More on the Nose news

Prachatai, which has been somewhat politically limp for a month or so, has reported on the lese majeste case of Udom “Nose” Taepanich. For more background, see PPT’s earlier post.

Prachatai explains:

Clipped from Thaiger

In his Netflix special, Solo Special: Super Soft Power, Udom talked about self-sufficient farming, stating that after spending time with nature, he found it difficult to lead a sufficient life and earn a living solely from farming. He revealed that he did not aspire to live a sufficient life, but rather wanted to be perceived as doing so.

He also told his audience that they do not have to emulate influencers who seemed to engage in farming because what they actually did was just take photos. In the end, it is actual farmers who do these kinds of agricultural activities. “When I was a child, I was poor enough, no need to pretend to be poor. I just want to have cool air conditioning and a strong internet connection to watch movies all day, and no flies swarming round my eyes. I am a consumer,” he remarked.

The Bangkok Post also has a story on this case. It adds a little more:

During Udom’s stand-up show, the comedian recalled living in a rural setting, saying, “What I experienced so I could get a feeling of self-sufficiency told me that [such a way of life] didn’t suit me. It was just a hypocritical act to show people I had a self-sufficient lifestyle and grew vegetables.

“People see social media influencers harvesting rice and are inspired. They don’t realise that these Instagram personalities, wearing thick layers of sunscreen, pose at the plantation for a moment, upload their pictures on Instagram and then rush back to their air-conditioned homes,” he said.

What is worth noting is the response of establishment barkers:

Pol Maj Gen Wichai Sangprapai, former deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, also warned Udom about his remark.

“The fact that you [Mr Udom], a famous person with many followers, touched on the subject of ‘adult figures’, and made fun of different genders, careers, and most importantly the self-sufficiency principle — this could have caused misunderstanding in society,” Pol Maj Gen Wichai said.

Pol Lt Gen Rewat Klinkesorn, former chief of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, called for the show to be banned.

Police and former cops commenting on such matters is to be expected, but there is always the feeling that these guys wear the moniker of Thailand’s what is arguably most thoroughly corrupt organization.

More troubling is the response from the Puea Thai Party-led government:

The comedian’s show also alarmed Karom Phonphonklang, the deputy government spokesman, who thought it could possibly cause social disunity.

Puea Thai seems to believe that posterior polishing royalists will allow the Thaksin government to continue in power.

Sufficiency 112

Clipped from Thaiger

It seems that the dead king’s pedestrian thoughts about sufficiency economy is now elevated to something called “Thai philosophy” and is likely also protected by the draconian lese majeste law.

Thaiger had a story a couple of days ago headlined “Netflix comedian slammed for misrepresenting Thai philosophy.” It went on to explain that Sonthiya Sawasdee, listed as “a former advisor to the Parliamentary Commission on Law, Justice, and Human Rights,” but actually a serial ultra-royalist and self-appointed “protector” of all things monarchy, has lodged a complaint “against Udom Taepanich, also known as Nose [or Big Nose], for potentially misleading content in his Netflix stand-up comedy special.” That special “which reaches an audience of 91 million subscribers, is under scrutiny for possibly distorting the principles of Thailand’s Sufficiency Economy philosophy.”

For more on the barking mad ultra-royalist snitch, see our post here.

The report goes on to explain that on 6 May 2024, Sonthiya:

… presented his grievance to the Metropolitan Police Bureau Commander, Police Lieutenant General Thiti Saengsawang, demanding a thorough investigation into Udom’s performance. The key issues at stake involve the accuracy of the information presented by Udom, the alignment of his content with the Sufficiency Economy philosophy, and the impact of potential misinformation on the public’s understanding of this significant economic approach.

In a ridiculous, nonsensical, paragraph, Thaiger makes an extraordinary claim, worthy of the barking mad royalists:

The Sufficiency Economy philosophy, deeply rooted in Thai culture, promotes moderate living, prudence, and self-immunity for sustainable development. It is a subject of national pride and is widely respected across the country.

We’d hope that the news site is unthinkingly plagiarizing Sonthiya, but more is expected of the outlet, even if it does mostly recycle news from other sites.

In another Thaiger report it is stated that Sonthiya’s complaint an investigation of whether Udom’s show may have been comedy but “twisted” the “philosophy’s objectives for entertainment purposes.” The mad monarchist asked:

whether Udom discussed the Sufficiency Economy philosophy, whether the data he presented corresponded with the philosophy’s objectives or was manipulated for humour, and whether the dissemination of false or partially distorted information could lead to public misunderstanding of the philosophy.

