Misunderstanding, Thailand, lèse majesté, the Thai King and (those offensive clips on)Youtube
April 8th, 2007
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.
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10 Comments Add your own
1. Slave | April 8th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
http://somsakwork.blogspot.com
2. Tee | April 8th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I have seen a lots of those rumors though. They aren’t very conclusive. It’s more like personal issues. I don’t think it has anything to do with my impression of him doing a good job as a King.
3. Slave | April 9th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
ttp://www.onopen.com/2006/01/1186
4. Tee | April 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
It is a common claim that Monarchy and Democracy cannot co-exist.
I believe the opposite though. Monarchy in a democratic country will act like a overridding procedure. As I said, the law can suck. There might be some other implementations of overridding procedure that does not include procedure though. Monarchy is just one that works. And, it will work especially great if Monarchy is rational which I think is the case in Thailand. However, there is a side effect of having a decent rational Monarchy. That is people can irrationally love the Monarchy and there will be those people who will exploit those irrational love and use it as a tool. This is what happen in Thailand. The King is one great philantophist. Lots of people blindedly love him. And politicians and those who seek power, have been abusing these loves and use them as political tools for ages.
It’s just a different implementations of the same idea. Yes, they all have flaws. But, we can live with it.
I agree that Monarchy power in Thailand has gone a little bit too far. But, as I said, this is because the King is too lovable. The power he got comes from his people. Like lese majeste thing, people sometime give the king too much power because people love the king. Apparently, the King is one of those people who think he has too much power. He denied to select the prime minister; he said it is undemocratic. He denied to use lese majeste see the quote in the article.
5. Slave | April 10th, 2007 at 6:03 am
There are two possibilities:
1. He is completely good
2. No bad information is allowed.
>>He denied to select the prime minister; he said it is undemocratic.
Was he able to do the same thing to the September’s coup using the same reason?
6. Tee | April 10th, 2007 at 7:00 am
I don’t think he is completely good either. But, I think he did a good job as a King. For saying that bad info won’t be allowed, I don’t think it’s him who disallow it. It’s those who blindedly love him who disallow it. If there were no lese majeste or any official method to punish those who violate the king, people who blindedly love the king will probably invent some sort of unofficial procedure anyway; but note that the king will pardon those who got punished by official method anyway.
For example, consider those people who kill each other in ther name of their god (or being used to kill others claiming it’s the will of the god/jesus/allah). Is there anything wrong with god/jesus/allah? I don’t think so. There problem lies with those who blindedly love them that are too easy for being used, too susceptible to deception or making those who are more rational afraid to come out and correct things.
Quote from the article
I do not support the coup either. But, what would you do on that day? If I were him, I’d probably have sign the approval the coup too. It may not be the best decision one could make. But, it’s a considerably a reasonable one.
Again, I believe you are Thai and you may know that my thoghts do not in anyway represent those of average Thai people. I’m way more liberal than average Thai.
7. Pavee | April 11th, 2007 at 12:42 am
This is a really good article. I think this is one area where non-Thais fail to understand.
8. AFREETHAI | April 12th, 2007 at 4:06 am
On the Kings support of the coup.
I do not agree at all with the above comments. I am not sure indeed they really understand Thai tradition or not. Do compare the King with senior guy in Thai or Asian society; when children fighting for their personal gain or profit, it is traditinally supposed that the ‘good’ senior should not ‘intervene’ directly and take a particular side, i do not mean that there are seniors who do opposite way, but you could imagine what would happen eventually. For the King, it is easy to understand his situation in between of the jaws. And this can be proved in every coups in Thailand. Even in the previous coup in 1991, the junta arrested the premier and also ‘named’ new defence minister, on the way to the royal attendance in Chiangmai. As you see, that coup eventually legally ‘approved’ by the King.
I would like to say exactly, the King has no ‘way’ to oppose that political turn directly. And it would not be fair for him when one say the King wanted to see bloodshed on street. Due to Thai tradition, it is very evil for any senior to instigate youngers to fight each other. And If the King really wanted, this could be said that the King deviated from the Tradition ? very opposite to the claim that the King is the safeguard of Thai tradition.
And for one most improtant thing, the King is the head of Thai state bearing ‘constitutional monarchy’, so, what you can expect or see on the King should do ? It is very dangerous and sensitive for his postion and the political system.
You should compare Thai royals with those in Europe, the same system, not US or any ‘Republic’.
all in all, debate on the King role in Thailand should be free from bias or sort of ‘propaganda’.
9. hfggd | April 12th, 2007 at 9:28 am
รักในหลวง
10. Patcharaphol Achariyasilp | April 14th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
This web page is very well done, in my oppinion. I hope that the foriegners will understand the concept of the love of Thais and their King; or at least respect Thais’ love to the King by not making such kind of video or media again. Thank you.
LONG LIVE THE KING.
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