Today I noticed that lèse majesté proceedings against Thai Prime Minister’s Office Minister Jakrapob Penkair seem to have ratcheted up a notch or two.
What most intrigued me about this news was the fresh complaint made by a Masters degree student at Mahamakut Buddhist University. I’m sure many New Mandala readers would be keen to learn more about this new angle of attack in the ongoing effort to protect “nation, religion, king”.
Previous coverage of Jakrapob and his current legal troubles is available here and here.
As an aside, but still very much on topic, this website is definitely worth a look. Is this now nation, religion, king…police, army? Or was it ever thus?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Reg Varney // May 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm
The political temperature in Bangkok is certainly on the rise as well. PAD and its leadership appear to be back in 2006 mode, making all kinds of allegations that amount to a call for the military to again intervene on behalf of the monarchy and “the people”. Apparently recent opinion polls show that a coup is not a preferred option for those surveyed.
The Jakrapob affair is interesting. His comments are reasonably clear but the point really seems to be that he can never be forgiven for having led demonstrators attacking old man Prem. He must go. But by hanging on, he is making a statement and taking a position that is important in the ongoing struggle against the palace. The discussion of the “institution” as a political agent is now all over the media (including a really neat little piece in the Nation yesterday about the history of the re-establishment of royal power after 1932).
2 Reg Varney // May 30, 2008 at 12:13 pm
By the way, this morning, the Nation reports:
Police probe finds grounds to prosecute minister
Police investigators have concluded that a case of lese majeste can be pursued against PM’s Office Minister Jakrapob Penkair.
Lt-General Adisorn Nonsee, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, made the announcement yesterday following an investigation into allegations Jakrapob committed lese majeste in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in August last year.
Adisorn said the preliminary conclusion was that there were grounds to pursue a case of lese majeste against Jakrapob, though his team still needed to question a few more people and gather some more evidence.
“We’ll be giving fairness to all parties. This matter is under close watch by the Thai public,” he said.
“We expect to summon Jakrapob to acknowledge the charges next week. If he learns about this [first], he may surrender to the police. Otherwise, we might have to ask the court to issue an arrest warrant for him. However, since he is a minister, we’ll treat him with respect.”
Jakrapob has been in the hot seat and at risk of losing his Cabinet job following a translation of the text of his speech from English to Thai that was widely circulated on the Internet.
In his speech, Jakrapob took on the patronage system and fiercely criticised General Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council. At that time, he was heading an anti-coup group. A complaint of lese majeste was subsequently filed against him because his speech was alleged to border on offending the monarchy.
There has been growing pressure for Jakrapob to resign. The Democrats, and most recently Natthawut Prasertwuwan, a Chat Thai Party MP, have played on the political controversy by calling for Jakrapob’s resignation.
Jakrapob called a news conference to profess his loyalty to the monarchy and commissioned another translation of his speech to try to clear to his name. But he reserved his right to criticise Prem.
He is currently on a week’s leave from office, which he said he would use to weigh public opinion on the matter and consider his future course.
According to Article 112, a person found guilty of committing lese majeste can be sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has said he will not force Jakrapob to resign unless the matter goes through the justice system. If there were grounds to suspect him of lese majeste and the case reached the courts, then Jakrapob would automatically have to step down from office, Samak indicated.
Asked whether Jakrapob should resign to show responsibility for his controversial speech, the military’s Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit replied: “I didn’t say so. I am just talking about the matter in principle.”
He said that for a holder of public office resigning did not mean losing face. “You are a hero, just like a samurai who commits hara-kiri,” he said.
3 BKR // May 30, 2008 at 5:02 pm
So where can we find the full text in English?
4 Reg Varney // May 30, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Jakrapob just resigned at about noon, BKK time.
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