Soon after, the corrupt and disgraced former politician Pareena Kraikupt has followed up with an Article 112 complaint against Udom. She lodged her complaint against Udom at the Po Tharam Police Station.

Parina posted a message following the royalist uproar surrounding Udom, saying:

Really can’t sleep, really want to rest, but can’t bear it. Admitting to once admiring him but exploiting the monarchy for personal gain is vile. #HopingForAHarshSentence #LetTheCourtPunishHim

Apparently, she also called for sort “public punishment” for Udom. Perhaps she should seek medical and psychiatric help rather than running to the police over trivial matters and comedy.

The report goes on to say, correctly, that this royalist rage displays has “the ongoing tension between freedom of expression and the [establishment’s] protection of Thailand’s monarchy.” It then comes up with some further royalist conjecture, claiming without evidence that “the defence of the monarchy …[is] a fundamental element of Thai identity for many citizens.” Such claims are part of palace propaganda and the ideology of ultra-royalism.

Thaiger argued that the Pareena’s “reference to public punishment” is “a concept rooted in historical practices of maintaining social order, adds a layer of cultural significance to the unfolding legal drama.” This, too, is nonsensical.

We do know the king punishes people he hates by shaving their heads, which he draws from feudal Thailand, but perhaps Pareena is even more feudal than him, wishing for a return to public beheading or boiling people alive.

Redux: Why the lese majeste law is an abomination

We want to re-publish a post from 2011 that, despite a changing cast, seems entirely relevant today. It is by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, now long in lese majeste exile, and published at Red Thai Socialist. It called for the abolition of the lese majeste law:

The lese majeste law in Thailand represents a gross attack on the freedom of speech, freedom of expression and academic freedom. It is a fundamental attack on Democracy carried out by the Military, the Palace and the elites. The practical impact is that Thailand has struggled for years to achieve a fully developed democracy, a free press and internationally accepted academic standards in our universities.

Today, Da Torpedo, Red Eagle, Surachai Darnwattanan-nusorn (Sa-Darn) and many others are in prison in Thailand for merely expressing their beliefs in a peaceful way. In recent days arrest warrants have been issued for 5 more people and the police have a list of 30 more people who face arrest. Lese majeste prisoners are denied bail. The royalist judges claim that the offense is “too serious” and “a threat to national security”. Thai dictatorships have used the excuse that their opponents were seeking to “overthrow the Monarchy” in order to kill unarmed demonstrators in 1976 and 2010. Jail terms for lese majeste are draconian. Da is in prison for 18 years and prison conditions are appalling. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the web manager of the independent Prachatai newspaper faces 50 years in prison for not removing other peoples’ web-posts. A student faces lese majeste charges for not standing up for the King’s anthem in the cinema and the Military-backed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva tells lies about how he is committed to reforming the law. Abhisit and the army generals also tell lies about the deliberate state-ordered killings of unarmed protesters in May 2010.

In my particular case, my own university gave my anti-coup book to the police special branch, which resulted in a lese majeste prosecution against me. Imagine the impact on my fellow academics. This climate of fear creates poor quality academic work which avoids all important controversial issues and debates. This appalling tradition of educational mediocrity starts at primary school and works its way right to the top of the educational system. Students are encouraged to learn subjects parrot-fashion and write descriptive, one-sided essays. Academics refuse to engage in any debate, do not read work by those who do not agree with them and regard any academic arguments as personal attacks.

Professor Amara Ponsapich and the Thai National Human Rights Commission have disgraced themselves by remaining silent on lese majeste. At the same time they have defended the “right” of fascist PAD members to cause a war with Cambodia. Recently Amara warned the pro-democracy Red Shirts not to cause “trouble” with their protests. No such warning was ever given to the royalist mobs. NGO senator Rosana Tositakul told Red Shirt MPs to stop whining about the 90 deaths last year and to concentrate on the problems of inflation. Amnesty International has followed in the same path by defending the use of lese majeste. Academic hold seminars about why the lese majeste law “needs to be reformed”. But it cannot be reformed. It has to be abolished.

The Thai Monarchy is said to be “universally loved by all Thais”. This may have been the case in some periods of history, but it is no longer true. Many millions have turned against the Monarchy for appearing to condone the 2006 military coup and for saying nothing about the 90 deaths last year. This openly expressed hatred of the Monarchy is despite the climate of fear created by the lese majeste law, along side a manic promotion of the Monarchy. The King is said to be a genius in all fields. All statements by the Monarch are repeated as though they are the ultimate wisdom and he is referred to as “our father”. Photographs are circulated to “prove” that the King actually tied his own shoe-laces!! Many have made comparisons with North Korea. Now they are comparing Thailand to the Middle-Eastern dictatorships. Recently the head of the army claimed that Thailand was “nothing like Egypt”. If he really believed that, then why did he bother to make the public statement in the first place?

