The King of Thailand was born on a Monday. To celebrate the reign of the worlds longest serving monarch his people wear yellow shirts. Steering a country like Thailand which is built on power play and political intrigue through a volatile century that saw the Japanese annex Thailand in the Second World War through to the Vietnam war which effectively rolled out across Indo China is remarkable in itself but the strongly paternal figure of the King is the last dramatisation of a living deity we will probably ever see.
Westerners don't fully appreciate that word but if you want to see an instant lynch mob just set fire to a banknote in Thailand. Strong leadership will always raise question marks for continuation of stability and this will (not can, but will) play itself out in the natural transition of life expectancy that all humans are subjected too. That's as good as I can get on the topic without offending my hosts, because the Kingdom of Thailand dispenses Lese majeste writs much more easily than for arguably more important matters such as the breaches of human rights that the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stands accused of. A little matter of 2500 extra judicial killings in 2003 springs to mind. I guess Manchester City Football club have shown how many dollars they can be bought for.
Anyway its Royal Monday here in Bangkok and we're happy that its probably only the UK which prefers to stalk its Royalty to death for the newspapers that apparently nobody reads any more. There's been a couple of things that seem to have changed in the last few months. The first is that I dropped by the high end Gaysorn Plaza over the weekend and all the luxury boutique owners were moaning that the economy was starting to bite into their wealthy customers pockets. Its cause for concern in luxury brand obsessed Thailand when the not inconsiderable wealthy elite begin to slow down their spending. The other point is that they are ostensibly searching peoples bags as they make their way into the underground for bombs. I'm not sure why the skytrain isn't subject to this kind of search yet but the congestion around rush hour will be paralyzing if this happens. I'll finish this one off later, as my net time is going to run out v. shortly.
Westerners don't fully appreciate that word but if you want to see an instant lynch mob just set fire to a banknote in Thailand. Strong leadership will always raise question marks for continuation of stability and this will (not can, but will) play itself out in the natural transition of life expectancy that all humans are subjected too. That's as good as I can get on the topic without offending my hosts, because the Kingdom of Thailand dispenses Lese majeste writs much more easily than for arguably more important matters such as the breaches of human rights that the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stands accused of. A little matter of 2500 extra judicial killings in 2003 springs to mind. I guess Manchester City Football club have shown how many dollars they can be bought for.
Anyway its Royal Monday here in Bangkok and we're happy that its probably only the UK which prefers to stalk its Royalty to death for the newspapers that apparently nobody reads any more. There's been a couple of things that seem to have changed in the last few months. The first is that I dropped by the high end Gaysorn Plaza over the weekend and all the luxury boutique owners were moaning that the economy was starting to bite into their wealthy customers pockets. Its cause for concern in luxury brand obsessed Thailand when the not inconsiderable wealthy elite begin to slow down their spending. The other point is that they are ostensibly searching peoples bags as they make their way into the underground for bombs. I'm not sure why the skytrain isn't subject to this kind of search yet but the congestion around rush hour will be paralyzing if this happens. I'll finish this one off later, as my net time is going to run out v. shortly.
Regarding His Majesty's status in Thailand, and the extraordinary PR effort that was needed to ensure it post-WW2, here's a book you might find very interesting, Charles. However, for reasons similar to those that provoke your unaccustomed reticence, I don't feel brave enough to give you its title straight out, although a link to amazon should slip under the radar.
ReplyDeleteOoh under the radar Tim - nice one. Could this be the 21st century equivalent of photocopied Solzhenitsyn being passed around the CCCP (Acronyms usually befuddle censors, or at least slow things down) I have friends who have illegal copies here and they seem quite firm about matters upon reading the book.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy is that I'm sure you know as well as I do that if Thaksin was still Prime Minister, I couldn't have made that comment about the extra judicial killings.
I'm not sure that we are wearing yellow shirt on Monday is because our king was born on Monday, I think we wear yellow because it's an anniversary of his majesty 80th birthday this coming Dec.
ReplyDeleteThai people
Careful you don't catch yellow fever...(snigger)
ReplyDeleteSorry.
Good point Tiwat I didn't make it clear that the post I made was on a Monday and thus to celebrate the 80th Birthday of the King the people wear yellow on Mondays.
ReplyDeleteboom tish Charlie!
ReplyDeleteWhat does it say about royalists, I wonder, that their preferred colour is the least flattering known the human eye?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they get a say in the choice of colour Dan. Top down approach and all that.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow-on-Mondays meme has been in evidence for well over a year, so I don't think it can have anything to do with HM the King's 80th birthday.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, it began in early 2006 when Sondhi Limthongkul, a former ally of Thaksin turned bitter opponent, encouraged his supporters to demonstrate their support for the King, to highlight Thaksin's alleged acts of lese-majeste. Traditionally, each day of the week has an auspicious colour, and Monday's - the day on which HM was born - is yellow.
In the spirit of live blogging I'm currently in the Bulls Head off Sukhumvit and about to tuck into a much needed Sunday Roast. Khun Charan , the pleasantly articulate lady behind the bar assures me that the first Royal yellow T shirts were issued by the Government on December 5 2006 to civil servants in order to celebrate the Kings Birthday. The private sector swiftly picked up on this cue and as I understand it there is as yet no likely reason why this tradition might cease.
ReplyDeleteKhun Charan is, I'm sure, delightful, but I recall on the night of the coup (Sept 19, 2006), the correspondent on the BBC World Service remarked that she'd been out of town for a few months, had just got back, and everyone was now wearing yellow shirts. I can well believe that the civil service began to issue their employees with shirts last December, but it was Sondhi who started the whole thing a few months earlier.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm suggesting Thai people are capable of collective false memory syndrome, but ask them what side their country was on during WW2...
Hello mate - been catching up on your bloggy and there's loads I could/will say - but more importantly, are you actually in Thailand at the moment???
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think we Americans have stumbled headfirst into the Pumpkin Patch of No Return (as pertains to our own "Royalist" zeal for the White House and all its mandates), I'm comforted in knowing that other countries are still well ahead of us in terms of top-down control.
ReplyDeleteThe day Mondays become red-white-and-blue days is the day I take an extended Canadian vacation...
Tim. We should grab a coffee while I'm in town if you're around?
ReplyDeleteRob. I've mailed you. Sorry but I was in China and couldn't get on the blog.
Hi Justin. Welcome. Misplaced patriotism is an excuse for not having thought out a personal value set. Canada is the best place to live in the world right now. It was a close call for me to go there recently but the wild East always calls. :)
This explains why the Taxi driver refused to talk to me about the Queen's birthday when I was there years. I thought he was just being rude and didn't like tourists!
ReplyDelete