Lately there has been some on-line speculation about the whereabouts of Thailand’s favourite prince. Well, it seems that he has finally shown up, at a Boy Scout event. This is a little inconvenient for New Mandala, as we were just about to launch a new entertainment feature. But, what the heck, we will run it anyway.
Enjoy the hunt! (Click on the image for a much larger, search-friendly, version.)
17 responses so far ↓
1 Clifford Sloane // Jul 7, 2009 at 6:58 pm
OK, Andrew, I looked. Couldn’t find him. Unless that was him in the swimming pool?
2 Andy // Jul 8, 2009 at 7:28 am
Be careful opening the link to “Boy Scout Event”. My virus scanner just warned me of a malicious Java on that site, and I recall not too long ago that sub-site of the Public Relations Department had been in Google site warning and thus did not open in Firefox at all. Seems like the webmaster failed to protect the site from all the naughty things like SQL injection, and now tries to collect drones in a botnet.
[Thanks for the tip about the link Andy. I have replaced the link with a jpg image of the story. Andrew Walker]
3 Bangkok Pundit // Jul 10, 2009 at 5:37 am
According to Matichon, he was at his daughter’s graduation ceremony at Chula yesterday.
4 Ralph Kramden // Jul 10, 2009 at 10:28 am
He’s quite visible of late, in real life. Boy scouts, Wat Phra Kaew and extensive coverage of his seemingly brilliant daughter at the Chula graduation. Chula was at its royalist best yesterday.
By the way, is it true, as I have been told by two sources recently, that each student who graduates from university all over the country is required to make a 600 baht “donation” to the university for presentation to the royal personage who hands out their degree certificate? Or is this another rumour?
5 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // Jul 11, 2009 at 9:03 am
By the way, is it true, as I have been told by two sources recently, that each student who graduates from university all over the country is required to make a 600 baht “donation” to the university for presentation to the royal personage who hands out their degree certificate? Or is this another rumour?
Well, yes, it’s true, although it’s not called, nor officially regarded as ‘donation’ (bo-ri-jak), but has some official name, something along the line of “graduation fee”. The amount also slightly varies depending on universities (I understand that my uni, Thammasat, is currently about 550 or 600. Of this amount the uni actually keeps for itself 50 Baht).
Another thing, it’s not offically – not normally or publicly – revealed to the students who pay the ‘fee’ that the money will be ‘toon-klaw-tha-wai’ (i.e. give to) member of the royal family who hands them the degree certificate. Hence the rumor-like situation about the money. Suppose a uni like Thammasat has 5000 graduates each year, the total amount of this ‘fee’ to be ‘thoon-klao-tha-wai’ would be around 1.5 million baht. But the really big one is the Ratchapat Universities which hold all-campuses graduation ceremony lasting about a week (you do the mathe).
In case of the Crown Prince who, since his other daughter (the one with law degree) graduated, became the regular giver of the graduation certificate at my university (this is a story in itself which I won’t tell here), there’s something quite, shall I say, ‘peculiar’ about this ‘graduation fee’ and certain aspect of the ceremony (I’m talking only about the case of Thammasat). I won’t risk giving you details here either.
6 overwhelmed // Jul 11, 2009 at 3:49 pm
This is purely observation, no commentary. Yesterday, Friday, July 10, HRH was found inaugurating a new building in Thammasat Rangsit. The entourage that passed consisted of the following:
1 Royal Benz – light cream golden? color for HRH and princess
1 Royal Benz – (probably) backup, less fancy as the first, but big.
2 identical gleaming ketchup (or blood) red Mercedes Benz – couldnt tell the series but with a cluster of radio antennas at the back
11 identical gleaming ketchup (or blood) red BMWs – couldn’t tell the series, but they look big, long and squat, also with a cluster of radio antennas at the back
9 identical silver and white (on side doors) BMWs (similar models to the red BMWs, I think) with police style roof mounted lightbar (I can’t read Thai, but I guess it these are probably some kind of royal police escort vehicles).
