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Crackdown on royal comment grows in Thailand
Straits Times - April 21, 2011
Nirmal Ghosh, Bangkok – With complaints of lese majeste and sedition filed against 18 figures in the opposition "red shirt" movement, Thailand's establishment is engaged in its widest crackdown on criticism of the monarchy since 1977, when Communism was deemed a threat to the institution.
There is already a sweeping crackdown on criticism of the monarchy on the Internet. And the Election Commission is drafting a new rule forbidding candidates from mentioning the monarchy in speeches in the upcoming election campaign.
The complaints, some filed by army chief general Prayuth Chan-ocha, took most political observers by surprise, and some analysts believe it is a signal that voters should fall in line with the establishment-backed Democrat Party.
"The military may not be very confident that the Democrat Party will be able to come back to power," said a Bangkok-based diplomat.
If found guilty of lese majeste – offending the dignity of a monarch – an offender faces a jail term of up to 15 years.
"I'm not doing it for political reasons, but whenever this kind of thing happens, we will take action," Gen Prayuth, a staunch royalist who became commander-in-chief last October, told reporters Wednesday. "Especially with politics, do not drag the monarchy into it. This institution is above all conflicts," he said, adding that the military "will do its duty to protect the monarchy."
But the attempt to put a lid on talk of the monarchy may be both too late and counterproductive. Discussion of the monarchy may be muted because of the lese majeste law – but it is more widespread than ever. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is 83 and frail, and Thais are worried about a future without his moral authority.
In retaliation, red shirt leaders filed a complaint against Prayuth, and their own lese majeste complaints against former premier Anand Panyarachun, Privy Council president Gen Prem Tinsulanonda, and Privy Councillor Siddhi Savetsila. The complaints against the last three were cited comments on the monarchy, which were quoted in cables from the US Embassy in Bangkok obtained by Wikileaks, and published last December.
In the Thai context, prosecuting such senior figures would be unthinkable, say analysts – which means prosecuting red shirts on similar charges would attract accusations of double standards.
With Thailand's old elites suspicious of an anti-monarchy vein in the red shirt movement, there has been a sharp jump in lese majeste charges since 2006, when the army mounted a coup d'etat to throw out then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
There are currently nine lese majeste cases pending in the Supreme Court since 2005, said David Streckfuss, author of Truth On Trial In Thailand, which studies defamation, treason and lese majeste in the kingdom.
"What is different now from the 1970s is that fewer of those charged were pleading guilty and quietly waiting for a royal pardon," he said.
Though Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, with the King above politics, the monarch remains the country's ultimate moral authority and wields tremendous extra-constitutional power.
Thai academic Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian has written that "by the early 1990s, the monarchy firmly installed itself at the center of Thai politics."
In his book, Streckfuss wrote that "the operation of the lese majeste law creates a black hole of silence in the centre of the Thai body politic."
Bhumibol himself, in a speech in 2005, said he was open to criticism. Yet political factions compete with each other and the army to demonstrate absolute loyalty to the monarch – and deploy the powerful lese majeste law against political enemies.
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