In some quarters the king is regarded as a key defender of Thai democracy. Which makes me wonder …
Has there been a royal statement urging the protesters from the People’s Alliance for (Sufficiency) Democracy to respect the fact that there was an election held last December and that this government is the result? And any royal statement urging them, in the interests of national unity (which is a common royal rallying cry), to take their concerns to the ballot box at the next election?
One sentence and the royal legitimacy of the PA(S)D protests would evaporate.
14 responses so far ↓
1 BangkokDan // Jun 23, 2008 at 1:10 pm
HM made clear on June 19th who the legitimate leader is.
Quoting from CNN:
During a meeting televised on the evening news Thursday, Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej urged Samak to keep his pledges to do good for the nation.
“I expect that you will do what you have promised and when you can do that, you will be satisfied,” the king said.
“With that satisfaction, the country will survive. I ask you to do good in everything, both in government work and other work, so that our country can carry on and people will be pleased.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/19/thailand.politics.ap/index.html
2 nganadeeleg // Jun 23, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Another call for HMK to interfere in politics?
The King has been consistently advising people to do their job properly including new & existing appointees to parliament, courts etc.
and any royal statement urging them, in the interests of national unity (which is a common royal rallying cry), to take their concerns to the ballot box at the next election?
You are forgetting that one of the main reasons PAD is protesting is that the government seems to equate electoral success with a not guilty court verdict, and think that success at the ballot box overrides any current courts cases and gives them the right to retrospectively change the rules to suit themselves (including police, military, investigative appointees etc)
IMO, if the King was to make a call for unity, it would need to be much more balanced than a simple call for PAD to respect the election result.
3 dukdeek yoakyeg // Jun 23, 2008 at 2:54 pm
No, His Greatness will step out only after a bloodbath when the two warring sides prostrate before Him and beg repentance. As of now, He does not want to lose popularity by the appearance of favoring any side. Hard luck for the country!
4 Frank // Jun 23, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Right on. If you are going to have elections, then you need to abide by the results.
Frank
5 Robert Horn // Jun 23, 2008 at 7:39 pm
On the one hand, Thailand is criticized for the immaturity of its political development, and in some quarters HM and the neo-feudal “patronage system” are blamed for retarding this development.
On the other hand, now you want Big Daddy to come in and yell at the kids to play nice instead of learning for themselves how to act like grown ups.
6 Pracharat // Jun 23, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I would prefer to solve problem(s) ourself.
7 Reg Varney // Jun 24, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Robert, there seems a world of difference between making statements to support democratic processes (which the king has almost never made) and standing behind authoritarian regimes and being openly supportive of a coup.
8 Andrew Walker // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Thanks Reg (and dukdeek) for getting the point of my post – which was to highlight the selectivity in the timing and content of the king’s statements on politics.
9 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Just want to add to k.Reg and khun Duddeek above. Here’s how the king made a statement during the current crises. This is part of his birthday speech on 4 December 2006 just a few months after the coup. Basically he characterised the “overthrow of [Thaksin] government” as “smooth” and “good” and those who opposed the junta-appointed gov as “jealous”.
ฉะนั้นขอให้คนที่เขาว่าแก่แต่ว่ามีประสบการณ์แล้วมีประสบการณ์ที่ดี ทำให้บ้านเมืองดำเนินงานไปได้ ขอให้พวกที่แก่ได้มีความสำเร็จ ได้มีความสำเร็จในงานการ ก็เชื่อว่าเป็นสิ่งที่สำคัญ พูดถึงแก่ นึกแก่ อายุมากอายุน้อยพูด ต้องดูบ้าง ตอนที่ยุบรัฐบาลได้มีการตั้งรัฐบาล ก็ตั้งมาด้วยดีโดยที่คนตั้งใจที่จะทำงาน ที่จะ ก็ไม่ทราบว่าได้ตั้งใจจริงๆ หรือไม่ แต่ว่าคนแก่ขึ้นมาเป็นผู้ใหญ่ หรือเป็นตำแหน่งใหญ่ก็ไม่ต้องการอะไร ไม่ได้มีความโลภว่าจะต้องการตำแหน่ง แต่เห็นว่าต้องมีคนที่อยู่ในตำแหน่งสูง ผู้ที่อายุมากก็ยอมรับ เขาจึงว่าแก่นำก็ไม่มีใครว่า ผู้ที่ได้มารับตำแหน่งรัฐบาล หรือตำแหน่งที่สำคัญๆ เพราะว่าได้ทำมามากแล้ว ที่เขาว่าแก่ ตรงข้ามก็คงต้องถือว่าเป็นคำชมเชยว่า อุตสาหะแก่แล้วจะพักผ่อนได้ ไม่เอา เขาขอให้เป็นก็เป็น นี่เป็นสิ่งที่น่าชมเชย แต่คนที่ว่าอาจจะเป็น มาจากความอิจฉาก็ได้ อิจฉาก็ช่างเขา หมายความเขาทำไม่ได้ คนที่ว่า คนที่รับเป็น เข้าใจ เดาใจว่า ถ้าสมมุติว่าทำแล้วทำไม่ได้ก็บอกว่าทำไม่ได้ เพราะว่าไม่เคยเป็น ไม่เคยทำ หน้าที่อย่างนี้ ทำเท่าที่ทำได้ แต่เชื่อว่าทำได้ เพราะว่าเป็นคนที่มีประสบการณ์ ในวันที่มารับตำแหน่ง
10 nganadeeleg // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Don’t worry, Andrew, I’m sure it’s not only Reg & dukdeek who get the point of your posts.