Another example of “Monarchy Mania” is the idea of “Sufficiency Economics”. Once the Monarch gave his blessing to the “Sufficiency Economy”, we were all supposed to accept it and praise it without question. The Sufficiency Economy is really a reactionary political ideology that teaches people to be happy with their present circumstances and to ignore the need for income redistribution. Luckily, this aspect of brain-washing has not worked very well in Thai society, for a society which cannot openly discuss economic and political policies will remain backward and under-developed. But the mere criticism of the Sufficiency Economy is enough to attract charges of lese majeste.

What is the aim of all this attempt at enforced idiocy among the population? It is a continuous attempt to keep the vast majority of Thai people in their place. We are encouraged to believe that the King is all powerful, when in fact he is a spineless willing tool of the Military. The Thai population are encouraged to believe that we live under an “ancient system of Monarchy”, a cross between a Sakdina, Absolute and Constitutional Monarchy system. People have to crawl on the ground in front of the King. But the true beneficiaries of this are the Military, the civilian conservative bureaucrats and the Democrat Party who are now in government.

The Military often claim that they are the “defenders of the Constitutional Monarchy”, yet the Thai Military has a long history of making un-constitutional coups. These are often “legitimised” by claiming to protect the Monarchy. The 19^th September 2006 coup is a good example. The Military sought to legitimise themselves by referring to the Monarch. The lese majeste Law is thus used as a tool by the military to defend coups. The promotion of an image that the Monarchy is all powerful (an un-constitutional image), is part of this self-legitimisation by the military and other forces who are now in government. Lese majeste cases have multiplied since the Democrats were manoeuvred into government by the army in December 2008. It is now a central weapon to be used against all those who criticised the 2006 coup or those who oppose this military-installed government.

It is now an undeniable fact that this brain-washing campaign is falling apart. And it is falling apart at the very moment when the King is getting old and may soon die because he is so frail. If the King were ever loved and respected, the same cannot be said about his son. We know from Wikileaks that even the elites think the prince is a liability. The Military, the right-wing PAD protestors who closed the airports and the Democrat Party, have dragged the Monarchy into politics by claiming that the 2006 coup and violent actions by the PAD were supported or even directed by the Monarchy. It is now common to hear ordinary Thais complain that “the iguana and his wife” ordered the May 2010 killings. Royal legitimacy is all that the conservative authoritarians have and they are panicking because it is all unravelling. They have brought this on themselves.

We must not forget the plight of those jailed and killed on the pretext of defending the Monarchy. We must wage an international and national political campaign to defend democratic rights in Thailand and for the abolition of the lese majeste law. Without abolishing this law, we cannot have democracy in Thailand and without overthrowing the dictatorship we cannot abolish lese majeste.

Old ideas are bad ideas

In New York, his first overseas jaunt, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has declared that he is following the old approach to Thailand’s foreign affairs.

That is disturbing because the old policies were bad policies. Think of the mutual enforced disappearances of activists associated with authoritarian regimes and for the silencing of Thai critics. It raises the specter of continuing to support the murderous Myanmar military regime. Dud deals with China. We could go on….

How high?

But it is the claim that the prime minister is “[f]ollowing in the footsteps of the previous government of General Prayut Chan-o-cha, … highlighting the royal-initiated sufficiency economy philosophy in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” that is emblematic of a Puea Thai prime minister seeking to re-establish Thaksinism as conservative in the collective mind of the ruling class.

“Highlighting the … sufficiency economy” is exactly that: a bit of royal posterior polishing, shaping a large pile of buffalo manure as “philosophy,” and a means to burnish a regime’s kowtowing to royalism no matter how nonsensical.

Before gallivanting off to New York, Srettha reportedly visited a Royal Project in Chiang Mai and “said it should be a matter of pride for Thailand when he presents the big picture of the Khok Nong Na project to international audiences.”

