artnoiOct 14, 2020
Forty-seven years ago on this day (Oct 14, 1973), pro-democracy protestors led by university students successfully ousted the pro-monarchy military dictatorship regime that had long plagued Thailand. Everyone thought the fight was over, as in war to end all wars, but only three years later (Oct 6, 1976), the student’s victory was reversed, and the country has since been trapped in this political development stagnation.
After almost half a century later from October 1973, Thailand is still the same third-world country, and Bangkok still has flood every year. (Despite King Bhumibol the Great’s 70-year efforts, his 4,000+ royal projects, and his unmatched expertise in water management).
In 2014, Royal Thai Army chief General Prayuth Chan-o-cha seized power from the popular government, citing that the nation’s deep political divide was irreconcilable. Prayuth and his senpai Prawit belong to an Army faction known as the Queen’s Eastern Tigers, which as the name implies, hailed from the eastern millitary districts. The faction formed close relationship with the Queen Mother Sirikit after her unusually frequent visits to the eastern frontier back in the Cold War days. Her aide-de-camp was the Tiger’s founder and commander. The Eastern Tigers had the Queen Mother’s support, and was at its peak influence when the previous King fell gravely ill. In 2014, after some months of pro-monarchy rally, the Eastern Tigers were given green light to execute the 2014 coup which ousted a popularly elected female PM Yingluck, and paved the way for Vajiralongkorn to become King Rama X.
Then came the time of military dictatorship. This was when Prayuth still had some support from the politically indifferent citizens who had long been annoyed by Thai politics. During this time, Prayuth promised multiple reforms and proposed many development plans (most of which are futile and useless), and began to act like a kind-hearted grumpy savior of the nation. Nonetheless, his efforts to build positive reputation came crashing down after his senpai Prawit and Prayuth’s brother Preecha were heavily targeted by the social media users for their their incompetencies. This was also the time when Prayuth stopped acting like a grumpy savior, and instead behaved more like a salty motherfucker, yelling and calling names whenever his interviewers gave him unpleasant answers.
Prior to Rama IX’s death in 2016, these Eastern Tigers and their allies had infiltrated and controlled every single Thai institution (sans, perhaps, the Bank of Thailand) and became very powerful - so powerful that the news surrounding these Army men sounds like made-up jokes from a weird country far away. During this time, most middle-class Thais began to openly criticize the regime, but spared the monarchy.
Following the previous King’s death (Rama IX) in October 2016, Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) began exercising his powers and influence, starting from the palace where he quickly replaced the late King’s favorite royal pages and Privy Council members with his own men. Some of them (who had angered the King in the past) were imprisoned, and some were assigned humiliating duties, e.g. a former royal page was made a waiter. The Eastern Tigers also helped facilitate Vajiralongkorn’s rise to power by passing many new laws that were seriously against the democratic values, like establishing (private) prison within the palace grounds, amending the constitution so that the King can rule remotely (i.e. from his hotel in Bavaria), etc.
After the laws were altered, he then began to influence the Thai armed forces and consolidate his power by appointing his own men in important posts within the armed forces. Prayuth and his friends clearly didn’t see this coming, and in 2020 Prayuth no longer had any power to nominate armed force leaders - Prayuth’s future armed force leader nominations were disapproved and promptly replaced with the King’s own men. Since 2019, Prayuth had largely lost power, and the country practically became a literal Kingdom once again. And that how Thai people started to redirect their critisicms away from Prayuth and to the true tyrant.
Thailand today is practically ruled by the world’s richest and most powerful monarch, Vajiralongkorn (Rama X). His power far surpassed that of the millitary-backed government (Prayuth’s cabinet).
Some say the country is no longer a developing country, but instead a debasing nation politically (and pretty much in every way) now that the supposedly ceremonial head of state openly and actively opposes what the international community calls proper democracy. Back in 1973, even though the previous King did not approve full democracy, he would not dare bring the old customs from the absolute monarchy era back to the partly democratic society - that is, he wouldn’t dare establish his own military forces in the capital, legalize his own prison in his own palace, or take away any assets from the Crown Property Bureau as his own. Now it looks like the current king is driving the country backward to its dark past in full reverse.
