Not content with lese-majeste laws to protect the revered monarchy that are among the world’s most draconian, Thailand is to build a wall around the kingdom to keep out detractors.
But the barrier will be virtual, a national internet firewall to block websites deemed insulting to the throne of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who at 80 is the world’s longest serving monarch.
For the princely sum of almost £9m the Thai information ministry will shield the king and his adoring subjects from the sleights – real or perceived – of those who mock online.
- Extracted from Ian MacKinnon, “£9m firewall to protect Thai king from online detractors”, The Guardian, 30 October 2008.
4 responses so far ↓
1 whoopla // Oct 31, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Less Majeste, more Humanité!
2 Ralph Cramden // Nov 1, 2008 at 2:22 am
This appears to be a part of the attempts to stitch back together the now torn image of the monarchy and palace. Others will say it is to manage succession. But, unless I have missed something, the crown prince hasn’t done much that we know about that has contributed to the current state of disarray in the palace. Prem and Surayud (just promoted to No. 3 in the Privy Council, just behind the horrid rightist Thanin Kraivichien) did most of that.
To use another metaphor, can all of the kings horses and all of the kings men put Humpty back together again? Probably not. PAD helped on this matter quite a lot and some in the palace must be feeling that their earlier bets and wins on PAD have created a monster they can’t control.
3 burin buranasin // Nov 4, 2008 at 3:27 pm
If such a wall is needed, there is probably something wrong with those to be protected by the wall. Perhaps these wall-protected people should ask themselves what they indeed have done to need the protecting wall.
4 Portman // Nov 5, 2008 at 2:55 am
This project seems quite suspicious. Saying the firewall is necessary to protect the monarchy seems designed to deflect criticism and probing into the details of this project. The ministry has not mentioned exactly what it will spend the money on and what else it will block in addition to websites deemed offensive to the monarchy. The government seems to have already forced Thai ISPs to block thousands of websites. I would have thought the number of websites that could be construed as offensive in this way must be relatively small, as the subject is not widely followed outside Thailand. Surely the existing resources are pretty much sufficient for the task, while much of the funding will go to external consultants.
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