Name Withheld: Thailand’s Crisis
[The author, whose name has been withheld for safety concerns, is a retired businessman.]
It has been a week since the Thai military cracked downed on antigovernment protests in the capital. Bangkok has not seen such violence in its city streets in nearly 20 years. The city is still under curfew, travelers are being told to avoid it, and the country is at a political impasse....
Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 after the Siamese revolution. High hopes for democracy evolved, however, as the country became a blended absolute and constitutional institution.
The major obstacle to political reform in Thailand is its law of lèse-majesté.
All 17 versions of the Thai Constitution since 1932 contain the clause, “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” The Thai criminal code elaborates: “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.”
In fact, the law has been applied broadly to intimidate and – where expedient, to imprison – critics of the current political system. That presents a significant problem: It becomes impossible to talk about political reform. There can be no open, frank, and direct exchange of views on how to politically deal with the monarchy as an institution. And without that ability to speak freely, reform becomes near impossible.
Lèse-majesté laws throw a cloak of quasi-religious adulation around the institution. This contradiction between democratic and god-king visions of governing must be resolved.
Reform in Thailand can find no traction within the existing political system that rests, in part, on a sacred institution that cannot be discussed or questioned....
Read entire article at CS Monitor
It has been a week since the Thai military cracked downed on antigovernment protests in the capital. Bangkok has not seen such violence in its city streets in nearly 20 years. The city is still under curfew, travelers are being told to avoid it, and the country is at a political impasse....
Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 after the Siamese revolution. High hopes for democracy evolved, however, as the country became a blended absolute and constitutional institution.
The major obstacle to political reform in Thailand is its law of lèse-majesté.
All 17 versions of the Thai Constitution since 1932 contain the clause, “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” The Thai criminal code elaborates: “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.”
In fact, the law has been applied broadly to intimidate and – where expedient, to imprison – critics of the current political system. That presents a significant problem: It becomes impossible to talk about political reform. There can be no open, frank, and direct exchange of views on how to politically deal with the monarchy as an institution. And without that ability to speak freely, reform becomes near impossible.
Lèse-majesté laws throw a cloak of quasi-religious adulation around the institution. This contradiction between democratic and god-king visions of governing must be resolved.
Reform in Thailand can find no traction within the existing political system that rests, in part, on a sacred institution that cannot be discussed or questioned....