Why Khok Nong Na? Simply because the project was “initiated in the reign of … King … Vajiralongkorn…”. Around 2020, there was a major push to promote this “model” in the way that all royal projects have been: using taxpayer funds for royal propaganda. But Khok Nong Na is significant as it is allowing Vajiralongkorn to be connected to his father. One official effort states that: “Building upon his father’s legacy, … King … Vajiralongkorn … has guided the Thai people to put into practical application the Khok Nong Na model of agricultural practices to ensure that food system resilience remains one of Thailand’s crowning achievements in the years to come.”

One report explains that then director-general of the Community Development Department, Suttipong Juljarern, stated that the project was “[f]inanced by the department’s 2019 budget, Khok Nong Na has the ultimate goal of creating a good life with agricultural best practices championed by King Rama IX and further developed by … King … Vajiralongkorn…”.

Suttipong added:

The model is still being piloted in Phitsanulok, Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet provinces.

“We are trying to encourage large farms to adopt the Khok Nong Na model,” Mr Suttipong said. “We will help them process their produce and sell it. By joining the [Khok Nong Na] project, farms, large or small, they can collaborate so they can sell their produce at better prices….

“… We hope that it could serve community tourism by offering services to tourists who come to enjoy nature while learning about agricultural practices championed by the project.”

The project is important for Vajiralongkorn’s public image. Another report explains that famous monks are also involved:

King Rama X’s Royal Noble Consort Sineenat [Wongvajirapakdi] went to meet with Phra Sangkom at his temple next to the Mab-Ueang Center to learn about his work and how he implements Kok Nong Na.

It is not clear when this was, for Sineenart went missing some time ago, never to be mentioned again. But it must have been when she was a king favorite for it is explained:

Her involvement has led to King Rama X to declare that Kok Nong Na should become a national development goal.

Wishing to pursue his father’s work, King Rama X has made Kok Nong Na a national policy in Thailand to boost the people’s transition into a new style of agriculture. This signifies that the government and the Social Development Department have officially been supporting and promoting the New Agriculture Theory.

So, Srettha is continuing the military’s work of promoting reactionary symbols of the ruling class, just as his military predecessors did. As the linked Thai PBS report states, the “sufficiency economy philosophy has become a core element of Thai diplomacy for the past decade…. The Thai delegation to the UN has consistently advanced the philosophy as an alternative approach to achieving the UN SDGs.”

It won’t be long before the king gets some kind of international “award” for this “work.” After all, it is also the Foreign Ministry’s job to continually seek out or create awards for royals.

Dead king sustainability scam

A bunch of posterior polishers have been at work again. Of course, it is those “working” towards the monarchy” who are busily polishing the dead king’s posterior for posterity.

The so-called dignitaries were at the opening of the Sustainability Expo 2022 (SX 2022) at the (where else?) Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. They were led by Sino-Thai tycoons and royal associates: Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, Group CEO of Frasers Property (Thailand), Roongrote Rangsiyopash, President and CEO of SCG; Putri Viravaidya, Secretary-General of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Sumet Tantivejkul, Secretary-General of the Chaipattana Foundation, Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, President and CEO of Thai Beverage Plc, Thiraphong Chansiri, President and CEO of Thai Union Group Plc, and Tongjai Thanachanan, Senior Vice President Chief Sustainable Business Development of Thai Beverage Plc.

The “great” and the “good” were advertising the sufficiency economy blarney, now considered by them as a “philosophy.” We guess that’s about as deep as any of this lot could go.

Apparently, “Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, president and CEO of Thai Beverage Plc (ThaiBev), who is also the chairman of the Sustainability Expo 2022 committee…”. Of course, we realize that the main effort here is gaining credit for the tycoons through making credit for the dead king and the monarchy. That said, it did set us wondering about ThaiBev, Frasers Property, and other Sirivadhanabhakdi companies and their sustainability. Not to mention cement producer SCG.

Then, a couple of days later, there was another “advertorial” kind of “story in the Bangkok Post about ThaiBev. It stated:

Thai Beverage (ThaiBev), the Singapore-listed food and beverage company, says it remains committed to spending 5-8 billion baht to expand its businesses next year, mainly in Thailand.

Of the total investment budget, 1.1 billion baht is for food business expansion, 600-800 million baht for spirits business expansion, 300-400 million baht for non-alcoholic drinks, and the remainder for other segments such as digital platforms, logistics infrastructure, health and wellness, and product innovation.

For the food business, the company plans to open 70 new restaurant branches next year, 35 of which will be for KFC, with the remainder other brands.

We are not specialists in environmental matters, but this doesn’t sound much like a “green” company reducing its carbon footprint. But the family/company claims, via Thapana:

“We are reinforcing our commitment to enabling sustainable growth by setting out quantifiable targets to help us achieve sustainability and net-zero emissions.”

