His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej himself seems to be the latest casualty in the Thai government’s war on lese majeste. HM the King was accused of lese majeste, or defaming the monarchy, for remarks he made to the nation during his 2005 birthday address in which he described himself as “human”.
Akbar Khan, an Indian expatriate living in Thailand for two decades, made the accusation to police at Pathumwan police station at 3 am in Bangkok, close to his home. Khan claimed His Majesty’s words, when translated from Thai, clearly insult the high office.
Khan has made previous accusations of lese majeste against thirteen journalists and three government ministers, all cases still before the courts. Khan has been barred from the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand when he filed a police complaint of lese majeste over labels on bottles of foreign wine served at the club which appeared to him to insult the monarchy.
The coalition government headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has made lese majeste its first priority as a threat to national security. With the loss of this year’s tourist revenue, rising inflation and the world economic slump, government has hired 4,367 new bureaucrats to monitor lese majeste with a budget of 65 billion baht.
Government has broken ground on a new, dedicated lese majeste prison costing 297 billion baht (USD $400 million) to hold 4,600 prisoners on remote Prathong Island in the Indian Ocean where Thai murderers and rapists can be kept separate from such convicts. Prathong was formerly home to an indigenous tribe of headhunting cannibals who have been relocated.
PM Abhisit was quoted as saying, “This whole lese majeste issue was created by the Internet. I have today introduced a proposal to my advisors to block the Internet completely in Thailand.” Thailand’s ICT ministry currently employs 2,303 civil servants to monitor the Internet and it is widely expected these employees will be given jobs in courts and prisons in its absence.
The Prime Minister also defended the recall of all but a token force of police and military from Thailand’s restive Southern region. The PM said an average of 41 killings by snipers, bombings and beheadings every day was not serious enough when troops and police are needed elsewhere to fight the government’s war on lese majeste. “The real homegrown terrorism occurs on the Internet,” Abhisit said.
He proposed banning all media freedom groups, including the Thai Journalists Association and the Press Council of Thailand, as in the same class as the banned separatist group, Patani United Liberation Organization. Visa restrictions for foreign journalists and representatives of foreign media over their lack of understanding for Thai culture will be required. “Educators must teach journalism students proper respect,” said Abhisit.
Failed Australian novelist Harry Nicolaides faced criminal court judges after spending more than four months in jail awaiting trial. The lese majeste charges against Nicolaides stem from 103 words in his 2005 book, Verisimilitude, said by government prosecutors to have defamed Thailand’s crown prince.
Due to the serious nature of the damage suffered by the monarchy, prosecutors demanded conviction and a maximum sentence for each of the 103 words. The court accepted this argument but, stating it wished to avoid prejudice, the court passed sentence on Nicolaides of 309 years and seven months without possibility of parole, only three years for each insulting word rather than 15.
An attempt by Nicolaides’ Australian lawyer, Mark Dean, to have the trial venue moved to Australia was rejected but the court judges ordered a single copy of Verisimilitude removed from Thailand’s National Library and destroyed.
HM King Bhumibol immediately pardoned Nicolaides and the writer was summarily deported by the Thai government.
His Majesty the King has a long tradition of issuing Royal pardons to lese majeste offenders. He may be expected, after due consideration, to pardon himself should these charges ever reach Thai courts.
