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This striking . @Reuters . @jgesilva photo showing Queen Suthida of Thailand’s shock as protesters confront the royal motorcade in Bangkok on October 14 captures why #whatshappeninginThailand right now is historic and deserves your attention. A THREAD (1/10)
Thai authorities have now declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and detained protest leaders. This is a disturbing moment, because past crackdowns on demonstrations have turned deadly. Latest story here from FT’s . @johnreedwrites in Bangkok. https://www.ft.com/content/26f1f4e4-db9d-41f8-bf3a-0b79aa4e6be9 (2/10)
What’s unique about these protests is that they are rallies for reform of the monarchy – for so long a legally and culturally untouchable institution – as well as against the military’s domination of politics. (3/10)
The proximate cause is the 2016 enthronement of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, after the 70-year reign of his late father Bhumibol Adulyadej. In 2017 I wrote about the historic rupture this created – and why the events we see today seemed foretold. https://www.ft.com/content/149d82a4-ae17-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4 (4/10)
Vajiralongkorn has taken on extraordinary powers since he became king, including over military units and the estimated tens of billions of dollars of assets held by the Crown Property Bureau. Here’s another recent FT piece by . @johnreedwrites https://www.ft.com/content/251d8aea-6939-4166-afe6-2df0176e0f8f (5/10)
The deeper story is how, for political ends, Thai elites and foreign powers built a story of the greatness and semi-divinity of the Thai king. Critics risk long jail terms for lèse-majesté (insulting the royals)–even the king's dog is off limits. https://www.ft.com/content/ee88e1b8-a2f5-11e5-a035-96e9dfdf9fff (6/10)
Efforts to stifle scrutiny of the royals and the military men who rule under them spread beyond Thailand’s borders. Here’s a 2014 story I wrote about how a royalist vigilante turned up at a critic’s house in South London with a (replica) gun. https://www.ft.com/content/05e101fa-2f2b-11e4-a054-00144feabdc0 (7/10)
The previous untouchability of the Thai monarchy is also a story of Cold War power plays. Washington feted the royals on grand US tours as a conservative bulwark against the rise of Communism elsewhere in the region (Thailand also hosted Vietnam war US bomber bases). (8/10)
I tell this striking story in detail in the chapter Don’t Insult the Dog in The Fabulists. The book is about how leaders weaponise powerful myths to seize and expand their authority, from President Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines to Brexit Britain. https://oneworld-publications.com/the-fabulists.html (9/10)
In The Fabulists, I meet an outspoken Thai lawyer accused of lèse-majesté, a conservative intellectual charged for questioning whether a 16th-century royal elephant battle took place – and a hunter of monarchy critics who shows why the system was likely to crack one day. (10/10)
