thipyaso and seven others found guilty of corporate fraud and on 27 July 1989, sentenced her to 141,078 years in prison. She only served 8 years.
It was her connections with the military, and especially the Royal Thai Air Force and also with the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, saw her chit fund scheme go on for almost 20 years, providing huge returns to some at the top of the pyramid scheme.
As the linked report states:
Among her clients there were prominent members from the military and the Royal Household, which prompted calls for the Thai government to bail out the banks and chit funds. Discussions of an unknown nature were made with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, following which the chit fund was wound up and Thipyaso arrested. She was [d]etained secretly by the Air Force for a few days.
Thipyaso’s trial only commenced after the losses of the victims from the military and royal staff were recovered….
Paul Handley’s The King Never Smiles (pp. 308-9) has more on the scheme:
Chit funds were pyramid schemes that had blossomed over several years without intervention from the government, in part because many had strong government connections. One especially, the Mae (Mother) Chamoy Fund, was estimated at $300 million and involved large numbers of investors from the military and, it soon became apparent, the royal household, including probably Sirikit, Vajiralongkorn, Ubolrat, and Chulabhorn. With such prominent and politically significant people likely to lose massively in the Mae Chamoy collapse, [Gen] Arthit [Kamlang-ek] stepped in again. He threatened a coup if the government did not rescind the [recent baht] devaluation and bail out the banks and chit funds.
This time, King Bhumibol himself rescued [Gen] Prem [Tinsulanonda], without saying anything. Prem went to stay at the Phuphan Palace for nine days, and each day the media ran pictures of Prem with the king, queen, and crown prince. Making the message clear, when Prem returned to Bangkok he was escorted by Prince Vajiralongkorn and Chulabhorn’s consort Captain Virayuth. When Arthit then flew to the Phuphan Palace, Prem turned around and went back. What was said in their discussions with the king was not made public, but the episode ended with Prem still in power and Arthit unpunished for his series of mutinous acts. The devaluation stood and the Mae Chamoy Fund was shut down, but only after more backhall dealings managed by Prem. Fund manager Chamoy was arrested and held in secret by the air force until, it is believed, the losses of palace and military personnel and other high officials were recovered. Only afterward was she tried and sent to prison. Her hearing was held in camera and the records were sealed, presumably to protect the palace. Meanwhile thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people who didn’t have special protectors lost their savings.
Are we completely mad to wonder if there aren’t some coincidences of news now and news then?
Update 1: Adding to the mystery and protection of fraudsters, it is reported that Prasit Jeawkok has done a deal with police to surrender to them on 17 May. It is common for influential people to arrange this kind of deal and arrive to meet police with influential figures and lawyers. At the same time, we are told that “the Second Army pledged the suspect, Lt Col Amaraphon, who is attached with the Second Army’s Support Command, will face punishment if she is found guilty.” That’s a familiar refrain, seldom ever carried out.
Update 2: Thai Enquirer has two op-eds on this case, here and here. Is anyone surprised that Lt Col Amaraphon already has bail? Scams like this produce huge cash flows for big shots.
The crown and the crop top: the king of Thailand in six objects
Decoding the mysterious monarchy that has provoked massive protests
by Michael Peel
The monarchy has long been treated with deference in Thailand. Until recently, people rarely mentioned the royal family in public except to proclaim their loyalty to it. Thailand is unusual among constitutional monarchies in having a potent lèse majesté law – a prohibition on insulting the royal family. Taking the king’s name in vain can lead to a prison sentence of 15 years.
Bhumibol Adulyadej, the current king’s father, commanded genuine respect, though it wasn’t always clear where devotion ended and fear of transgressing the law began. When Bhumibol (pronounced Poom-ee-pon) died in 2016, he was succeeded by his son and heir – a very different public figure.
To many Thais the new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn (pronounced Wa-cheera-long-kon) is less worthy of veneration: he is on his fourth marriage, spends most of his time in Germany and has sought to accumulate personal wealth and power, most recently by taking direct command of two army units in Bangkok. Even his mother once described Vajiralongkorn as a “bit of a Don Juan” and suggested he might have to change his ways or quit the royal family.
