December 5 is the venerable Thai King’s birthday. The day is called wan pah or Father’s Day as Thais view their ruler with a healthy dose of deification. Guide books warn travelers to refrain from any and all comments about the royal family for any joke or insult will be considered a crime, as proven by the case of the Swiss man who defaced the King’s portrait with spray paint.
He was looking at a maximum sentence of 75 years, but the judges showed mercy as he confessed to his crime.
10 years.
The one person who regards the lèse-majesté law as too draconian is the king himself, who in 2005 commented about never allowing an offender reaching prison. “I must also be criticized. If they get sent to prison, I pardon them.”
That’s the kind of man the King is.
Noble to the core.
My wife and I were having a discussion about who was Thai.
I argued that Thailand was only known by that appellation after the fascist coup of 1935. Before it was called Siam. “Thai people come from everywhere. Laos, Burma, Thaialnd, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, India, even westerners.”
Bird the most popular Thai pop star is kreung Thai or half farang.
“Have one man 100% Thai.” My wife declared, proudly aware she knows more about thailand than I could ever discover through my books and discourse with drunken motorsai drivers.
“Who?” Her father was about as thai as they come, although her mother was part Chinese.
“The King.”
I wai-ed her in respectful defeat.
Bhumipol had led his people since 1945. They have never fallen to another country. He has intervened in 1992 to bring a dangerous confrontation to a peaceful conclusion. His throne insured stability. His charities help the poor. My wife’s father has a solar panel in his rice hut thanks to the King. He plays jazz and most recently declared the nation should develop a ”sufficiency economy” of living within your means ie anti western comsumerism.
Normally I’m an anarchist.
Nowadays a royalist and I stand during the anthem at the cinema.
The former prime minister had plastered the countryside with billboards portraying him as a royal figure.
I found that offensive and would have bought the Swiss man a beer if he had defamed a portrait of Thaksin. As it stands Jufer has 30 days to appeal. The king as previously stated will probably intervene for Songkran, but Jufer had better hire bodyguards to spirit him out of the country, because he wouldn’t survive another day here as a free man.
Som nam nah.
In the meanwhile all I can say is long live the king.
I certainly can’t say that about GW Bush.
Then again no one thinks he’s king except for his entrourage, then again they all suffer cocaine delusion.