Monarchy in Thailand: Approaching the Breaking Point

I will never forget the first moment I stepped off the plane in Bangkok, the first leg of my 6 month stay in SE Asia, and was greeted by black bunting draping every edifice I could see

I had no idea that Thailand was ruled by a monarchy, or that the revered King Bhumibol (pronounced “Phoomipon”) had just passed away.

That changed quickly, when store windows like this greeted me

Even 'sexy shops' acquiesced to the selling of funeral garb, which citizens wore everyday for more than a year to show fealty.

For all intensive purposes, the people of Thailand appeared to adore their late king. Every home, shop, mall, airport and café had shrines devoted to his memory

Throughout the kingdom I saw precious little separation between church and state, with the late king almost as revered as the Buddha

As an American, adoration of a monarch is not familiar, and through my long stays in countries like Thailand, and even the UK , such reverence for a figure head can even feel downright uncomfortable. I take my right to rebuke figureheads as fundamentally as my right to breathe.

However, I was curious to understand what purpose a monarch serves in a modern age, and found quite a good analysis in this article (1) . In short, it was argued that one of the strengths of monarchical rule is that it unites disparate cultural groups hoping to assimilate under one nation. For example, ethnic groups such as these young Hmong girls who dance for tourists every morning at dawn

all the way to those who run the high powered financial districts of Bangkok can both presumably remain united by their shared reverence for a monarch. Conveniently, this monarch also remains unchanging even in uncertain political times, such as during the many hostile takeovers by military juntas that dot modern Thai history.

Love for the king is also argued to united citizens intergenerationally, and indeed I was surprised to see how many young, trendy Thais showed the same reverence for the King as those from the older generations. For instance, one can find young people with tattoos like this, which reads “King 9,” honoring the Rama IX rein of Bhumibol.

But how much of this love is real?

After all, citizens of North Korea will profess their love for Kim Jong

And in fact failure to do so can result in harsh punishment.

This is not so different in Thailand. For example, Thailand has what is called a “lese majeste” law(2) , which is one of the strictest laws in the world forbidding criticism of the monarchy.

This would mean that people who posted insulting images of the new king Vajiralongkorn (wah-chee-RAH-loong-kawn), the son of Bhumibol, wearing a crop top covered in fake tattoos (see below)

Or sharing a video of Vajiralongkorn’s then-wife serenading his poodle nude and then eating the poodle’s cake off the ground

Are sentenced to prison. For 30+ years (3).

I consider King Vajiralongkorn, the son of the beloved Bhumibol who rencently died after a 60+ years reign, a Disney villain of sorts. First of all, he physically resembles a combination of Scar and Maleficent.

Second, unlike his father, who was by all accounts a nice, quiet, rather nerdy man devoted to the simpler things in life like photography

and commisioning public works that improved areas of everyday life, like clean water and better roads, King Vajiralongkorn is not cut from the same cloth.

Sure, he’s a playboy, who has lived most of his life in Germany and has a plethora of mistresses and unofficial wives, such as these two who marched as military commanders in his father’s funeral parade.

Sure it's presumably a prime example of how the ruling class can do as they please, and use their unearned wealthy to satisfy their every whim, but we can say that about most in the upper, upper echelons of society.

What’s insidious about Vajiralongkorn is the way that he has learned to exploit his position of power, particularly through enacting punishment in the name of lese majeste. For instance, this is the king’s third wife of the infamous dog party, a former waitress who has one son with the king, named Srirasmi Suwadee.

Srirasmi Suwadee is presumably live and well, with the official story being that after her 2015 divorce she was paid “millions” to live in a remote part of Thailand after having been dumped by Vajiralongkorn. As the internet is barren of reports of her wellbeing for the past few years, whether she is indeed alive and well is anyone’s guess.

What we do know for sure is that her family is not doing so well, thanks to Vajiralongkorn's politically sanctioned ability to invoke revenge.

This is a picture of Srirasmi Suwadee’s parents, who are in their 60s. They were placed in prison in 2015 with a 2.5 year sentence for violating lese majeste. Their three sons, Srirasmi’s brothers, received 11 years, though it was reduced to 6. They also were jailed on charges related to “disrespecting the monarchy.”

Former lovers are not the only people subject to Vajiralongkorn's wrath. This man, Harry Nicolaides, is an Australian writer who received a harsh prison sentence, also in violation of lese majeste, for three years after publishing a book in 2005 which contained a paragraph briefly mentioning (not by name) the playboy exploits of a Thai ruler.

