Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37643326

by Osiris30 • 10 years ago

102 67 10 years ago

zymhan3• 10 years ago

It blows my mind that someone could reign from just after WWII until this year.

I hope that Thailand will stay stable. Support of the King has been key to successful military coups and transitions. The Crown Prince is much less admired, and quite odd:

"The 63-year-old crown prince, Vajiralongkorn (pictured), is spoilt and demanding, and—to put it mildly—widely loathed. Three times divorced, he spends a lot of time abroad, often in Germany. In 2007 leaked video footage showed him and his then-consort, who was wearing nothing but a G-string and heels, holding a lavish royal party. The only guest appeared to be Foo Foo, his poodle, which before dying in 2015 enjoyed the rank of air chief marshal."

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21702497-after-ailing-mon...

stuaxo• 10 years ago

Stopped reading at the "Calm and orderly" bit - if you've ever spent any time in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, this is far from the case.

chrisfosterelli• 10 years ago

I'm assuming they meant this comparatively to previous times of unrest in Thailand's history.

zymhan3• 10 years ago

They didn't mean in the context of hustle and bustle, they mean political and societal stability.

ddeck• 10 years ago

Unsurprisingly there is no byline on that article.

For those unaware, it has been illegal to defame or insult the monarchy for the last 100 years or so under the country's Lèse majesté law, widely used to silence critics.

Some notable cases from Wikipedia [1]:

2008, Harry Nicolaides from Melbourne, Australia - Wrote an offending passage in his self-published book Verisimilitude. The book, which sold a mere 7 copies, mentioned the "romantic entanglements and intrigues" of royalty. He was arrested upon arriving at Bangkok's international airport[56] and charged with lèse majesté. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to three years in jail but then pardoned by the king after spending a month in jail, released, and deported.

2012, Ampon Tangnoppakul, He was accused of sending four Short Message Service (SMS) messages from his cell phones. The messages were deemed offensive to the King and Queen of Thailand. He had been denied bail on 8 occasions and died in a prison hospital at the age of 61 while serving a 20–year prison sentence.

2013, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk - Sentenced to ten years in prison, convicted of publishing two articles under a pseudonym that made negative references to the crown in his now-defunct magazine Voice of Taksin.

2015, Thanakorn Siripaiboon, Thai factory worker - He had been detained on 8 December 2015 and had been kept in an undisclosed location prompting fears of his forced disappearance. He faces multiple charges including that of insulting the king's adopted dog Tongdaeng. Thai military junta did not detail the precise insult made towards the animal. He faced up to 37 years in prison. He was granted bail on 8 March 2016; the bail was set at half a million baht

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9_in_Thai...

throw_away• 10 years ago

That may be true, but Economist articles almost never have bylines.

ethbro2• 10 years ago

Not being Thai, I won't comment on his effectiveness and I mourn anyone's passing. But it would seem like it's a lot easier to be 'widely loved' when you make it illegal to feel or communicate anything negative.

zymhan3• 10 years ago

The article doesn't have a byline because they're scared, The Economist just doesn't attribute articles to individual authors.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/ec...

1024core• 10 years ago

It blows my mind that someone could reign from just after WWII until this year.

Queen Elizabeth of UK (and CANZ) has been ruling since 1952.

nihonde3• 10 years ago

The reverence that Thai people have for this King is no joking matter. They take their monarch deadly seriously and it seems fair to let them honor the King as they see fit without a lot of outsiders casually weighing in with half-baked opinions.

oldmanjay3• 10 years ago

Many of us don't limit ourselves based on how seriously others take things, and we don't really have or need a reason. It's just as fair as considering royalty to be sacred.

nihonde3• 10 years ago

I don't have a high regard for monarchies in general. I'll talk all day about what an insulting waste of time and money the U.K. monarchy is. It's not about your freedom to say what you want -- it's about respecting the views of others and acknowledging that your casual opinion might be very hurtful to other people who are free to hold their own views.