Over the past few months thousands of young Thais have been staging demonstrations in the streets. In an unprecedented show of defiance, they are not only talking about the monarchy but openly criticising the way it operates. Protesters have many reasons to be frustrated – the army’s influence in politics, choking restrictions on freedom of speech and a wider sense that the gerontocratic Thai elite is closed to new ideas amid a lingering economic malaise. One personality looms over these diffuse grievances: the king.
In theory the Thai monarchy acts as a unifying force and, like its British counterpart, stays out of politics. But a long history of coups by the palace’s allies in the army (most recently in 2014) suggests otherwise. The aura of a quaint, benignly ruled country that Thailand used to project to outsiders is fading. The deliberate opacity of the monarchy doesn’t help. The king rarely gives interviews and the mainstream press is not allowed to probe his role (in a rare interview Vajiralongkorn gave as crown prince in the 1980s, he complained at being the subject of false rumours). When scraps of information about the royal family or images of the king do make it into the public domain, people pore over them, parsing the regal stage props: old fashioned Kremlinology for the media age.
Gold comfort The Great Crown of Victory was used at the coronation in 2019
King Vajiralongkorn was formally crowned in 2019 with a two-foot cone of diamond-encrusted gold enamel dating back to the start of the Chakri dynasty in 1782. The Great Crown of Victory is an expression of the mystique with which the Thai royal family has surrounded itself.
For most of history, the Chakris were just another absolutist dynasty. Then, in 1932, an uprising by military officers and bureaucrats forced the monarchy to accept some democratic changes, like a parliament. When Bhumibol ascended the throne in 1946 he was only 18, and at first depended heavily on generals, business and bureaucratic elites and foreign diplomats. Within this informal alliance everyone worked to promote their mutual interests, a form of monarchical governance so unusual that a new term was coined to describe it: the “network monarchy”.
Over time Bhumibol added to his personal power with ritual and prestige. He pursued archaic practices such as an annual ploughing ceremony, held to mark the start of the rice-growing season, and reinstated a custom that individuals prostrate themselves before the monarch (a predecessor had stopped this in the 19th century, regarding it as demeaning).
The economy boomed under Bhumibol, thanks more to foreign investment and tourism than the agricultural initiatives he championed, like cloud-seeding. One of Bhumibol’s lasting agrarian interventions was to set up a department of royal rainmaking.
The coronation jewels are a potent emblem of a powerful monarchy to which some older Thais feel an almost religious devotion. The crown’s height is supposed to evoke the summit of Mount Meru, the heart of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies. Yet the crown also acts as a real-world symbol of an institution reliant on spectacle: at 7kg, it is one of the heaviest coronation crowns still in use today (the St Edward Crown, placed on the head of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, came in at a paltry 2kg). That’s a weighty legacy to bear.
Friends with benefits Beware expensive gifts
Western powers have long played a role in boosting the status of the Thai monarchy. The 1960s and 1970s were not an easy time to be a king in South-East Asia and Bhumibol’s position was greatly strengthened by his close relationship with America. But it’s a friendship with strings attached: there’s a murkier side to the bountiful displays of support and affection.
In 2018 the American embassy in Bangkok held an eye-opening exhibition to celebrate the relationship, entitled “Great and Good Friends”, a reference to a salutation American presidents used in addressing the “kings of Siam”. On display were the extravagant gifts Thai monarchs have bestowed on occupants of the White House.
Come for the gold niello turtle presented to Lyndon Johnson’s baby grandson, and stay for the diamond-embellished vine-woven bags given to Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush when each was First Lady. King Bhumibol and his wife Queen Sirikit toured America twice in the 1960s, appearing on a TV chat show and hanging out with Elvis Presley. The young Thai monarch also met the then-president, Dwight Eisenhower, and gave him a recipe for Thai noodles.
The bonhomie masked a grittier relationship. Thailand agreed to host the American B-52 bombers that pummelled Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam war. The king also proved to be a valuable propaganda asset: as a Western-friendly monarch, he stood in contrast to the communists who were sweeping to power in other parts of the region. As Time magazine wrote in 1966, “(The) men who run Thailand are well aware that their youthful king is their – and the nation’s – greatest living asset.” The long line of the Chakri dynasty belies a frailty at its heart: the friends, and compromises, it has been forced to make to survive.
