Thai Royals Give Me the Willies

Recently, Princess Ubonratana Rajakanya the eldest child of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Consort Sirikit showed an interesting but a bit creepy new look in her instagram feed.

I’m not sure that this new “Willy Wonka” look quite works for her but evidently the 2005 movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” starring Johnny Depp made a profound influence on the Princess.

Of course, Princess Ubonratana isn’t the only member of the royal family to be influenced by a character named “Willy” in a famous movie with a “bluish” twist. 

Thailand's Jack in the Box Court

The nine justices who sit on Thailand’s Constitution Court form a unique elite. They are not elected and they are not held directly accountable for their actions and when the Court strikes down actions by elected officials, it overrules the majority.

This doesn’t sound too democratic, does it? Of course not, courts aren’t supposed to be democratic.

But they are supposed to champion the fundamental rules of democratic fairness and be a beacon of hope for marginalized citizens.  This is where Thailand’s Constitution Court fails miserably. Instead, they have been the guardians of the old elite privilege. Constitution Court President, Wasan Soipisuth, has openly admitted this.

When advocates for popular democratic values of inclusion, equality, and fairness start to make progress, elitist judges like Wasan step in to promptly quash them.  Be it disqualifying candidates, dissolving political parties, or stopping legislation, the elite judges are a hindrance to democratic progress, civil rights and liberties.

The Constitution Court is like a Jack in the Box. You start to hear music for awhile then it abruptly stops and a clown pops out.

C'mon and sing along.  Everyone knows the popular "Jack in the Box" song...

All around the Parliament,

Something is about to get done.

And after them in double haste,

Pop! goes the Wasan.

Civil rights and liberties,

Someone put the brakes on.

That’s the way the money goes,

Pop! goes the Wasan.

Yes, Wasan Soipisuth is a Weasel. 

Prem the Flimflam Man

On Sunday, Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda gave the opening speech at an international seminar held to mark the Office of the Ombudsman’s 13th anniversary yesterday.  Of course, who better to open the inauspicious anniversary (13) of an inauspicious group (Ombudsman) then one of the most inauspicious humans on earth. 

But even calling Prem human is somewhat questionable. Does anyone else remember Exeter, the leader of the aliens from the planet Metaluna in the 1955 movie “This Island Earth”?

I’m just kidding. Prem is probably not extraterrestrial but he actually may be Thailand’s biggest flimflam man.  

Prem definitely comes with an agenda. Without the King, Prem would be insignificant.  And the more the King is revered, the more significant Prem is.  So he is going to glorify the King whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself – even if it means fudging the truth.

For instance one item in particular the Bangkok Post reported was Prem said in his speech that “Thais are blessed because His Majesty the King has dedicated himself to fighting poverty.”

Really? Whose poverty has the King dedicated himself to fighting? His own?

A Forbes article reports that King Bhumibol Adulyadej is worth over $30 billion dollars, making him, by far, the richest monarch on the planet (Earth, not Metaluna).

One depressing aspect of Thai politics is the susceptibility to charlatans which is partly why an Office of the Ombudsman is needed in the first place.  And when someone speaks glowingly of Thailand’s King, they are hailed as a great person. And nobody checks the facts.

So has Thailand’s King “dedicated” himself to fighting his subjects’ poverty as Prem stated? And how is that “fight” going?

One way to address that last question, is to look at the professional measure of a country's income distribution inequality called its "GINI Coefficient".  Basically, the GINI Coefficient describes an income distribution for the entire population. A value of 0 indicates that the income is divided equally among the citizens, while a value of 100 means total inequality.

Thailand's Gini Coefficient in 2009 (the last reported value) was at 40.02 according to the World Bank.  Other ASEAN countries have the following Gini Coefficients: Malaysia 46.21 (2009); Philippines 42.98 (2009); Laos 36.74 (2008); Vietnam 37.57 (2008); Cambodia 37.25 (2008); Indonesia 36.76 (2009); and Singapore 42.48 (1998).

The graph of Thailand’s Gini Coefficients over time shows that fighting poverty has only been mildly effective at best with little improvement to show and certainly no startling differences between the other ASEAN countries GINI Coefficients (where the Thai King hasn’t “dedicated” himself to fighting poverty).

So why have so many in Thailand, especially in the news media, been taken in by Prem’s flimflam? It’s not just inability or willingness to do the research, although that’s part of it.  There’s also deference to power — make no mistake about it, Royalism is a powerful political force, so one mustn’t point out that its heroes have no clothes.

