“His Majesty the King is revered by Thais and admired by foreigners from afar because of his intrinsic goodness and dedication to improving the people’s livelihood, yet many foreign friends of Thailand are now casting doubt on the broad application of lese majeste.
Authorities may have intended to achieve deterrence from offending and disrespecting the revered institution, but the international community sees a witch-hunt.”
- An extract from “Harry Nicolaides and lese majeste”, The Nation, 1 March 2009.
By the title I wonder (in passing) if this is meant as the inversion, or some such, of a piece that appeared many moons ago. It would have been nice if at that time the editors of The Nation tasked some of their reporters to chase the Nicolaides story. As far as I’m aware they never sought to do any investigation while he was locked up. As such, their current call to find “some common ground” is unimpressive.
For The Nation employees who do drop by may I suggest that this website or this one will give you a few leads if you are actually serious about pursuing the issue of lèse majesté. It has not ended with Harry Nicolaides or Giles Ji Ungpakorn.
I am a foreignor who speaks Thai. Here in my country, there are many Thais, male and female. Most of the females are married to men of my country. I have been following the turmol in Thailand for a couple of years. One thing that I saw on my satellite TV was the Queen attending the fumiral of one of the Yellow Shirts, led by Sunthith Lintongkun, that was killed during the disturbance. Few people in my country like Sunthith. When the word got around that the queen attended that funeral, there was furor amongst the Thais here. They were saddened and very sorry she would get involved with such a person as Sonthith. Next rumors started flying. Some such rumors were the Queen may be behind some of the disturbance in the country. Other rumors are that she wants to ensure that the Crown Prince will become king after His Majesty the King is gone. It seems that none of the Thais here like the Crown Prince, but everyone loves and respects the king. I am one that respects the king.
What I would like to know, if you are allowed to tell me, “Are any of the rumor true? Why was the queen at that funeral?”
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