Thailand is a country where there can be lively conversations about all sorts of topics, where some new political parties have formed to vigorously contest the national elections held in March last year. Among at least 35 … The theater closed to mourn the king. In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The gates to the old zoo are locked shut. Thailand is putting the squeeze on Facebook to remove dozens of pages that have video of King Maha Vajiralongkorn wearing a crop top. The Thai king, the crop top, and a poodle. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Some of Thailand’s highest profile protest leaders dressed in crop tops and paraded at a central Bangkok shopping centre on Sunday in a jibe against King Maha Vajiralongkorn to … Thailand activists stage crop-top protest against lèse-majesté law. Since the military coup of 2014, at least 68 people have been arrested or imprisoned under these laws, according to Human Rights Watch. Jorge Silva/Reuters. And whether he really did that or not, he cultivated an image of Buddhist kindness and compassion, sponsoring programs in the countryside, going to villages and meeting with ordinary people. In effect, it gives him control of a personal private army. The universally held belief in Bangkok is that she was thrown into the Bangkok women’s prison; on exactly what legal authority other than the king’s demand, nobody is saying. “We’re not supposed to talk about the king,” one person whispered to me in Bangkok during a visit there in November, “but the king is what everybody talks about.”. To get a sense of that, I spent a day in November in an area of fish farms and rice paddies in Chachoengsao province southwest of Bangkok to talk to members of an environmental group opposed to a planned industrial zone called the Eastern Economic Corridor. With King Bhumibol Adulyadej old and ailing, many worried the Thai monarchy would atrophy into irrelevance once his playboy son ascended to the throne. There is no such regent anymore in Thailand. He’s also disturbingly authoritarian. In perhaps his most remarkable display of unrestricted power, after a new constitution was adopted in a referendum, Vajiralongkorn simply rewrote the clauses having to do with the power of the king. Thailand activists stage crop-top protest against lèse-majesté law. Crop tops, tattoos and marrying his bodyguard - new Thai king's coronation sets the seal on years of eccentricity The Crown Prince has not inherited his father’s popularity among people in Thailand, Woman forced to kneel before portrait of Thai king after 'posting disrespectful comments online', Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (left) photographed at Munich airport in July 2016, Royal guards shade Queen Elizabeth II and Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej from the sun with traditional Thai parasols during the welcoming ceremony at Bangkok military airport, The Thai royal family, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn & Queen Sirikit, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej reviews royal guards at a ceremony marking his 69th birthday, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej takes pictures during the royal ploughing ceremony in Bangkok, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest serving monarch, and Queen Sirikit preside over a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the king's accession to the throne, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand rides with French President de Gaulle in French official Citroen convertible upon his arrival at Orly airport, south of Paris, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand rides down the Champs-Elysees with French President de Gaulle, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit stand near Belgian King Baudouin I, during their official visit to Belgium, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand on a stopover at the Touquet airport on August 1948 during his journey to Great Britain, French President de Gaulle and his wife alongside King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and his wife attend a show at the Opera de Paris, Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was outed in a 2006 coup after public protests, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}. Thailand is a place where journalists, civic activists, lawyers, and others are summoned to a military base for “attitude adjustment,” as the well-known euphemism would have it. Some of Thailand’s highest profile protest leaders dressed in crop tops and paraded at a Bangkok shopping mall on Sunday in a jibe against King Maha Vajiralongkorn to … Public criticism of the king or his family is illegal under Thailand's strict lese majeste laws, with insults to the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today, from as little as $3. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Yingluck was accused of corruption and removed from office in 2014, and with new Red Shirt protests looming and the old, much-loved king, Bhumibol, on his deathbed, the military stepped in, seizing power in a coup and then assuring the royal succession when Bhumibol died two years later. “Some people have gone to jail,” Sirapop Kornaroot, known as Rungsila, a dissident poet recently released after five years of detention, told me. In a picturesque town in the German Alps lives the most unlikely of royalty. Prince Maha ended his relationship with his third wife, Princess Srirasm, in December. By Matthew Atteberry, Rush Hour Daily. And nobody can or dares to stop him.”. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? After the death of his father King Bhumibol in October 2016, Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne as His Majesty King Rama X. Vajiralongkorn’s assertion of his power comes at a time when Thailand has been moving in an authoritarian direction, the government largely controlled by the military, which, after years of sometimes violent political turmoil, took power in a coup in 2014. In Thailand’s neighbor, Myanmar, the military has allowed elections but retains its hold on power, and even the country’s ostensible democratic champion, Aung San Suu Kyi, has supported her government’s genocidal attacks on its Rohingya minority. But when the subject turns to the king, most people lapse into an awkward silence or, if they do say something, look cautiously around them to make sure no unknown person is listening. “They are royalists.”. Crop-tops, mistresses and flying poodles: Meet the next King of Thailand Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkor will take the throne following the death … THAILAND could lose all access to Facebook today after footage of its heavily-tattooed king strolling around in a crop top went viral. A new constitution written by the coup leaders allowed an election to take place in March 2019, but the new law gives the military so many automatic seats in parliament that it would be almost impossible for an opposition party to take control. All of this would be far more difficult, maybe even impossible, if there were widespread public opposition. But, as Rungsila and people like him acknowledge, Thailand’s turn to authoritarianism has also been welcomed and supported by many people who experienced the intermittent turbulence and violence of the years before the 2014 coup, and who give credit to the military and the monarchy for the return of domestic “peace and order,” as the propaganda put it at the time. BANGKOK — The new king of Thailand is into his fashion, but unfortunately the Thai government doesn’t want its citizens to know that. He’s gotten changes in the constitution giving him emergency powers and allowing him to exercise his authority even when he is out of the country — which is most of the time. A glimpse into the old race track revealed a bunch of construction sheds. I hired a car to look at the royal compound, though it’s not easy to get glimpses inside. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? He’s arranged for units of the army to report directly to him. His removal of two crack army regiments in the Bangkok area from the usual chain of command and putting them under his own authority is among them. Her parents were later thrown in prison for two-and-a-half years for “royal defamation”. Naked pictures emerge of Thai king who was filmed in tiny yellow crop top. “The Air Chief Marshal’s antics drew the full attention of the 600-plus audience members, and remains the talk of the town to this day.”. The crown prince is seen to lack the public popularity that gave his father's rule legitimacy, raising fears of a power struggle in the south-east Asian country. | Photo Credit: Reuters . In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. All four countries have another thing in common, namely close and cordial relations with nearby authoritarian China, which has used its power and wealth to promote authoritarianism throughout its region. This crop-top sporting, tattooed bad boy rules over one of the major nations of Southeast Asia. In one of them, for example, he eliminated a requirement that when the king is out of the country, which Vajiralongkorn is most of the time, his authority would revert to a regent. Thai protestors chant slogans outside the king's daughter's boutique against the insult laws passed by the palace. It started in 2001 when a rich, charismatic populist, Thaksin Shinawatra, was elected prime minister via overwhelming support from the rural poor in the north and northeast of the country. It's here that the King lives a life of luxury and quirkiness: walking through German shopping malls wearing crop tops and fake tattoos and hiring out an entire hotel to live in with his harem of lovers. Experts believe this could deepen a period of instability in Thailand that has included two coups, anti-government protests and a bloody fight for secession by Muslim separatists in the country’s southern provinces. His son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, ascended the throne in December. His latest book is China 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice. Thailand’s playboy king isn’t playing around. STROLLING in a German shopping centre, covered in tattoos and wearing a preposterous yellow crop top, the scruffy guy looked about as far from … Still, whenever new elections were held, Thaksin’s party won them handily, and when those governments were ousted, Thaksin’s ardent supporters, known as the Red Shirts, mounted huge counter-demonstrations. Millions rely on Vox’s explainers to understand an increasingly chaotic world. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. But that doesn’t mean he’s detached from politics back home. Among at least 35 activists currently facing charges under the lese majeste law is 16-year-old Napasin Trirayapiwat, who wore a crop top and had anti-monarchy slogans written on his midriff at a protest. Vox’s work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources. An image taken from a video widely shared on Facebook in recent weeks appears to show King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand walking through a shopping mall in a yellow crop top. Updated on May 16th, 2017. The king of Thailand faces new embarrassment after 1400 photos of his official consort were sent to critical journalists. Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej - Life in Pictures, Crop tops, mistresses and flying poodles: meet Thailand's next king, Read more King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand dies aged 88, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. This has included closing areas that were once open to the public, including the Bangkok Zoo and one of Bangkok’s two horse-racing tracks. Meet Thailand’s poodle-obsessed, crop-top wearing ‘playboy prince’ who will now lead the country following his revered dad’s death The fears about his ascension to power go deeper than concerns about his romantic life and canine commitment. “For the Chinese, it’s easier to deal with strongmen than with democratic governments,” one Thai businessman told me in Bangkok. He rushed home from Germany – where he spends much of his time, reportedly with a former Thai Airways air hostess who he is planning to marry – when his father’s health deteriorated and has since requested to delay taking to the throne so, he says, he has more time to mourn. Richard Bernstein is a former foreign correspondent at Time magazine and the New York Times. Foo Foo and its owner hit the headlines in 2014 when opponents of the Crown Prince leaked a video showing his third wife, Princess Srirasm, lying on the floor feeding the dog cake while wearing nothing but a G-string. Thailand's royal family, compared to the constantly spotlighted British monarchy, is extremely secretive. And he has already asked to delay becoming king, raising fears of deepening instability in Thailand after the death of his much-loved father. This is partly because of skillfully applied measures of repression by the military-led government, including the disappearances and apparent killings of at least eight leading opposition figures, and surveillance of others the police feel might cause trouble. Some of Thailand’s highest-profile protest leaders dressed in crop tops and paraded at a Bangkok shopping mall yesterday in a jibe against King Maha … And so, following the election, the former army chief who led the 2014 coup, Prayuth Chan-ocha, became the country’s prime minister. “When he came to the throne, he looked at the past ... and he said, ‘Why should I let any of that go?’”. But then things got even stranger. Among the photos of Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, the Thai King’s consort, are images of her wearing a camouflage-printed sports bra. The crop top was worn with reference to King Maha Vajiralongkorn wearing the same in European tabloids a few years ago. When Sineenat was installed for her brief reign as noble royal consort, official photographs of the ceremony showed her lying on the floor, making hand gestures of fealty, while Vajiralongkorn sat imperiously on a gilded throne above her. But in 2017, Thai authorities demanded that Facebook remove embarrassing footage of the king in a shopping centre, wearing a crop top and sporting fake tattoos. Where does Vajiralongkorn fit into this? The 64-year-old Crown Prince was pictured at Munich airport earlier this year wearing a small white crop-top, faded slim-fit jeans and a fake tattoo sleeve. It wasn’t lost on many Thais that the king himself had five children with a now-dismissed mistress while he was still married to his second wife (that mistress and four of the five children have since been disowned and are now living in the United States; the youngest child and only daughter lives in Thailand as a royal). A furious opposition emerged, known as the Yellow Shirts — yellow being the color of the monarchy — whose claim to legitimacy was that they, with support from the military, were the defenders of the monarchy. Around the same time, several palace aides were dismissed — two of them, identified as bedroom guards, for “inappropriate acts and adultery,” according to the official Palace Gazette. Here’s a regal dilemma to consider: Is it right for a king with 70 million subjects and wealth in excess of 70 billion dollars to be seen frolicking around in a crop top rather than a crown? The Thai monarchy has never been a powerful or outspoken champion of democracy, but many Thais believed the king’s late father, Bhumibol Adulyadej, tried to soften the harshness of military rule. While the king is back in Thailand for now, he normally lives in Germany. Unusually for a Thai king, however, Vajiralongkorn spends most of his time in Bavaria, where he has been snapped wearing skimpy crop tops, sometimes with elaborate temporary tattoos splayed across his back and arms. Vajiralongkorn is clearly a product of Thai culture, but his evident authoritarianism also seems to fit a larger regional and even global pattern, the disillusionment with traditional liberal elites and the turn to strongman rule. BANGKOK — A few years ago, a Facebook video went viral and revealed to the world why many people in Thailand were anxious over the prospect of Maha Vajiralongkorn, then the country’s crown prince, becoming king. The Crown Prince is known to be friends with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the businessman and former owner of Manchester City, who was ousted as the Thai premier in 2006. According to the report, the new King is domiciled in Bavaria where he owns two villas which makes him subject to local inheritance tax. Thailand is putting the squeeze on Facebook to remove dozens of pages that have video of King Maha Vajiralongkorn wearing a crop top. BANGKOK — The new king of Thailand is into his fashion, but unfortunately the Thai government doesn’t want its citizens to know that. With the Southeast Asian … All of these countries have retained what a Filipino journalist, Marites Vitug, called “the trappings of power” in a conversation I had with her in Manila. “Yes,” he replied. An image taken from a video widely shared on Facebook in recent weeks appears to show King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand walking through a shopping mall in a yellow crop top. In what seemed to be a concession to modern sensibilities, Vajiralongkorn, according to newspaper reports, has ordered an end to prosecutions under the lèse-majesté laws. The film showed the then-64-year-old Vajiralongkorn roaming a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, where he lived most of the time, accompanied not by his wife but his mistress. Two years later, huge Yellow Shirt demonstrations took place. Installing his mistress as a royal consort was certainly scandalous, but some of the measures Vajiralongkorn has taken to assert his power go well beyond nasty palace intrigue and into unprecedented territory for Thailand. Indeed, it’s difficult these days to think of a single country in Southeast Asia, with its 620 million people, that is becoming more democratic rather than more authoritarian. Soldiers patrol the sidewalks alongside. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. It is Prince Maha’s “playboy” personal life that has attracted most attention. The crop top is a reference to pictures showing the king dressed in one which have appeared in European tabloids in recent years. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. Since taking the throne in late 2016, Vajiralongkorn has rapidly amassed power. “That’s the way they keep control. The man once infamous for his mistresses, crop tops, and presumably fake tattoos now looks out sternly from portraits placed all over Thailand, … In a country where polygamy has been banned for 100 years, the king seemed to be saying that a kind of polygamy would be a prerogative of the monarch (and nobody else). The Thai royal family has some pretty draconian laws when it comes to … People of Thailand, meet your new king. “It can only be successful if there are no popular protests against it, and the easiest way to achieve this is to deal with strongmen in each country.”, Another Thai, a young political activist in the country’s Democratic Party who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament in the elections last March, told me, “The fact that there’s a new superpower that’s less keen on human rights in other countries reduces the American influence. The reporting on this story was done in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Plaques that once memorialized the 1932 coup that abolished the absolute monarchy have, according to some Bangkok residents, simply disappeared. The world knows Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn as a playboy who has churned through four wives, lives among lots of women in a German hotel and relishes skimpy crop tops … King Maha was spotted with Tidjai, while wearing a white crop top, covered in what appeared to be fake tattoos, and holding a small white dog as he boarded a plane in Germany last year. A private army would be very useful if there were ever a coup attempt, including a move against him from some dissenting faction in the army. Born in 1952 in Bangkok’s Royal Palace, Prince Maha was educated in the UK at King’s Mead School and Millfield School before attending Australia’s Royal Military College. It’s clear that nobody wants to be heard saying anything negative or derogatory about Vajiralongkorn. In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. That’s the way they make people give up.”. The unpredictable King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is suffering mass protests in Bankok, has now been accused of breaking his sister’s ankles. In 2011 four of the children she had with the Crown Prince published a letter claiming they had been abandoned by their father and banned from returning to Thailand. Vajiralongkorn is still a bit of an absentee monarch, living mostly in Europe. “Take the Belt and Road project,” he said, referring to Beijing’s plan for a network of ports, railroads, energy corridors, and shipping lanes aimed at making China the center of a vast Eurasian economic network. “I thought that Vajiralongkorn would be so lacking in moral authority that he wouldn’t get the support of the various sectors of society that he needs. Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Reddit 0. It does this by refusing to criticize these countries for human rights violations, by offering aid and military support when such support is withheld by the US and Europe, and, not least, by presenting a model that seems to be successful and that China itself proclaims as an alternative to Western ways of doing things. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, the long-serving prime minister, Hun Sen, has jailed his main political opponents and banned the only political party that had a chance to defeat him in elections two years ago. In the Philippines, for example, President Rodrigo Duterte has emerged as a sort of elected strongman, carrying out a supposed war on drugs that has resulted, according to human rights groups, in more than 20,000 extrajudicial killings. The King of Thailand, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, has called Bavaria his part-time home for a number of years. “He is basically running the country now, though he’s not doing that like his father did through moral authority. The cable records officials saying the Crown Prince “could not stop either, nor would he be able, at age 57, to rectify his behaviour”. After taking the throne, Vajiralongkorn had her recognized as noble royal consort, meaning that she would be a sort of official concubine — a second female companion to the king in addition to his actual wife (his fourth). THAILAND could lose all access to Facebook today after footage of its heavily-tattooed king strolling around in a crop top went viral. 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