In dogs we trust A fuss over Foo Foo, the prince’s poodle
Dogs have featured heavily in the life of Thai monarchs. King Bhumibol, a man who projected seriousness and dignity, even wrote a book about his pet mongrel Tondaeng, extolling the virtues of canine obedience. It was widely seen as a prescription for the Thai people. Tondaeng had been a street dog and the message was clear for all: loyalty is not about pedigree, and everyone should know their place.
King Vajiralongkorn’s relationship with his pet poodle Foo Foo was quite different. When he was crown prince he reportedly appointed Foo Foo as an air chief marshal. At a gala dinner for a jazz band from New Orleans, the dog attended wearing “formal evening attire complete with paw mitts”, according to an account relayed in a diplomatic cable later published by WikiLeaks. “At one point during the band’s second number, he jumped up onto the head table and began lapping from the guests’ water glasses.” When Foo Foo died in 2015, four days of mourning were held for him, complete with Buddhist prayers, before he was cremated.
Foo Foo also became a symbol for the playboy prince’s lifestyle. His fame began with a bizarre video which began circulating on the internet in 2009 showing Vajiralongkorn sat at a table with his third wife, Princess Srirasmi, who was wearing only a G-string. The prince clutched Foo Foo as the couple sang “Happy Birthday” (it’s not clear to whom), and then the princess crouched before the prince and his dog, offering up birthday cake from a silver dish. It’s the kind of surreal behaviour that has only added to the air of menace and unpredictability surrounding Vajiralongkorn.
His Sunday best Demonstrators mock the king’s crop tops
In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. Unusually for a Thai king, however, Vajiralongkorn spends most of his time in Bavaria, where he has been snapped wearing skimpy crop tops, sometimes with elaborate temporary tattoos splayed across his back and arms.
Despite attempts by the generals in Bangkok to scrub these images from Facebook, it’s a look that has been noticed back home. Protesters have started turning up to demonstrations in similar attire, a satirical comment not just on the king’s surprising sartorial choice but what they see as his wider rejection of Thailand and the standards of propriety demanded by his office.
The king’s unorthodox lifestyle is a growing headache for the government in Germany, too. He apparently holed up in a hotel in Bavaria at the start of the coronavirus pandemic (at a time when all such establishments were ordered to close). Members of Bavaria’s state parliament have asked whether the king is liable to pay tax locally. The foreign ministry recently warned Vajiralongkorn not to conduct affairs of state from German soil.
Cementing his power The list of royal assets is long and growing
Protesters often focus their anger on the vast fortune of the royal family. With a total estimated wealth of more than $40bn, Vajiralongkorn is among the richest monarchs in the world. His many assets include a large shareholding in the Siam Cement Group: the lorries and mixers of this industrial giant are ubiquitous, a daily reminder of the king’s economic clout.
The wealth of the Thai monarchy has grown under Vajiralongkorn. Previously, royal investments had been held by the secretive Crown Property Bureau. Information about the bureau’s activities is limited, but it is known to control large amounts of property in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand, some of it highly prized (the bureau was reported to have demanded only peppercorn rent for a sprawling plot it leased to the American government for the ambassador’s residence).
Some people already suspected that the bureau was effectively the monarch’s personal piggy bank, but officially at least, it was holding the wealth “in trust for the nation”. In July 2017 Vajiralongkorn personally took over managing the bureau. The following year the bureau announced it had transferred all its holdings to Vajiralongkorn himself, removing the last element of ambiguity about whose money it was.
What a handful “The Hunger Games” defiant salute finds new followers
For years demonstrators in Thailand have staged intermittent protests against the coup-happy army (which is allied to the royal family) and its hold over the political realm. The dynamics of these demonstrations often reflected struggles among the political and business elite, as different sides mobilised their supporters.
Things are different this time. Those who started the current protests in Bangkok are remarkable for their youth – some are still at school. They don’t have an official leader. And they have a radical new agenda: wide-ranging reform of the monarchy itself. Their demands include the right to criticise the royal family, a reduction in its spending and removal from the school curriculum of material glorifying the monarchy.
