Royals’ survival depends on public support-Bangkok Post
15-12-09
Public support is key to royals’ survival
Achara Ashayagachat
Bangkok Post: December 9, 2009
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/28892/public-support-is-key-to-royals-survival
The popularity of Europe and Japan’s serving monarchs has stood the test of time because they still have the backing of most of their people, according to diplomats.
King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Spanish royal family continue to enjoy wide public support because of the monarch’s philosophy of hard work, Spanish ambassador to Thailand Ignacio Sagaz Temprano told a seminar yesterday on “Constitutional Monarchies Outside Thailand: Experiences from Europe and Japan”.
Mr Temprano said more than 70% of Spaniards believed their king had outperformed elected officials and saw him as the country’s pillar of democracy. In Spain, the maximum penalty for committing lese majeste is a two-year jail sentence. Recently, a person was fined 200 euros (about 9,800 baht) for burning a photo of the king, he said.
Norwegian ambassador Merete Fjeld Brattested said the Norwegian monarch also was a popular ruler.
“The main reason [is] the King, the Queen and the Crown Prince are seen as role models for their representative generation, especially the young generation,” she said.
Norway, a constitutional monarchy since 1937, has a lese majeste law that carries a punishment of five to 21 years imprisonment for acts of defamation and slander against the monarch.
However, no one except the king himself could file a lawsuit and the last time there was such a case was in 1878, the ambassador said.
Japanese ambassador to Thailand Kyoji Komachi said his country’s constitution had explicitly listed what the emperor could do. In short, the emperor was the symbol of the state and had no power related to the government, Mr Komachi said.
“There is no lese majeste law and there has been no defamation cases involving the emperor as the people consider him a symbol of unity,” Mr Komachi said.
“An NHK poll revealed last month that 85% of the respondents appreciated the role of the monarchy, especially his visit to the victims who suffer from natural disasters,” he said.
Tjaco Theo van den Hout, the Netherlands ambassador, said the Dutch did not consider lese majeste cases because everyone was equal under the country’s judicial system.
Yet, the Dutch monarch enjoyed 80% to 85% popularity, he said.
“The moral authority of the monarchy is not something written in the constitution but something one needs to earn by performing,” he said.
Swedish ambassador to Thailand Linner Lennart said the monarchy system needed to be maintained.
People in Sweden believed a presidential system would be more expensive to maintain than a monarchy, he said.
