Over the past 6 weeks, Andrew and I have written two summary articles that describe some of the elements of the “royal sub-plot” that is influencing Thai politics. Bangkok Pundit has helpfully pointed out more of the dots around Thanpuying Viraya Javakul who, you may recall, denied being behind the “assassination effort” against People’s Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul. The Pundit’s eye-opening evidence and analysis is available here. As Pundit says with characteristic under-statement, “this is a sensitive topic”.
Genie. Bottle. Thai politics.
May 25th, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · 4 Comments
Tags: Asian Studies · PAD · Royal family · Thailand
4 responses so far ↓
1 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // May 25, 2009 at 11:07 am
For anyone who can read Thai and is interested in more intrigue concerning these “Ladies” (ท่านผู้หญิง, คุณหญิง), see my post here
http://www.sameskybooks.org/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=31194&view=findpost&p=371963
It shows a picture of lunch organized by Viraya to celebrate Butsaba’s birthday in late August 2006 (Butsaba was born 2 August). It was attended by, among others, Thaksin’s wife Photjaman. Unknown to Photjaman, this was precisely the time when, according to Sondhi Lim, Butsaba had summoned him inside the palace to receive HMQ’s Blue scarf (and 250000 Baht) in support of his PAD movement to topple Thaksin.
See also discussion by Thanaphol (Fa Diew Kan’s editor) and others on the issue of the latest lunch to ‘console’ Viraya organized by Butsaba, and its implications to the Sondhi assassination attemp, here:
http://www.sameskybooks.org/board/index.php?showtopic=31227
2 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // May 25, 2009 at 12:51 pm
With much “เซ็ง”, I should add that all SameSky Books (Far Diew Kan) web pages are regularly blocked. So the links I gave above might not work, unless being accessed under anti-block program like UltraSerf.
3 Nicholas Farrelly // May 25, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Thanks Ajarn Somsak,
To go straight to the image that Somsak refers to please follow this link. Khunying Potjaman (Thaksin’s wife) is in the back row, third from the right.
Readers with further information on these issues can feel free to post their comments here. It all adds to a picture of the behind-the-scenes machinations that should be of interest to anyone who seeks to understand how the sands of Thai politics and society are shifting…
Best wishes to all,
Nich
4 David Brown // May 26, 2009 at 11:19 am
a story is that Busapa met Sondhi Lim when they visited Luangta Bua and a “relationship” developed from there
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