AdamN• 10 years ago

I'm American and there are people from all over the world casually weighing in about America on HN. That's totally OK. Let's not have a double standard and let's be free to have opinions about other peoples' royals.

bruceb• 10 years ago

I don't disagree but it must be noted that most HN have high level of English while I doubt all but a few that are not Thai have Thai language skills.

There are a ton of US news sources while there is less reporting on Thailand and it is hard to get nuance when you don't speak the language.

Even people who are native English speakers but are not from the US don't understand politics in the US.

rosser4• 10 years ago

False equivalence. The Thai monarchy and lèse-majesté have far less impact on the global scene than most of the things about the US about which people are weighing in. Someone being prosecuted for stepping on Thai currency is small potatoes compared to ... say, a Trump White House. Or, you know, invasions under false pretenses.

throwanem2• 10 years ago

I'm not overfond of ill-considered opinions about the US expressed by those who know little of our country. But I also recognize the reality that the actions of the US are a matter of considerable concern for people who live elsewhere, because we tend to act in ways that reverberate across the planet. The same isn't really true of Thailand, so I don't think the concept of "double standard" applies here.

nihonde3• 10 years ago

No one is curtailing your right to say what you want. My original point was to educate people about how deeply Thai people feel about their King. It's not just the threat of prison time at work--it's serious business in that part of the world and if you're not a troll, you may want to play nice with people.

jburgess777• 10 years ago

To frame things in a UK context, which seems more similar to the Thailand situation then the USA.

The monarchy is (almost) completely separate from the political system. While many people might debate the pros and cons of the Conservatives versus Labour, UKIP or liberal democrats, very few question the role of Queen Elizabeth II.

In the UK, the monarch has the the right to veto legislation passed through the parliament but this right is rarely exercised. This is quite different to the US system where the president is ultimately in charge and has to fight for re-election every few years.

It sounds like the monarchy in Thailand has strived to maintain stability for the people in spite of an unstable political environment. This might explain why the people continue to believe in the monarchy in Thailand in a way which seems alien to anyone in the USA.

hx87• 10 years ago

Not insulting the king while in Thailand or on Thai sites sounds fair enough, but it shouldn't apply to those of us in the rest of the world. Just as US laws and norms shouldn't apply outside of the US, Thai norms and laws should not apply outside of Thailand.

rodgerd2• 10 years ago

but it shouldn't apply to those of us in the rest of the world

Well, unless you get pulled off a flight that turns out to connect through Thailand and go to jail.

jimmywanger• 10 years ago

There's going to be a huge power vacuum.

Now, there's nobody with moral authority to mediate between clashing factions.

Previously, the king could just say "Guys, stop killing each other and cut it out" and they'd actually listen. The crown prince has no such power and influence over the country. Will be interesting to see who rushes in to grab influence.

kafkaesq• 10 years ago

According to the FT ("King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, 1927-2016"):

"Bhumibol Adulyadej ... chose not to condemn the 1976 massacre at Bangkok's Thammasat University of dozens of pro-democracy protesters ..."

Time Magazine: "Thailand Bids Farewell to Beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej", regarding said events:

In early October of that year, demonstrations convulsed Bangkok in response to the arrest of prominent student activists. The crowd swelled to around 400,000, including many members of the public, owing to the military’s heavy-handed response that resulted in at least 100 civilian deaths. Bhumibol intervened, ordering the doors of Chitrlada Palace opened to provide the students refuge, and persuaded Thanom and his cohorts to go into temporary exile.

In September 1976, Bhumibol allowed Thanom to return to Thailand, even visiting him with Sirikit in Wat Bovornives — the Chakri dynasty’s personal temple — where he had ordained as a monk. Thousands of furious students gathered inside Thammasat University to oppose Thanom’s return. On Oct. 5, spurred on by radio broadcasts accusing the students of threatening the crown prince and communism, thousands of royalist paramilitaries massed outside the campus.

