[CJ Hinke of FACT comments: Despite Thailand's long-term, intense political crisis, as the saying goes, "We ain't seen nothing yet!" The entire Government censorship bureaucracy has pitted itself in all media on one crucial issue: lese majeste. This has meant that what we talk about openly in our private circles is never aired for public discussion. There have been a few cracks in that wall of silence recently: no opposition to the publication of a new book, The Assassination of King Ananda, perhaps because it takes the official view; no Government opposition to Forbes Magazine's "World's Richest Royals" issue cataloguing HM's holdings; and no opposition to several controversial panels on the monarchy at January's Thai Studies Conference at Thammasat, the best-attended of any panel being a discussion of Paul Handley's The King Never Smiles. Finally, a Thai academic has been brave enough to air our private thoughts in print--what happens next? The issue of Royal succession is not a controversy in Thai society...yet. But a future crisis can only be avoided by open, frank, public discussion of the monarchy and its future not by blocking a few juvenile YouTube videos. Thank you, Ajarn Thitinan, for a great contribution to the future of our society.]
“Once the King is gone, the country will be in uncharted waters”
Thailand Crisis: October 15, 2008
Bangkok Pundit http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/thitinan-on-state-of-democracy-in.html; has pointed out a remarkable article published in September’s Democracy Review by Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, titled “Thailand Since the Coup“.
Some quotes.
A major factor in the deep background of Thai politics has been the twilight that is overtaking the 62-year reign of widely revered King Bhumibol. [...]
Both sides are well aware, as all Thais fear but dare not say in public, that Thailand’s future is up for grabs. What happens after the current king leaves the scene could be the most wrenching crisis yet. So successful has been his kingship that most Thais have come to take too much for granted what he has meant to the fabric of national life.
[...]
Above all, he has played the crucial role of final arbiter in a country whose politics are chronically fractious and volatile. King Bhumibol’s unsurpassed moral authority has long been Thailand’s sheet anchor, the mainstay of national stability and continuity. Once he is gone, the country will be in uncharted waters.
It is common knowledge that none of King Bhumibol’s eligible heirs can be reasonably expected to command as much popularity, reverence, and moral authority as he does.
Not only will the King leave behind a large gap by virtue of his remarkable personal achievements, but it may also be argued that institutionally the monarchy occupies an asymmetrically important position in a now-modern country where public expectations for representation and demands for a greater share of the pie are rife.
Matching up to such a predecessor and crafting a new role for the modern monarchy will be daunting challenges indeed.
[...]
Thailand has never been here before, and the Privy Council has not expressed any preference regarding the succession.
Nor has King Bhumibol indicated his own preference thus far, aside from a 1974 legal revision that enabled a female heir to ascend to the throne. Without clearer indications from the King, the palace, or the Privy Council, the royal succession will remain Thailand’s biggest and most daunting question mark.