ThaiBev launched its sustainability strategy yesterday, with clear environmental, social and governance initiatives and goals, including a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

He said the strategy will enable ThaiBev to drive sustainable development and resilience across its business, protect the environment, support local communities and enhance governance.

2040! Yikes, that’s a generation hence. Hardly bold targeting! But how’s the company doing now? Again, we are no experts, but helpfully, the family/company has a wad of data at its website. As we read it, between 2018 and 2021, energy consumption is well up, and while renewable consumption is up five-fold, fossil fuel consumption is also up substantially. Note that burning woodchips is classed as “renewable.” Water consumption is up from all sources. Green house gas emissions are steady at over 1 million tons a year.

This leads us to believe that all this talk of sufficiency economy is a scam. It shields the tycoons from criticism.

Mad, dumb, and more

Now that the police have 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, the Royal Thai Army has lifted restrictions on trade with Lazada.

If we weren’t so used to dumb-assed “explanations” from the lot in green, the statement by Army Deputy Spokesperson Col Sirichan Ngathong “said yesterday (Monday) that the lifting of the boycott was … in line with the further relaxation of restrictions, to allow business to resume normal operations and reopen the country to overseas arrivals.” What’s that got to do with monarchy and Article 112? We can only imagine that there may have been pay-offs, whispers in ears emanating from the Chinese Embassy, or orders from the boss. Or maybe all of them. We will never know.

Senate Speaker Pornpetch Wichitcholchai is supposed to have legal training. But he’s also a “good” person, meaning he enjoys being a dumb-ass with impunity. He’s defended his Senate colleagues – also “good” people – who employ dozens of their relatives. He says it “is not illegal.”

Pornpetch says “certain positions in public office may require someone, who the senators can trust, to fill.” We recall that Alexander MacDonald reported similar nepotism and the same “explanation” back in the 1940s (look for his Bangkok Editor on Library Genesis). Thai Enquirer has him saying: “[Nepotism] is not wrong because it is not against the law.” Taken aback, “reporters acknowledged that even though nepotism was not technically illegal, wasn’t it still morally wrong?” No, Pornpetch retorted, “nepotism, in government, is not morally wrong.”

Having trusted relatives means they are not likely to blow the whistle on their relatives as they supp at the public trough. It’s a family protection racket.

While on “good” people, we must mention a letter to the SCMP by Wiwat Salyakamthorn, said to be president of the World Soil Association and former vice-minister of agriculture and cooperatives of Thailand. You might have thought the sufficiency economy fertilizer might have leached away. But you’d be wrong. There’s now an effort to attribute everything that’s ever happened in Thai agriculture to the dead king and his “idea.” More, there’s an effort to transfer sufficiency economy to King Vajiralongkorn.

Wiwat claims: “Much of Thailand’s resilience in food security is due to … King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s development projects for the betterment of the Thai people’s livelihoods based on his philosophy of sufficiency economy.” Yes, farmers are all Thaksin-voting dolts. Only the royals know, and although Vajiralongkorn would have trouble growing a flower, Wiwat comes up with this guff: “Building upon his father’s legacy, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua has guided the Thai people in applying the Khok Nong Na model to ensure that resilience of the food system remains one of Thailand’s crowning achievements in the years to come.”

That’s enough for today!

Connections?

In an AP story, it was reported that police in Thailand had arrested “the head of a company suspected of cheating overseas buyers of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered medical rubber gloves during the coronavirus pandemic.”

This followed a US company, Rock Fintek, filing a complaint that a Bangkok-based company, Sufficiency Economy City “failed to deliver 2 million boxes of nitrile gloves worth $15.5 million for which it had paid a 40% deposit.” Other complaints were lodged from overseas companies.

Kampee. Clipped from the Bangkok Post

Sufficiency Economy City Co., marketed gloves branded SkyMed. The arrest was of the Sufficiency Economy City’s CEO Kampee Kampeerayannon, a renowned, self-promoting, ultra-royalist. He is chairman of the Thai People Council for the Nation, Religion, King.

A day earlier, “a Thai employee of Paddy the Room Trading Co., Pipatpon Homjanya, was sentenced to four years in prison.”

Who on earth would trust a company called “Paddy in the Room”? But “Sufficiency Economy City” carries monarchist meaning.

Paddy in the Room “had exported millions of substandard and in some cases secondhand gloves to the United States…”. Its managing director, “Luk-fei Yang Yang, identified by police and corporate records as Chinese, left Thailand before prosecutors were able to formally charge him in court.”

