#THAISTORY2.0

THAILAND’S MOMENT OF TRUTH

A SECRET HISTORY OF 21

ST

CENTURY SIAM

#THAISTORY|PART TWO OF FOUR | VERSION 1.2 | 240611

Andrew MacGregor Marshall

[Mail|Twitter |Blog] - - - - - “Broad-brushed efforts against all unflattering mention of the institution, King, Queen, and Crown Princethrough crude application of the blunt instrument of lese majeste laws, without distinction betweenthose who actually intend ill towards the monarchy and those expressing opinions which otherwisewould not find an audience, may end up undermining the institution the law is meant to protect -- anunintended consequence akin to the People's Alliance for Democracy's (PAD) extreme actions in 2008and the Queen's ill-advised patronage of the October 13 funeral of a PAD demonstrator.” - U.S. cable08BANGKOK325, February6, 2009.

กำแพงมีหู

ประตูมีตา

-

Thai proverb “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heaveMy heart into my mouth: I love your majestyAccording to my bond; no more nor less.”- Cordelia to Lear in William Shakespeare,

King Lear

, Act I Scene I - - - - -

This work is licensed under aCreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

CONTENTS

IV. ….. “THESE PEOPLELIVEIN AN ALTERNATE REALITY” V.…................ “POWERFUL GIANT WITH SAVAGE POWER”

NOTES

There are several ways to transliterate Thai into English, and there is little agreement even on basicground rules. The U.S. cables often use eccentric spelling for Thai names, and often use several differentspellings, sometimes even within a single cable. Quotes from the cables and other sources are reproducedverbatim, even if this means conflicting spellings in the text of the article. I have followed three rules in my redaction policy for this story: 1. If the source of information is a player in the game, their identity is not redacted. 2. The exception to this is if identifying the source couldsubject them to significant risk of physical harm. 3. If the source is not a player in the game, their identity,and other information that could help identify them, has been redacted. Xs in the text signify redaction. Itshould be noted that the number of Xs used has been deliberately randomized. Counting the number of Xswill not provide any secret insight into the source. My name is Andrew MacGregor Marshall. I am not based in Thailand. There is an excellent Bangkok- based freelance journalist called Andrew Marshall, who writes for Time magazine among other publications and authored a book on Burma,

The Trouser People

. He has nothing to do with this articleand obviously should not be held responsible for anything I write. This story is dedicated to the people of Thailand and to the memory of my colleague Hiroyuki Muramoto,killed in Bangkok on April 10, 2010.

IV. “THESE PEOPLE LIVE IN AN ALTERNATE REALITY”

In December 2005, in his annual birthday speech, King Bhumibolmadean admissionthat startled many Thais:heisnot perfect: When you say the King can do no wrong, it is wrong. We should not say that... Actually I wantthem to criticize because whatever I do, I want to know that people agree or disagree... Actually Imust also be criticized. I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then Iknow. Because if you say the King cannot be criticized, it means that the King is not human... If they criticize correctly, I have no problem. It was a jarring comment in a country where the monarch has for centuries been portrayed as a figure of ultimate sagacity and insight, and where perceived disrespect towards the palace has been punished withdraconian penalties. In centuries past, as H.G. Quaritch Wales explains in

Siamese State Ceremonies

, it was forbidden for acommoner even to touch royalty - even to rescue them if they were drowning. On board the royal barges there are, or were until recently, bundles of cocoa-nuts intended to be thrown to the king or any member of the royal family in the event of the barge foundering,for it was forbidden on pain of death for any person to lay hands on royalty to save them fromdrowning. A well known instance of the operation of this taboo is the tragic death of King RamaV's first queen, who was drowned in full view of numerous bystanders who dared not save her.[Quaritch Wales,

Siamese State Ceremonies

] He provides a translation from the Kata Mandirapdla, or Book of Palace Law, a royal manuscript dated1805 and said to have existed in almost the same form from about the 15th century: If a boat (royal barge) founders, the boatmen must swim away; if they remain near the boat theyare to be executed. If the boat founders and the royal person falls into the water and is aboutto drown let the boatmen stretch out the signal-spear and throw the cocoa-nuts so that he maygrasp them if he can. If he cannot, they may let him seize the signal-spear. If they lay hold of him to rescue him they are to be executed. He who throws the cocoa-nuts is to be rewarded withforty ticals of silver and one gold basin. If the barge sinks and someone else sees the cocoa-nutsthrown and goes to save the royal person, the punishment is double and all his family is to beexterminated. If the barge founders and someone throws the cocoa-nuts so that they float towardsthe shore (i.e. away from the royal person), his throat is to be cut and his home confiscated. [

KataMandirapdla

, quoted in Quaritch Wales,

Siamese State Ceremonies

] The worst offence of all was to touch the head of a king. Quaritch Wales says sensible considerationsunderlay this ancient taboo: It appears to me that this taboo has in times past been the most important of all in maintaining