Though pardoned after negotiations by Australian diplomats after 7 months, he spent that time shackled, in a shared cell with a sex offender and weapons dealer (4). Hardly equal sentencing for writing one paragraph containing a veiled allusion to Vajiralongkorn.

These two students (5) were jailed for breaking lese majeste laws in connection to a college play they performed called “the Wolf’s Bride.” It told the story of a fictional monarchy in a magical realm, until the Thai government caught wind of the plot and deemed it “insulting.” The students were originally sentenced in 2015 for 5.5 years, but were released early through a royal pardon in July 2016 “to mark Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday.”

This enormous rendering of Queen Sirikit (Vajiralongkorn's mother) was also apparently part of the official festivities.

One of the best sources of opinion and reflection on the scary oppression built into Thai government in the form of lese majeste is from writer Andrew MacGregor Marshall (6). A fierce opponent of monarchial rule in Thailand, he started his career as a reporting on the country for Reuters in 2000. While there he met his wife, who is of Thai heritage, and they have a son. Marshall left Rueters in 2014 to write a book about the Thai monarchy, and is largely responsible for sharing the photos of a tattooed Vajiralongkorn and his crop top, among other documents that expose the monarchy. He and his family now reside in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, in a recent visit home to see her family, the Thai government found out that Marshall's wife was in the country.

As seen in this picture, both she and their young son were detained by police. Her electronics were seized, and her family’s home raided. Luckily, she and her son were released and able to return back to Scotland, as they have protection under EU laws. Many are not so lucky.

Maybe my presentation of the 'facts' are rather one-sided, I can see that. But I am primarily writing this post because visiting Thailand, and learning about their government made me question my own biases and try and work through how I felt about this country, and their acceptance of the king. As travelers, we are told that we should respect the cultures we encounter, and attempt to understand and respect the traditions we experience. I think this works two ways. First, yes, we must attempt to understand different cultures, and travel provides us with a unique opportunity to do so. We are immersed in new, unfamiliar surroundings, and in our attempts to acclimate we gain an understanding of what it means to live in a new place, and abide by a new set of rules. But should our presence also contribute to the culture of the place we visit?

For instance, Vietnam, a close neighbor to Thailand, is dramatically different in their adaptation of Western cultural touchstones. Of course, modern Vietnamese government is far from perfect, as there is a current realization that their turn to capitalism from communism has led to much greater gaps of inequality between rich and poor (7).

Thailand in contrast seems much more unflinching in it's resistance to Western influence. Perhaps because it has been a tourist destination for so long, it doesn't really need to change. People will always flock to Thailand for it's low price tag and beautiful beaches and mountains, they need not offer variety solely to please the tourists. This may also mean that changes in government can also be put on the back burner. People are making a lot of money, and with that money they can buy silence.

How much money? Recent reports suggest that while there is significant inequality in SE Asian countries like Vietnam, that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what can be seen in Thailand, which is considered the third most economically unequal country in the world (8).

For instance, when visiting the northern mountain region of the Akha tribe in Chiang Rai, Liam and I saw families of 6 or more lighting open fires to cook over in the small sheds in which they lived, live chickens wandering out for a peck at trash. Children had distended bellies. It was some of the worst poverty I have seen.

In contrast, the King of Thailand is the 2nd wealthiest monarch in the world; yes, even richer than Middle Eastern monarchs with all the oil.

For instance, this golden palace (technically a mausoleum) was erected solely for the purpose of King Bhumibol’s funeral.

His ceremony alone was estimated to cost over $90 Million.

It’s a scary prospect to think about travelling to a place like Thailand, and having frank discussions about things like lese majeste, the wealth of the monarchy, the practices of Vajiralongkorn, the line between politics and piety. We have seen what can happen.

But how else do people learn about alternatives if their sources of information are blocked, as they rigorously are throughout Thailand? For instance, a search for anything online which is negative about the monarchy is greeted with this:

It even blocks entire websites, such the Daily Mail, as this site has the potential to publish something incriminating. It is theorized that Facebook will be next. I see these problems as similar to those of North Korea, where the line between true homage and fear are significantly blurred.

A few questions for the Sttemit community:

What do you think about the future of the monarchy in Thailand?
What is the future of lese majeste?
Is it ethical for travelers to enter a country like Thailand and have conversations about topics like lese majeste, though it may jeopardize the safety of it’s citizens, or even the travelers themselves?
Are there two sides to this coin? Is this post an exceptional example of cultural blinders/Western superiority complex?