Millions and millions of dollars are involved.

In a report at The Nation, Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit was quick to claim that “the scandal of used medical gloves being exported to the US has not affected Thailand’s export sector.” Indeed, he claimed the “Thai export sector untouched by used gloves scandal…”.

Police went to Sufficiency Economy City Co. Ltd., and arrested Kampee, who carries a military rank. The charges were “fraud and presenting fake information online…”.

From SkyMed website

Meanwhile, Skymed had sued Paddy the Room for damages and sought to distance itself from Paddy, with a hasty disclaimer (see right).

The ultra-royalist and ultra-nationalist displays his good work at the SkyMed website. As a royalist with military training, the ridiculous Kampee knows that the way out of problems (in Thailand) is to make stuff up. He gave a bizarre interview to CNN:

On Wednesday in a lengthy on-camera interview with CNN, SkyMed’s CEO Kampee Kampeerayannon denied his company was part of any repackaging operation occurring in the warehouse when it was raided.

“The owner of the warehouse, they just wanted to repack our brand and export it,” he said.

Kampeerayannon said if any gloves are exported from Thailand under the SkyMed brand, it is “not under our permission,” he told CNN.

The CEO said Paddy the Room was “one of hundreds” of SkyMed brokers which had permission to sell and promote SkyMed gloves, though he says the relationship ended over a year ago.

From SkyMed website

Yet, SkyMed has other warnings, like this one (right) where the English and Thai are different.

As CNN reports, it is a mystery where SkyMed, “sources its gloves”:

… the company has an import license to bring in medical gloves made in Vietnam, but records show SkyMed has never imported medical gloves to Thailand, nor does the company manufacture its own gloves….

Kampee … acknowledged to CNN that SkyMed does not have its own factory and does not have a license to produce medical gloves in Thailand.

After giving CNN contradictory answers about the number of glove suppliers it has in Thailand, he ultimately said there was just one.

Kampeerayannon claimed SkyMed has filled orders for one hundred million boxes of gloves but would not say who had purchased them.

He told CNN that US musician Nikki Lund had helped finance an order for 144 billion boxes of SkyMed gloves — a claim that Lund emphatically denied to CNN as “not possible and ridiculous.”

If nothing else, this case suggests that this is another dubious character seeking to profit through royalist allusions, illusions, and claims. Kampee has had many recent self-promoting advertorials at the Bangkok Post. Recent propaganda is here and here.

While all this royalist, nationalist, Buddhist propaganda was belched out, there were warnings of problems from 2020 (see right).

The Skymed website promotes falsehoods:

Our research team has pioneered the latest technology gloves.

Whether its medical or any other miscellenous work, our gloves can be used efficiently

TRUSTWORTHINESS IS WHAT WE FOCUSED

” We are enthusiastic to always provide our customer with the highest quality product.

Assurance of the best product is therefore key “

The obvious questions are: was this royalist associated with the regime? Was he associated with royals? If not, how could it so brazenly advertise itself as thoroughly royal? And, of course, there’s the question of who benefited from the millions gained through fraud? Is anyone following the money trail?

Royalists, academics and palace propaganda

A couple of days ago we posted on advice to protesters. That advice was well-meaning. At the Asia Times Online, however, academic Michael Nelson of the Asian Governance Foundation, writes the protesters off: “[Gen] Prayut [Chan-ocha] does not seem to be in danger. The royal-military alliance seems to be unassailable…”. He adds: “The protesters, though big on Facebook, also have little backing in the population. And now, the government is getting tough with them…”.

That seems somewhat premature, even if the regime has the “benefit” of a virus uptick and can use the emergency decree to good ill effect. In any case, as far as support is concerned, we recall the Suan Dusit survey in late October that seemed rather supportive of the protesters. Things might have changed given the all out efforts by the regime and palace, but we think the demonstrators have had considerable support.

Another academic is getting into the fray to support the regime and palace. At the regime’s website Thailand Today, pure royalist propaganda by “Prof. Dr. Chartchai Na Chiang Mai” is translated from The Manager Online. For obvious reasons, the regime loves the work of this royalist propagandist who tests the boundaries of the term “academic.” But, then, Chartchai is “an academic at the National Institute of Development Administration or NIDA,” a place that has played an inglorious role in recent politics and where “academic” seems a loose term used to describe a person associated with NIDA.

