Thailand’s long list of security organisations just got longer.
According to this report and short video presentation, Chonburi (and 30 other provinces) will now enjoy a civilian force christened the “King’s protection volunteers” (sometimes written as อาสาสมัครป้องกันสถาบัน but more officially known as อาสาสมัครปกป้องสถาบัน). The Thai versions more literally mean “(Royal) institution protection volunteers”.
And in some cases this merits the tidy abbreviation อสป.
There are plenty of details on this new outfit available online. The most thorough article tells us that this new volunteer force is an umbrella for various official, quasi-official and civilian groupings. The Village Scouts are in the mix. You may recall that Cyber Scouts are now also part of Thailand’s security landscape although they don’t get an explicit nod with the อสป. I’m sure they’re not far away.
Another collective that has signed up to protect the royal institution under this arrangement is called the อาสาสมัครพัฒนาประชาธิปไตย (“Democracy development volunteers”, often shortened to อสพป). If you want to join them then this application form will come in handy. All you need to do is fill in your personal particulars, pledge your loyalty to the king and the royal family, offer to re-pay the merit due to your birthland, disavow vote selling and buying, and devote yourself to the development of a correct, just and Thai democracy. Prachatai has an old article with plenty of other thoughts.
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But back to the overall project of enlisting volunteers to protect the royal institution:
If you really want to dig a bit deeper then this “most urgent” instruction from the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry has everything that you will want to know. It is currently online but I have also taken the liberty of making it available on the New Mandala server. It has a range of formal statements on the “(Royal) institution protection volunteers” that somebody who wanted to probe this issue (such as an Honours student) would need.
It occurs to me that there could be a fascinating study of the ways that Thailand’s Interior Ministry continues to generate an ever-expanding list of security organisations.
And as the sun sets on King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s long reign the enthusiasm for this approach only appears to increase. It is as though all of the various internal security mechanisms deployed over the past six decades have now been revived and brought together for one, last, final hurrah.
And they are joined, perhaps not always comfortably, by the unpredictability and randomness that the digital age presents. If you don’t think you can manage a Village Scout uniform don’t forget that there are plenty of other opportunities to volunteer to protect the king.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Malailuang // Feb 16, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Of all the government agencies, the Thai Ministry of Interior must win top rank for its manifestations of sycophantism. One interesting point of observation also comes to mind: if any monarch needs so much protection, where is the trust that should exist between him and his populace?
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2 Tarrin // Feb 16, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Isn’t this sound like the Hitler Youth in some sense??
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3 Nathan // Feb 16, 2011 at 4:55 pm
As the Lese Majeste debate/debacle continues onward, upward and expands into the entire range and scope of all present-day discourse on the Thailand situation, it has become more and more apparent that it is really a discussion/debate about one of the world’s most ubiquitous and successful Cults of Personality, which has been used to brainwash, dominate and keep down an ever more restive and globalized population.
North Korea, Cuba, the old Soviet Union, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Libya, many repressive regimes have made use of the Cult of Personality technique with endless photos, paintings, reverence ceremonies of various kinds, etc., but in no country has it been used so successfully and thoroughly as in Thailand.
However, there is always an endgame problem with Cults of Personality, no matter how successfully implemented, and that is what happens when the person whom the Cult of personality is based, becomes deceased and is no longer there?
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4 Tweets that mention Volunteering to protect Thailand’s “institution” -- Topsy.com // Feb 16, 2011 at 5:24 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kris, New Mandala. New Mandala said: Volunteering to protect Thailand’s “institution”: Thailand’s long list of security organisations just got longer… http://bit.ly/fEASEJ [...]
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5 Michael H. Nelson // Feb 17, 2011 at 3:32 pm
On January 26, 2011, the government department of the ministry of the interior informed the public via an advertisement in Matichon that it had been pursuing a countrywide project for the recruitment of “monarchy protection volunteers” (asasamak pokpong sathaban).
According to this ad, four million people had already joined this project. This would mean that each of Thailand’s about 75,000 villages had 53 such volunteers. Obviously, one would like to know more about how this project proceeded in practice in the provinces, districts, tambons, and villages. Certainly, the advertisement gave the impression that a major propaganda effort had been under way, with the potential to narrow the people’s political space at the local level, especially if they happened to belong to the opposing camp, the UDD (since the ministry “belongs” to the Bhumjaithai party, the volunteers would also come in handy at election time).
The advertisement also informed readers that Thailand had always been a united, secure, and peaceful country, “because we have had stable principal state institutions, namely nation, religion, and monarchy.” However, democratization had made the country clearly be divided into different camps of thought. Besides protecting the monarchy, a vital task of the volunteers therefore was to reestablish unity.
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6 Nicholas Farrelly // Feb 17, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Thanks Michael,
Very handy comment. I do wonder if anyone out there can shed light on the village, tambon, district or provincial level of things. If somebody has attended a relevant meeting, rally or what have you then New Mandala would be very keen to publish a report. Would be useful to know how this is being rolled out across the country from the local perspective…
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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7 Claude // Feb 20, 2011 at 9:30 pm
So are Jesus, Buddha and Margaret Thatcher “cults of personality”?
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8 Leah Hoyt // Feb 20, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Claude,
No, no, and no. Although Jesus and Buddha are closer then Thatcher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
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