The killing began the following dawn. First, a rocket-propelled bomb was fired into the throng of students, reportedly killing four and injuring dozens. Military weapons wreaked a heavy toll until around 9 a.m., and at least two students were dragged out, tortured and lynched. Three others were seen dumped on tires, drenched in petrol and burned alive. A junta headed by the Defense Minister, Admiral Sa-ngad Chaloryu, seized power immediately after the massacre. Another flirtation with democracy had been crushed.

"New photos of 6 Oct 1976 massacre emerge" (NSFW, but apparently safe enough for the U.S. to consider Thailand among its staunchest asian allies for the past several decades):

http://prachatai.com/english/node/2814

dageshi2• 10 years ago

Thailand has cycled between elected government and military dictatorship something like 15 times while he was King, the miracle is he didn't have an outright civil war during his reign. If you've ever visited Thailand, you'd know that compared to surrounding countries (with the exception of Malysia perhaps) the level of infrastructure and standard of living is much higher in Thailand, things generally work there whereas in neighbouring countries like Cambodia/Laos/Burma they generally don't, or at least they haven't until very recently.

To at least my outside perspective, The King seems to have been a stabilising force which prevented Thailand from descending into outright civil war.

And I can't help but feel that somehow insinuating that America shouldn't consider Thailand an ally after the events you listed is a bit ridiculous considering the year before they occured the US was still in Vietnam fighting a war with allies who were torturing and killing a damned site more people than what was happening in Thailand around the same time.

rodgerd2• 10 years ago

things generally work there whereas in neighbouring countries like Cambodia/Laos/Burma they generally don't,

Yeah, I can't imagine having B-52s unloading on Cambodia or Laos had anything to do with that. Clearly it's their lack of a monarchy.

vacri2• 10 years ago

apparently safe enough for the U.S. to consider Thailand among its staunchest asian allies for the past several decades

Maybe the US found a friend, given that its military also killed college students in the same era; students using their democratic right to protest?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

lobf• 10 years ago

C'mon man, do you really think the Kent State shootings are at all comparable to the '76 massacre? Look at the photos...

switch007• 10 years ago

N.B. gov.uk has updated its official travel advice (it's always useful check this before travelling, especially if you're UK-based) [1]

"...there is now an official period of mourning of one year from 14 October 2016; you should respect the feelings and sensitivities of the Thai people at this time; access to entertainment, including restaurants, bars, and shopping areas may be restricted and you should behave respectfully when in public areas; if possible, wear sombre and respectful clothing when in public; check local media regularly and follow the advice of the local authorities"

[1] https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand

happy-go-lucky• 10 years ago

That's helpful.

gnipgnip• 10 years ago

RIP. His daughter became the patron of the World Sanskrit Conference, when the Indian state itself considered Sanskrit far too dead to be worth funding.

(The whole new-age wave in the West seems to have brought a change of heart to "wannabe Brittania".Indic languages are generally entropically dead to be fair.)

todd82• 10 years ago

His daughter dated my roommate in college. I always thought he was just making it up. She was a very attractive, nice, intelligent woman (they met in Physics class at MIT), but I never believed that she was from the ruling family of Thailand. She never mentioned that her father was a king and never acted any different than the rest of us commoners.

One summer, I read about their wedding in the paper. He wasn't BSing me after all!

johansch2• 10 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubolratana_Rajakanya ?

"While at MIT she first met Peter Ladd Jensen, whom she later married."

todd82• 10 years ago

Yes, that's her.

bebop• 10 years ago

My wife is friends with her daughter Mia. Really nice people, down to earth for being the direct descendants of a royal family.

superfluid2• 10 years ago

It's relatively easy to be considered nice when there are strict laws forbidding anyone from saying anything to the contrary.