Royalists ideologues posing as academics have been well rewarded. Chartchai is no different. His rewards have included appointment to the junta’s Constitution Drafting Committee and its National Reform Council. In these positions, he opposed any notion of an elected prime minister and supported the junta’s propaganda activities on its constitution. He has also been a propagandist for “sufficiency economy,” a “theory” lacking much academic credibility but which is religiously promoted as one of the “legacies” of the dead king.

Self-crowned

His latest effort is a doozy. Published in November 2020, “Resolute and Adaptive: The Monarchy in the Modern Age” is a defense of a neo-feudal monarchy. It seeks to dull the calls for reform by claiming that King Vajiralongkorn “has already been reforming the institution of the monarchy to adapt in a modern context, even before protesters were making their demands for reform. Moreover, His Majesty’s approach has always been people-centred.”

This sounds remarkably like the royalist defense made of King Prajadhipok after the 1932 revolution, suggesting he was thinking about granting a constitution before the People’s Party, a claim still made by royalist and lazy historians. In the current epoch, if the king is “reforming,” then the calls for reform are redundant.

Reflecting the good king-bad king narrative, in a remarkable contortion, Chartchai warns that the bad king should not be compared with his father. He declares this “unjust” and “unfair.” The bad king is “preserving those achievements, but to also work with all sectors of the country to extend these accomplishments even further, as he carries his father’s legacy onwards into the future.”

That’s exactly the palace’s propaganda position on Vajiralongkorn.

How has Vajiralongkorn “sought to reform the monarchy”? Readers may be surprised to learn that the king has been “adjusting royal protocol by closing the gap between himself and his subjects, allowing public meetings and photo-taking in a more relaxed manner which differs greatly from past practices.”

Of course, this is recent and the palace’s propaganda response to the demonstrations. Before that, the king worked to distance the palace from people. Not least, the king lived thousands of kilometers from Thailand.

A second reform – again a surprising construction for propaganda purposes – is the “reform of the Crown Property Bureau…”. The king officially taking personal control of all royal wealth and property through new, secretly considered, laws demanded by the king is portrayed as intending to “demystify the once conservative and disorderly system the King himself found to be corrupt. The Bureau is now made more transparent to the public and prevents any further exploitation of the old system.”

There’s been no public discussion of this CPB corruption and nor is there any evidence that there is any transparency at all. In our research, the opposite is true.

We are told that the king’s property acquisitions were also about corruption and “public use.” The examples provided are the “Royal Turf Club of Thailand under the Royal Patronage” and military bases in Bangkok.

The Royal Turf Club was a which was a “gathering place for dubious but influential people” and has been “reclaimed as part of the royal assets is in the process of being developed into a park for public recreational activities.” That “public use” is a recent decision, with the palace responding to criticism. Such plans were never mentioned when the century old racecourse was taken. It is also “revealed” that the military bases that now belong personally to the king will be for public purposes. Really? Other “public places” in the expanded palace precinct have been removed from public use: the zoo, parliament house, and Sanam Luang are but three examples. We can only wait to see what really happens in this now huge palace area.

Chartchai also discusses how “[r]Reform of the Rajabhat University system or the Thai form of teachers’ college, has also slowly and steadily been taking place, with the King’s Privy Counsellor overseeing the progress.”

Now we understand why all the Rajabhats have been showering the queen with honorary doctorates. The idea that this king – who was always a poor student and didn’t graduate from anything – knows anything about education is bizarre. How the king gained control of the 38 Rajabhats is not explained.

What does this mean for the protests? The implication is, like 1932, those calling for reform are misguided. Like his father, the king “is the cultural institution and must remain above politics and under the constitution.” Is he under the constitution when he can have the regime change it on a whim and for personal gain?

Chartchai “explains” that “the monarchy is constantly adjusting itself…”. He goes full-throttle palace propaganda declaring the monarchy a bastion of “independence, cultural traditions, and soul of the nation, is adjusting and fine-tuning itself for the benefit of the people.” As such, Thais should ignore the calls for reform and properly “understand, lend support and cooperation so that the monarchy and Thai people sustainably and happily co-exist.”

For an antidote to this base royalist propaganda, readers might enjoy a recent and amply illustrated story at The Sun, a British tabloid, which recounts most of Vajiralongkorn’s eccentric and erratic activities.

On a few things royal I

There are a number of royal “stories” that caught our attention today.

The first was a gaggle of stories about the dead king. Of course, 5 December – the dead king’s birthday – was made especially important by palace propaganda and before he became ill, on his birthday eve, the palace would round up the great and the good and the captive audience would sit through the king’s often incoherent ramblings. It would be left to the media to try and interpret the meaning of these sometimes long homilies.