Since the inception of this site, I think its been pretty clear where you are coming from, and which ’side’ you are on when it comes to Thailand political matters.
11 Sidh S. // Jun 24, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Defender of which “democracy” Andrew? ‘TRT/PPP-Election-Win- Equates-With-License-T0-Freely-Rob-Thailand’ or ‘Democrat/PAD-Democrat-Unless-Cannot-Win-Election-Then-Coup-Is-OK’???
If you are happy with PMThaksin/TRT party and all that they stand for as prime minister/ruling party of Australia and that they abide by the working definition of “democracy” as practiced in Oz – then I might just get your point. If not, it is still a complete mystery…
And I agree with Pracharat here, let the other stakeholders – politicians, bureaucrats, armed forces, the new phenomenon of ‘un-Thai’ ultra-assertiveness (PAD), other political/apolitical, rural/urban Thais etc…etc… sort this out for themselves. It is a test of Thailand’ s political maturity – and if achieved without a coup, bloodshed or HMK’s public intervention, then there must be progress and it must be better/good.
I am caught out by PAD’s extreme assertiveness myself and was initially unsure what to make of it (being used to Siamese compromises). They remind me interestingly of an Australian visitor I was stuck in Bangkok traffic with (some 10-12 years ago) who said, if this kind of traffic happened in his country, people will be out on the streets demanding that the government do something about it NOW… “That will never happen in Thailand” was my reply then…
We will know, in time, whether this civic assertiveness – inspired by the one and only one PMThaksin – is a sign of Thai political maturity or not.
On that note, I think the “a word from on high” should be from PMThaksin to PPP – “please govern the country as best you could – with transparency and little/no corruption. Let the checks-and-balances work so don’t avoid censure debates and interfere with independent agencies. Don’t try to amend the constitution to white-wash me and don’t intervene in my court cases…Only if, you as government, function this way, can we mend the country’s deep divisions…etc…etc.” . The problem is his actions rarely matches his words…
12 Robert Horn // Jun 24, 2008 at 4:00 pm
As Dan pointed out, HM already made a public statement as to who the legitimate leader is.
And he said Samak has to do a good job if he wants to retain the support of the people, which is true of any democratically elected leader in a parliamentary system.
You’re faulting him for not coming out and telling the PAD they can’t exercise their constitutional right to protest, and for not telling them to pack up and go home.
But he didn’t tell the UDD or DAAD to pack up and go home either.
In your zero-sum analysis, he’s either on your side or he’s on the side of “evil.”
13 Reg Varney // Jun 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Did anyone notice the passing of 24 June yesterday? I didn’t see anything on TV (but haven’t seen the press). It seems that a pretty good job has been done on culling this event from official Thai remembered history.
On the Democrats and their role – it was interesting watching them bang the nationalist and royalist drum yesterday and generally following the furrow already ploughed by PADites.
I notice that Aj. Thak’s listing of them in the index of his revised book (on Sarit) has this in brackets: “conservative royalists”. Also in that book is an account of the Dems back in May 1947 using the constitution to invoke a general debate of the government’s record. They raised issues related to weak foreign policy, corruption, order, poor economic policy, the monarchy and education. Not much has changed in 61 years.
The king’s statement to Samak, at least in the CNN version posted here, could mean anything you want it to mean. I doubt many interpreted it as a ringing endorsement of a democratic system.
14 Still no word from the protector of the nation // Aug 26, 2008 at 9:22 pm
[...] than two months ago I wrote: In some quarters the king is regarded as a key defender of Thai democracy. Which makes me wonder [...]
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