Back in 2021, the human rights organisation Article 19, wrote that “Section 112 of Thailand’s Criminal Code (Lèse-majesté), which criminalises defamation, insults, and threats to members of the monarchy, is fundamentally incompatible with the right to freedom of expression”.
David Diaz-Jogeix, ARTICLE 19’s Senior Director of Programmes, wrote that “No public official should be beyond criticism. It is especially important that people can speak freely about monarchs and other unelected officials, who cannot be held accountable at the ballot box.”
Since the sham elections last year, the military-backed Pua Thai government has seen the increased use of lèse-majesté to barbaric proportions. One man was sentenced to 50 years in prison for merely expressing his views. Today numerous young people, many of whom were involved in the anti-military protests, are in prison. Some are on hunger strike because they have been denied bail.
Even the more liberal Move Forward Party, which was excluded from forming a government by the military after winning the most votes, refuses to support the abolition of article 112.
The military designed electoral rules and the appointed senators ensure that parliament remains under the authoritarian control of the conservatives. Parliament is therefore no solution to the problems of lack of democracy. Unfortunately the real power to change society; mass movements of young people, have ceased to mobilise and workers are yet to show their potential strength.
The lèse-majesté law is an anti-democratic law. The way it is used in the courts, with cases held in secret, is also un-democratic. It cannot be reformed; it must be abolished. In fact, the parasitic and wasteful monarchy, which is used to justify the destruction of democracy, cannot be reformed either. It is time to fight for a Republic. Many young people today would agree with this sentiment.
Yet some people dream that the constitution can be changed through parliament.
Others mistakenly believe that the idiot king Wachiralongkorn is an absolute monarchy, running the country.
The military and the monarchy are so tightly wrapped around each other, like two venomous snakes, that it is necessary to abolish the monarchy as part of the struggle against the military influence in politics.
The Thai military claim that its main reason to exist is to protect the monarchy. But it is the ideology of the monarchy, and all the repression that accompanies this ideology, that props up authoritarian and corrupt military regimes, both past and present.
King, Wachiralongkorn, is a vicious, sexist, thug. He is a man who totally disrespects women and doesn’t care if we all know it. He is also well known for inappropriate behaviour at public functions.
His dead father preached the “Sufficiency Economics” ideology, pretending to be frugal, when in fact he was the richest monarch in the world. Sufficiency Economics was nothing but a defence for neoliberal policies.
It is important to understand that Wachiralongkorn, like his father Pumipon, is a weak creature, totally dependent on the military and the business elites. In an interview many years ago Pumipon admitted that “others” were manipulating him and various events.
Ever since the barbaric military crack-downs in the 1970s, right up to the recent military coups, the military has continuously sought to legitimise itself by using the monarchy. Taksin and his fellow business elites were no different. They all promoted the monarchy to serve their own interests. For all these members of the Thai ruling class, the monarchy is a symbol of the “natural order of things”, where some are born to rule and the rest are born to be exploited under capitalism.
Lèse-majesté exists, not so much to protect the ridiculous and parasitic monarchy, but to protect the military and business elites. This law, along with all the people it protects, need to be swept away.
Uglytruth-Thailand 