But they don’t. Prem is just a fraud who makes no useful contribution to the debate over Thailand’s future.

Thai Politics in Black Robes

Courts are supposed to independently and dispassionately apply the law, without being influenced by the preferences and demands of politics…but not in Thailand.

All this "stuff" about the Constitution from the Thai courts is merely a charade in Thailand and Constitutional law is nothing more than just politics in black robes. The Constitution Court justices just vote their own political preferences. They have delivered rulings that have dissolved political parties, banned hundreds of politicians and brought down two democratically elected pro-Thaksin governments. 

The impartiality of judges, who are often accused of serving the interests of the anti-Thaksin establishment, is often questioned. But any questions have now been put to rest as the Constitution Court President, Wasan Soipisuth, openly admitted to such in a seminar on the court’s role in maintaining the balance in Thai politics (organized by the court itself, of course).

Wasan confessed that the rulings to disqualify former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and to dissolve political parties were, in his word, "careless" and that the court procedures relied too much on individual judges’ personal opinions, and failed to clearly establish what the facts were before making the decision.

He referred to the court's resolution to dissolve the People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya parties: “If various groups had not staged so many rallies at the time, the decision might have been different.”  “If the country at that time had been peaceful, the government and the opposition could have joined hands, the country could have moved forward, and I believe most of the judges would have decided not to dissolve the parties," he said. "But the country at that time was chaotic and the Constitution Court had to use its judgment to maintain law and order," he said.

Of course when Wasan says “use its judgment,” he actually means “abuse its power.”  In 2010, there was even more chaos but when the ruling Democrat Party’s dissolution case came up, the court went out of its way to dismiss it due to a technicality.  

He also said that the ruling to dissolve the Palang Prachachon and Chart Thai Pattana parties was also "necessary in order to avoid political chaos".  I suppose it didn’t matter if they were guilty or not.

The favorite law book of Wasan and his cohorts on the bench must be Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”  Sentence first, verdict afterwards (we’ll actually debate the case later if we have time). This would confirm the notion that the Constitution Court is a backwards court.

In an effort to try to paint himself and fellow judges as knights in shining armor protecting the kingdom from the evils of Shinawatra, self back patter Wasan went on to say that “the Constitution Court has historically sought solutions for the country in times of political gridlock.” Never mind that these court “solutions” actually did more harm than good and instead of moving Thailand “forward” as he suggests, the court put the country in “full reverse”.

In order for Thailand to be a democracy, the judiciary, i.e. the Constitution Court, needs to be independent and non-political. If not then what is good for the people and for Thailand will continue to be ignored in favor of judgments that favor a particular political party or viewpoint.

Fanaticism, Ignorance And Two Laws

Last Wednesday, lèse majesté bunco artist Tul Sitthisomwong led about 100 ultra-royalists to Thai PBS headquarters in order to call for the resignation of that organization’s executives.  

Tul and the rest of the knuckleheads who attended were upset at that station’s week-long special of its interview and  discussion program "Tob Jote Prathet Thai" (“Answering Thailand’s Issues”).  The last two episodes of the five part series were debates between Thammasat University Professor Somsak Jeamteerasakul and royalist nut job Sulak Sivaraksa, focusing on the draconian lése majesté law.

This proves that fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and continuously needs feeding in Thailand. Now, the police are even investigating the possibility that a criminal offence was committed. Evidently debating the controversial lése majesté law is a violation of the lése majesté law to some ultra-royalists.

But that’s the problem with a poorly defined and wicked law like lése majesté.  It’s upholders can initially make it a crime to threaten the monarchy, then the next day they can make it a crime to even discuss the law itself.  Pretty soon, they’ll be banning even more books, newspapers, websites, radio stations and television stations. And with banners flying and with drums beating they’ll be marching Thailand backwards into the dark ages.

The ultra-royalists clearly desire to incite fear, causing everyone to become afraid to even talk about anything remotely concerning the monarchy. It’s becoming quite clear that Thailand can’t have both free speech and a monarchy.

If any law was broken in the debates then it would be Godwin’s Law. In the final debate, Sulak did bring up Hitler. And whoever is the first to play the "Hitler card" has lost the argument as well as any trace of respect, as having to resort to bring up the most infamous mass-murdering dictator in history generally means that person has run out of better arguments. Thus, once such a comparison was made, the debate should have immediately ended with Sulak automatically losing the debate.

There are some things stupid arguments can't solve. 
For everything else, there's the Hitler Card. 

If only Tul and his ilk would be as fervent supporters of Godwin’s Law as they are with the lése majesté law.