Monarchy in Spotlight: Thai Court Games

[Sylph]

A controversial report based on leaked documents suggests members of the royal family are vying for power before election

Thailand's monarchy, for decades presented as the glue that has held the country together through turmoil and strife, is described as being disorientated and deeply divided, in secret diplomatic cables revealed yesterday.

While members of the royal family have been projected as having a role above politics, an account based on the cables and published just days away from an election that is likely to plunge the country into fresh turmoil, suggests various key players are actively competing for power and political leverage.

The ailing 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has long been the focus of speculation about his health, has lost much influence to Queen Sirikit, deemed to have been distant from him for many years and who has indicated support for the opponents of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Within the palace walls and beyond, there is deep anxiety over the issue of succession and whether the King's unpopular son, the Crown Prince, or his more popular daughter, will assume the throne when he dies.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/monarchy-in-spotlight-tensions-that-threaten-new-turmoil-in-thailand-2301364.html

[Sylph]

The King has been in hospital for almost two years and, if the US cables are right, his health is far worse than the vague and optimistic official bulletins acknowledge. A cable written soon after his indisposition in 2009 by Eric John, the US Ambassador at the time, cites embassy sources who said that the King was "beset long-term by Parkinson's, depression and chronic lower back pain".

Suthep Thaugsuban, the Thai Deputy Prime Minister, is quoted as telling a US diplomat that the problem was the King's mental health. "Suthep confirmed ... that King Bhumibol exhibits classic symptoms of depression [and] that the really (sic) worry was his state of mind, depressed at the state of affairs in his Kingdom at the end of his life."

King Bhumibol's frailty adds to anxiety about the 58-year-old Prince. Mr John reported that the Prince was "long known for violent and unpredictable mood swings", and "has spent most (up to 75 per cent) of the past two years based in Europe (primarily at a villa at a medicinal spa 20km outside Munich), with his leading mistress and beloved white poodle Fufu".

One cable recounts that the dog was named an Air Chief Marshal. Another suggests that "people would have a difficult time accepting his current wife, Princess Srirasmi, as their queen, based largely on a widely distributed salacious video of the birthday celebration for Fufu, in which Sirasmi appears wearing nothing more than a G-string".

Most startling is the credence that Mr John gives to the rumour about the Crown Prince being treated for a life-threatening illness. In 2009 he wrote: "Vajiralongkorn is believed to be suffering from a blood-related medical condition (varying sources claim he is either: HIV-positive; has Hepatitis C; is afflicted by a rare form of 'blood cancer', or some combination which leads to regular blood transfusions)."
The cables report that Queen Sirikit has become active in politics, taking the side of the Yellow Shirt movement, which campaigned against the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and supported the coup that drove him into exile in 2006.

Her support for the movement, including her attendance at the funeral of a Yellow Shirt campaigner who was killed during a protest rally, are said by the diplomats to have compromised the royal family's reputation for political neutrality.

The Times

[jowcol]

There is a pretty detailed summary of Wiki-Leaks cables here:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/29/red_shirts_and_rowdy_royals?page=0,2

There is another interesting story about the Prince I heard from someone in the state department, that when his first wife left him, he sent Thai Intelligence agents to the US to forcibly bring her back.  Unfortunately, she lived in a Gated community, and they could not figure out a way in, so they returned empty handed.

All this has me pretty depressed.  The fact that Thaksin's sister was just elected PM won't help-- although a lot of press talks about how Thaksin was democraticalliy elected, his reign in office was notoriously corrupt (even by Thai standards), and there were several human rights abuses under his watch (his "war on drugs" killed a couple thousand, and his heavy handed treatment of the southern provinces had a large contribution to the current insurgency)    With a choice between a military dominated government or a democratically elected corrupt one that may prove to be more autocratic, I don't see many good options.