The short essay I wrote earlier in the week titled “Thailand and lese majeste” has now been translated into Thai. It is available here. The comments that follow the translation may be of interest to those who read Thai.
Thailand and lese majeste: In Thai
September 4th, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · 3 Comments
Tags: Asian Studies · Thailand · Translations · lese majeste
3 responses so far ↓
1 Mr. Wrigley // Sep 5, 2009 at 4:01 am
Lese majeste has another function for the palace..By enacting strict penalty, with the king able to pardon (which he often does), the king and the palace get to show their almighty benovelence, compassion, and pity for those Thais who have been “misguided”, “misinformed”, and who lack the “proper socio-cultural etiquette”. It is like a three part play: Act I: Misguided Thai commits lese majeste; Act II: the court hands down lenghty prison sentence; Act III: happy ending when the enlightened, benevolent king pardons the “lost soul”, which leaves the audience in awe of the king’s greatness–his power is reaffirmed.
Now it is debatable as to whether this outweighs other costs.
2 Andy // Sep 7, 2009 at 8:01 am
Mr. Wrigley, your spot on there it’s a case of any chance we’ve got, let’s make him a hero.
Others might call this insecurity after all other royals in other countries do not need such special protection.
3 BKK Lawyer // Sep 7, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Unfortunately, Liberal Thai, the site that has your translated article, is BIT (Blocked in Thailand) and has been for some time already.
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