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Thread: Some remarkable scenes from the king and queen's appearance with the (presumably carefully selected) public at the palace area this evening. The king was introduced to a man who recently made headlines for standing among youth protesters holding a royal portrait. /1
The king thanked him, touched him on the shoulder and said he was very brave. The king also gave a friendly greeting to a man who appears to be Buddha Issara, touching him several times and whispering in his ear. /2 https://twitter.com/justin_th_th/status/1319654788275949569?s=19
Buddha Issara is a former monk who led a radical faction of the royalist-nationalist PDRC protest in 2014. He was then defrocked for a number of crimes, including firearms offences and misuse of royal insignia. He recently vowed to rally supporters to "defend the monarchy" /3
In another clip going viral from this evening, kneeling royalist supporters chant for the king to "keep fighting!" /4 https://twitter.com/Saveja3/status/1319648495238746112?s=09
All of this is the clearest and most direct intervention by the king in this political crisis so far. I interpret it as signaling that the king acknowledges the challenge to his authority by the protests, but will not back down. /5
He is also clearly and publicly showing his support for the royalist movement and its leaders, who I expect are currently undertaking a huge mobilisation effort, which we should be seeing fairly soon. /6
This pointed and deliberate intervention by the palace echoes events during the red/yellow crisis, especially when Queen Sirikit attended the funeral of a yellow shirt protester, clearly signalling her support for that movement. /7
The red shirts refer to that as one of several moments of "awakening" (ตาสว่าง), when they say they saw clearly the role of the monarchy in politics and began to lose faith in the institution. Currently trending on Twitter is #23ตุลาวันตาสว่าง - 23 Oct, the Day of Awakening. /8
If it wasn't clear enough already, the king just left no doubt. He's in this fight, and he's backing his royalist-nationalist supporters against the pro-democracy youth movement. Tonight will go down in the history books as a pivotal moment in this crisis. /End