Total royal cars: 24 (I will not tell you the sequence of vehicles, for security reasons)
I don’t know about you, I was pretty overwhelmed (& intimidated) by the extraordinary display of power and wealth. I’ve seen images of the entourage of Berlusconi (not that they’re on the same league) in Youtube, but it has never come to a level as fabulous as this.
To the learned men/women of New Mandala, is there anything auspicious or significant about the number 24?
7 Srithanonchai // Jul 11, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I don’t know what’s wrong with such fees. In the public management literature, this is generally called “user fees,” that is, people who want a service must pay for its delivery.
8 Portman // Jul 13, 2009 at 4:25 pm
My earlier comment here didn’t make it. I didn’t think this was really hilarious enough to be worth Andrew taking the risk of getting banged up for lese majeste. This would be a pretty clear cut case of poking fun at the CP and it would hard for Andrew to elicit international sympathy with either the Nicolaides defence that he was too dim to understand the Thai law or the Ajarn Giles defence that he was expressing a serious academic opinion based on rigorous research.
9 Ralph Kramden // Jul 13, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Srithanonchai: Yes, indeed, and contribute to the sufficiency of others.
10 Andrew Walker // Jul 13, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Thanks Portman for your concern. I agree it is not my funniest post. My aim was to try to provoke more discussion on the issue of the prince’s semi-regular disappearances (and have a bit of fun at the same time). Does poking fun amount to lese majeste? I did place him in a very auspicious location, after all. Perhaps the time has come for international academics to start pushing the envelope rather more than they have in the past. AW
(And sorry for editing your comment so as not to spoil the search for others.)
11 Kulap // Jul 14, 2009 at 1:39 am
>>>people who want a service must pay for its delivery.
You mean the students–or the university administration–have a choice?
12 1000km // Jul 14, 2009 at 8:23 pm
>>>people who want a service must pay for its delivery.
What kind of response would a student get if they volunteered not to pay the voluntary fee I wonder?
13 Ralph Kramden // Jul 17, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Overwhelmed at #6: On Wednesday, as I waited for the skytrain at rush hour, I noticed hordes of policemen descend on the street below and clear it. Sure enough, a royal cavalcade zoomed through the suddenly empty streets with a policeman at every side road and driveway.
No real idea who it was. Maybe Sirindhorn as she was in the same car in news reports. The largest car was a big yellow Benz and the majority of cars were also yellow Benzs. I counted the convoy – 23 vehicles, with 4 of them press cars. So the prince wins.
14 Chris Beale // Sep 20, 2009 at 1:24 am
I am really getting sick and tired of the endless bashing of the Crown Prince on this site, and some other places.
Give His Royal Highness a break – He is doing his best.
And may even have brokered a deal between Thaksin and the powers-that-be.
Please be fair – not bigoted – on this web-site.
15 Demasking // Sep 20, 2009 at 10:36 am
Chris-please kindly shut up! Us democratic freedom loving humans are sick of relativists like you: supporting the violent repression and human rights violations that this country commits in the name of its right-wing culture and tradition like magic sacred obscenely rich who deserve a fate worse than XXXX
16 Ralph Kramden // Sep 20, 2009 at 11:00 am
Chris, I know you are lazy, but how do you know he is doing his best? And what is bigoted in the above?
17 R. N. England // Sep 20, 2009 at 3:02 pm
A dark side of hereditary monarchy is the poisonous relationship that often develops between courtiers surrounding the king and those who seek future advancement by attaching themselves to his heir. Lord Hervey’s highly amusing memoirs show that George II’s courtiers were partly responsible for the bad name of his heir, Prince Frederick. Prince Vajiralongkorn’s reputation is likely to have suffered at the hands of the same experts who are orchestrating the campaign of hatred against Thaksin. I’m not saying that both them don’t have serious faults, but I’m suggesting that we should consider the likely contribution of the King’s particular hangers-on. To preserve their own power by persuading the King against what may have been his own inclination to abdicate, they are likely to have found it necessary to hammer away in private at the Crown Prince’s reputation, and to ensure that gossip and salacious material spreads to the public domain.
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