The Bangkok Post outdid most other media that we looked at, with four lengthy propaganda pieces. One was a PR piece about the Bangkok arm of the former junta, the BMA, recalling that the day is also father’s day. That came about after an order from military dictator and double coup leader Sarit Thanarat who made the king’s birthday National Day in 1960. Then there are almost obligatory stories on the late king’s interventions in the nation’s water policy, including his backing of huge dams, sufficiency economy, reproducing all the usual blarney from the world’s richest monarchy, and education, in a country with what is now an awful education system, so bad that its students have revolted.

The passed king is said to have “spent decades trying to combat the twin crises besetting Thailand: droughts and floods,” yet these problems persist and plague the nation every year. Chalearmkiat Kongvichienwat, a deputy director-general for engineering with the Royal Irrigation Department describes the late king as “a great hydrological engineer.” We should recall that the king only had a high school diploma and that his “reputation” as an “engineer” was manufactured by palace propaganda and RID, which gained huge amounts of cash for its projects.

RID observes:

… there are 3,481 royal water projects in which the department is involved. Among them, 3,206 projects are already complete.

They comprise 1,277 projects in the North, 758 in the northeastern region, 498 in the Central region and 673 in the South. These royal projects when completed will provide water to 589,000 households living on 4.90 million rai. The projects can store a total of 6.771 billion cubic metres of water.

Some 87 of the 275 remaining projects are expected to be completed by 2024 and 188 are in the pipeline.

That’s a lot of money. We wonder how many continue to operate and at what cost to environment, locals and taxpayer. The propaganda value for the king and palace was inestimable.

There’s no mention of the dead king’s support for dictators, coups, or the military.

A second story line that is appropriate for today is from Bloomberg at The Japan Times. It is focused on royal wealth: “Thailand’s taboo-breaking demonstrations are about more than the right to criticize the monarchy without fear of going to prison: Protesters want taxpayers to control investments and real estate worth tens of billions of dollars.” It has some of the existing information, but there is some additional information.

On the current king’s PR efforts, a third story line caught our attention. As is usual, there are royal pardons and sentences are cut for thousands of inmates. Also usual is the handing out of bags of charity goods to victims of natural disasters, said to be from the king, and usually accompanied by royal portraits. In this case, it was flood victims in the south. The Army claims that “[m]ore than 300,000 households in 90 districts in 11 southern provinces have been affected by flooding…”. The king “donated 10,000 relief bags to flood victims in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, where at least 13 people have died in recent flooding.” Clearly, a symbolic effort by the world’s richest king.

Then we saw, at The Nation, a series of photos about a recent royal outing-cum-PR exercise. It has the king and queen, accompanied by Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, the Princess Rajasarinisiribajra and Chao Khun Phra Sineenat Bilaskalayani,” attending a religious event for the dead king “at the Royal Plaza in front of Dusit Palace…”. Given all the recent social media attention and some news reports of rifts in the palace, between queen and consort and between princess and consort, we wondered if they didn’t look rather happy together in this photo, suggesting that some of the speculation might be overcooked:

Happy family outing? Clipped from The Nation

Finally, we want to suggest that readers might want to watch a BBC video story about the students and their revolt against the monarchy.

Bolstering monarchy

The royal family’s younger women, including Queen Suthida, Princesses Bajrakitiyabha and Sirivannavari, and some of the harem, appear to be pushing for a new PR strategy and rebranding of Vajiralongkorn and themselves as celebrities – what might be considered the Hello! strategy. Obviously, this follows the model of royals in some other countries.

Sirivannavari’s photo clipped from Hello!

At the same time, the royalist dinosaurs occupying government seats continue to follow ninth reign strategy. For example, Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan and Interior Minister Gen Anupong Paojinda have “urged provincial governors across the country to help protect the monarchy and prevent fake news.”

During a video conference, Gen Prawit ordered governors “to promote the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.”

This approach seems unlikely to mesh with the notion of royals-as-celebrities, pioneered by Sirivannavari and (more bizarrely) by big sister Ubolratana.

If we are to believe that Vajiralongkorn – who has recently appeared ill and unsteady – is to go down the Hello! celebrity path, then he’d need to also acknowledge that such a rebranding usually goes along with subjection to the constitution, the acceptance of criticism, and the ditching of ninth reign repression and “demi-god” status. So far, the evidence is of some leniency on criticism while also mobilizing fascist yellow shirts, which would seem to mitigate against a celebrity status.