It is good to know that the Dems are on the job and will vigilantly ensure that there is only good news available on the monarchy. The Democrats have also asked for lese majeste investigations to be accelerated, naming the case against Jakkraphob.

Alongside the various responses to the Economist, ranging from the bizarre (in the Nation) to off-target (by Surakiat), which have mentioned the culturalist notion that Westerners just don’t understand, a deeper royalist objection has been made by Vasit Dejkunchorn.

In a recent article, he argues that foreigners, no matter how long they study Thailand, can never understand the country because they lack the essential element of “Thainess.” This quality comes from being born, raised and educated in Thailand. In Vasit’s scheme of things, “Thainess” appears to mean support for the monarchy. Those Thais who read foreigners’ work and believe them are actually , he asserts, mentally deranged and should seek immediate medical assessment.

Vasit was a policeman to the king and wrote the syrupy “In In His Majesty’s Footsteps” and has a long palace pedigree prior to working with the military-appointed government in 2007.

The palace appears to be fighting back against the sudden out-pouring of critical articles in the media targeting the monarchy. Vasit is one of their faithful tools. Vasit and his kind seem truly astounded at what has happened of late and one response is to lash out and explain to Thais, in Thai, that these foreigners just can’t possibly understand, are malicious and/or stupid (and yes, Vasit says, some are paid by Thaksin).

Vasit and his colleagues seem to lament the passing of a time when there were only a few journalists in Bangkok and they were easily controlled and convinced to write the hagiographical articles that routinely came out of Bangkok agencies who reported on the king. Many of those journalists wanted to stay in Thailand and were wary of lese majeste. That seems no longer the case.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking a different approach, suggesting that “all interested to learn more about the lifelong achievements of H.M. the King of Thailand [should] … access a privately-run website: http://www.royalvdo.com which contains various video clips of royal works and activities in English and Thai.” Whether it really is “privately-run” is open to speculation, but it is interesting that it is being promoted over a legion of pro-monarchy sites maintained by the palace’s own organisations. It is also promoted over a myriad of obviously pro-monarchy private sites already available.

So why this one? On a quick search the reason might be that it offers pro-monarchy clips along with careful and detailed instructions on how to post these at YouTube. I guess this is a neat idea. Have unofficial responses to all the bad publicity and try to swamp the web with pro-monarchy stuff.

The Economist, following on Handley (now available in full Thai translation, but many sites blocked in Thailand), and the 2006 coup involvement seem to have unleashed a great deal of criticism in Thailand and abroad. And the palace is responding.