This new cohort of protesters identifies with the group of rebels fighting despotic oppression in “The Hunger Games”, a series of books and films for young adults. The three-fingered salute of Katniss Everdeen and her fellow freedom-fighters had been used by protesters before in Thailand, but it has become the iconic image of the current demonstrations.
The potential dangers of opposing the Thai royal family are real. In 2018 the bodies of two Thai campaigners against the monarchy were found in the Mekong river in Laos, close to the border with Thailand. The murderers have never been identified. In Bangkok the authorities have arrested many protesters and charged some with sedition. So far the royal response to recent demonstrations has been merely to ask the younger generation to “love the country and love the monarchy”. King Vajiralongkorn has said that Thailand is a ”land of compromise”, but many reckon the biggest scenes in this drama are still to come. The house of Chakri – and those who benefit from it – do not take challenges lightly. ■
ILLUSTRATIONS: JAKE READ
Additional images: Getty, Backgrid, John Burwell, Splash News, AP, Alamy
The state’s propaganda outlet, the National News Bureau of Thailand is doing its best to boost the absent monarch’s profile. In a recent story the royal response to the virus outbreak sound as though it is the former king at work. Back in the days of the 1997 economic crisis, King Bhumibol asked poor Thais to tighten their belts and save the rich though notions of “sufficiency.” It was mostly the middle class who latched onto his notion of “walking backwards into the klong,” developed romantic notions of rural life and then supported yellow-shirted causes into the 2000s and beyond.
This crisis seems to have the royal household struggling for new ideological hooks, so they are falling back on 1950s and 1960s ideas of developing a “model farm project under a Royal Initiative” that is said to provide “agricultural knowledge for local residents” impacted by the virus crisis. Quasi-military “Royal Thai Volunteers” are mobilized to tell the “local residents” what is best for them.
Locals pushed back(wards) Clipped from National News Bureau
Several big shots “presided over the development of the model farm project under the Royal Initiative of … Queen Sirikit … in Angthong province.” First time we’ve heard anything about the Dowager for a while. In the few times she’s been seen in recent years, she seems to be in a semi-vegetative state. Later on in the report King Vajiralongkorn’s name is added to his mum’s, saying they have “provided a model farm project to aid the citizens of the area.”
Trainees made to feel grateful. Clipped from National News Bureau
The virus, it is reported, “has had a wide impact on citizens.” And, as the report rightly says, this is because “[m]any have become unemployed and face a financial crisis.”
The project is said to “provide careers and alleviate the burdens of daily life, by having these citizens learn specialized agricultural methods and be able to adapt them for use in their households, becoming better able to support their families.” Maybe if the king and his military didn’t such the country dry, along with their tycoon buddies, the “trainees” might have had a better life.
The big shots get the glory. Clipped from National News Bureau
In this project, though, it appears the sucking out of the surplus continues as the “villagers become agricultural attendants, the project is able to produce and develop new products for further study and for sale.” Who gets the proceeds is not clear. Who actually pays for the project is equally opaque. We guess it is the taxpayer.
There’s a bunch of similar stories around that we are too bored with to bother commenting further apart from mentioning the Pid Thong Lang Phra Foundation, which is a royal-sponsored initiative that also promotes the sufficiency philosophy and which also tells us that there are now PhD programs in sufficiency economy. That must be one of the least serious PhDs around and would certainly not encourage critical thinking. We had never heard of it but it gives out 300 fellowships a year! Its training a cadre of royalists! We guess soldiers and bureaucrats like it.
All of this activity is meant to make the absent Vajiralongkorn appear less remote, vacant and self-indulgent.
The royal family seems a bit short on posteriors to be buffed. Hence, Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse’s manic efforts at what looks like self promotion, but with the palace – presumably the king – backing him him in.
According to the “report,” the Puea Thai-led coalition government is throwing more taxpayer money into “promoting royal fabric patterns designed by … Sirivannavari … under a project aimed at preserving traditional handicrafts, improving local people’s living conditions and boosting sustainability in villages.” Yes, seriously.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 