Given media control in Thailand, there's no doubt plenty of incentive leading those in the media to go out of their way to praise the royal family (deserved or not).

truth_sentinell3• 10 years ago

Can't believe there are still monarchs in 2016. Definitely there are millions of people living in 1500.

Abolish monarchy!!!

eveningcoffee• 10 years ago

There are more unbelievable things taking place on Earth.

rosser4• 10 years ago

There's a pretty substantial difference between an absolute monarchy and a constitutional one (which Thailand is). Just ask the Dutch how they feel about it, for example.

Monarchies are not necessarily bad, and the kind of shallow, absolutist thinking displayed here contributes nothing to the discussion.

truth_sentinell3• 10 years ago

What do you mean by constitutional? The are two types: Inherited monarchy and "elected". In the last, the election is from a specific group of people and the monarch is not chosen by Public vote. Nobody should have privileges above others and the power to constitutionally influence their lives just because they happened to be born in a "royal family".

Apparently we have some UK's Queen fans, since my comment is down voted.

SomeStupidPoint• 10 years ago

...You realize that a lot of Western countries, like the UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc are monarchies, right?

Thailand largely functions either as a parliamentary system or military junta, depending on the year.

superfluid2• 10 years ago

In practice, Canada is about as close to a monarchy as North Korea is to a democracy.

clock_tower• 10 years ago

Consider that people instinctively believe that the top of the government -- or at least the head of their tribe -- is more or less blameless. ("The good Tsar" and all that.) With a king or queen with limited powers, that halo lands somewhere where it can't do much harm; the head of state has limited powers, and the head of government (Prime Minister, Chancellor, etc.) can be justly evaluated, and despised if necessary. But if you have a president, dictator, unconstitutional monarch, or the like, the halo attaches to them, and it can do a lot of damage; have you tried talking with a devout Republican about Guantanamo Bay lately?

joshontheweb2• 10 years ago

I'm in Thailand at the moment and I'm interested to see how this plays out. This guy is super popular. His picture is on the wall in every business and many homes. Not out of compulsion. They just love the king. I'm sure most places will close for mourning.

We have been advised to take out lots of cash and get food sorted as we may not have access for a little while.

The bigger question is what is going to happen with the junta now?

mhurron• 10 years ago

This guy is super popular. ... Not out of compulsion.

Making it a crime to criticize the royal family with punishments up to 15 years tends to make it look like uncoerced love.

abhia• 10 years ago

To note: that's not from the royal Thai family, but from the policing structures in Thailand.

dageshi2• 10 years ago

Thailand in a sense is a very divided country, the one thing that the majorities on either sides could agree on was their respect for the king. They called him a "stabilising force" for precisely that reason, the huge majority of Thai's genuinely loved and respected the man if for no other reason than he was a public figure who'd been around before most of them were born and whom was mostly above the kind of day to day dirty politics that lead Thailand to be in an endless cycle of elected government followed by coup.

joshontheweb2• 10 years ago

This is all just based on my personal experience talking to people.

I started asking about him because the pictures were everywhere. Maybe I was fooled but it sure seemed like they liked him and had good things to say. Not that they were fearfully trying to avoid speaking ill of the king.

Is there a law requiring them to hang his picture? I don't think I've been in a single thai owned business that didn't have him hanging on the wall.

mdturnerphys2• 10 years ago

The Crown Prince isn't nearly as popular, despite the same lèse-majesté laws applying to discussion of him.

rasz_pl2• 10 years ago

Yes, my people also _loved_ Stalin under Russian occupation.

welanes• 10 years ago

This quote from Lawrence Osborne is apt:

Thailand is a unique society in the modern world: a Theravada Buddhist monarchy with a parliamentary system. The clarinet-playing king, believed to be a living incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, presides via lèse majesté laws over a hedonistic and technology-obsessed Asian Tiger economy, centered in one of the most sophisticated urban cultures on earth. No one has ever been able to understand how it all holds together.

The mystery behind that last sentence may just about to be revealed.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

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