Misunderstanding, Thailand, lèse majesté, the Thai King and (those offensive clips on)Youtube
You might notice that this post is in English and most of other posts are in Thai. This is because I want you to be able to understand this.
As you may know, the Thai Government is blocking youtube resulting from having clips that disrespectfully+childishly mock the king. I’m not mad over the clips though. But most Thai people are outrageous over these clips. So, most of the comments you may have seen are something like “go to hell you dumbfuck”. But, what I’m going to say is not along those lines. In this post, I’ll try to correct some of the common misunderstandings which is, I believe, what Thais should be doing instead of posting those go-to-hell-you-dumbfuck comments (Their reactions are understandable and are expected though).
What the king is to Thai people
It is a common misunderstanding that Thai King to Thai people is like Bush to American, Queen Elizabeth to British people, or any other country’s leaders to the people. No, it’s wrong.For example, British people don’t give a damn to their queen’s birthday. But, in Thailand it’s a really huge day.
Thai King to Thai people is like Jesus/God to christians or Allah/God to muslims. This Fact should explain the outrageous responses you may have seen on youtube.
Why do Thai people revere the King that much
I cannot say it for every Thai.They have their own reasons. Yet, I can say it for myself. I respect him because he is a king who go and help his people all the time. Now, he is getting old. So, he probably cannot do it that often anymore. Those ads on youtube, you may think they are propaganda of some sort. I agree they look like they really are. But, I can say it’s very close to reality. Have you ever seen any king who have choice to live luxuriously in the palace but decided not to(see Queen Elizabeth/Japanese Emperror and other king/queen you know) and went out solving people’s problem, sometime in the rain or sometime walking in (as opposed to on) a muddy road(while some of his body guards/officers are afraid to get dirty)? He is indeed a very impressive King. Don’t you think?
Do Thai people worship the king
Thai people do not officially worship the king like going to church every Sunday or worshipping the muslim god 5 times a day. However, a lot of Thai people have at least one picture of the King or one of the former King(the most popular one being Rama V) in their houses. My house actually have an oversized one along with many others. Some of Thais acutally worship them. They put the picture of the King along with other items related to the king (ex: seeds they got from the king on National Plantation day) on a worship shelf and paying their respect every morning.
Is the King considered untouchable
For me, no. For most of Thai I know, yes. By the law, yes. Speaking of the King in a bad way is considered offensive to most of Thais. For the King himself, I don’t think so. (see What about the lèse majesté thing)
What about the lèse majesté thing
Thai people give lèse majesté for showing their respect to the King. Politicians have been using it as a political weapon for ages. If I have to guess , the king, himself, does not want it. He have spoken out many times that he doesn’t want anyone to be punished for lèse majesté. One of the speech that shows this is his birthday speech called King can do no wrong. The summary of this speech is basically him saying that it’s ok to criticize him.
Here is a quote from that speech
“If they get sent to prison, I pardon them. If they don’t go to prison, I won’t sue them, because those who violate the King and are punished are not the ones who are in trouble. It would be the King who was in trouble. It is strange, but the lawyers like to send people to prison (for allegedly violating the King).”
What about the swiss man who got jailed for ten years
here is the link to the news Lese majeste charges get Swiss man 10 yrs
The law is the law. The court has to judge according to the given law. But, don’t worry. I highly believe that the King will pardon him out of jail real soon.As I said, the King doesn’t want anyone convicted under lèse majesté. And, yes, the King has that much power. Plus, He did it many times before.
Having him having that much power is a pretty good idea. The law can suck. But, if you give the power to override it to a good guy, then no problemo. ^o^(though we cannot guarantee that those who will inherit the power will not abuse it)
[update : the King, as expected, has already pardoned the Swiss man. Thailand’s king pardons Swiss man from bbc]
Does the King support the recent coup
There is no clear evidence regarding this issue for either side. There is one video(I don’t know whether it’s real or not) on youtube showing the conversation between the King and the coup leader. The sound quality is really terrible but I can catch some phrases. On that clip, the king said he pitied “him/her”(the king used unisex 3rd person pronoun) since “he/she” did a good job(from the sound quality I don’t know whom “he” refered to but my guess is the former Prime Minister Thaksin) and he told the coup leader not to do it again. For signing the approval of the coup, it was arguably the best choice at that moment with the tanks all over Bangkok and people are in state of confusions. The last thing he wanted to see was perhap coup vs anti-coup killing each other in Bangkok on that night or the following days.
That’s all. 
I hope this explains things.
10 comments April 8th, 2007