The King did not stop just there. I believe he was the one responsible for removals of multiple Bangkok’s democratic landmarks. He also flew very often using THAI Airways and the Royal Thai Air Force aircrafts. When his home country was facing troubling issues, he decided to stay in Germany, only coming back for ceremonial purposes. While in Germany, many German tabloid media regularly featured the King and his lifestyle, further humiliating the palace, who did not deny but also did not issue any statement. Later in 2019, the King stripped his official royal concubine of all noble titles and styles, citing that the woman was dispectful towards the Queen, only to later restore all of her stripped titles some time after. This indemnity and imprisonment is not based on any of the Thai laws - the King simply rules.
These asynchronistic and indifferent actions by the King led to nation-wide debate about the possibility of monarchy reforms. What surprises me is that, despite the calls for the apparently much needed reforms, the powerful men in this country did everything in their power to silence the vox populi (people’s voice), with some claiming that the king’s actions are righteous. As COVID-19 hits, many Thais are on the verge of poverty, but the stupid government responses and Rama X’s constant refusal to wear mask or quarantine while at the same time asking for more taxpayer’s money had angered most Thais. The monarch’s refusal to hear any criticism has cultivated in numerous student-led protests in the past months of 2020, including the one organized today on the Ratchadamnoen - a classic spot for political protests. I myself have joined two protests at Ratchadamnoen already, and everytime I went there, I could see the people’s anger and frustration through years of oppression.
In response, the royalist factions (which are sponsored by the state) also organized their own meeting close to the students. The royalist protestors were partially drafted from the civil servants, police, and the military agencies from central Thailand. Apart from these drafted men and women, some hard-core, violent loving royalists intentionally come to “clense” the nation from “unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rats”. Blades and batons are widely used by the royalists, while the student-led, pro-democracy protestors are mostly unarmed and came here without the intention to clash. But following indifferent silence from the palace, and the arrests of 21 young protestors, the pro-democracy protestors have lost their temper. I personally think that the clash is imminent, even if it doesn’t happen today.
Further fueling the divide and hatred is the unfair treatment between the two camps: the pro-government and pro-monarchy faction is supported by the state and various state agencies (e.g. Bangkok Metropolitan Admisitration) and was provided the transportation vehicles (which, ironically, are trashmasters), and mobile toilet buses. On the other hand, the pro-democracy had their shelters destroyed, their mobile toilet buses seized, and their leaders arrested - all while facing many other unfair responses by the state. Not to mention the fact that the entire Bangkok-based army units were just displaced with forces loyal to the King since he ascended the Chakri throne. These royalist armed forces units may dispatch and join the protests anytime. And I personally believe these armed forces units have already planned ahead for a coup in case of “unfavorable” political circumstances. The possibility of violence by the royalists dissuades many pro-democracy citizens to join the protests.
However, as it turned out, violence was minimal today, and the pro-democracy protestors even had the chance to non-violently surround the royal motorcade. The motorcade surrounded was escorting Queen Suthida and Prince Dipangkorn, the heir presumtive. The autocade should have been able to avoid the protestors by simply driving a straight line route like they always do. To me, last evening’s incident looked very intentional. Still, there was nothing but silence from the palace regarding today’s incident. In the early morning (4AM) of October 15th, Thai Border Patrol Police and other crowd control units charged the protestors, and arrested many of their core leaders. Later that day, Prayuth declared state of severe emergency across Bangkok, citing the attacks on the royal motorcade last evening was threatening the national security. In response, the pro-democracy protestors state that they intend to occupy Ratchaprasong intersection today evening. Let’s see how all of this unfolds.
All of the said actions are Vajiralongkorn’s and his allies’ ultimatum to the students - that they will not yield. If we can’t simply have reforms, perhaps a people’s revolution time is coming.
Power currupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
