¶ Matins: Now that, for the first time, Thai King Bhumibol is unable to make an important regular appearance, the uncertainty of his country’s future greatly intensifies, over and above the chaos caused by last week’s occupation, by the pro-royalist (and thuggishly anti-democratic) PAD, of the major airports. The king is widely regarded as standing above the fray, and always inclining his support toward the cause of democracy. The Economist, long opposed to Thailand’s stringent lèse-majesté laws, challenges this “fairy-tale” view.

¶ Nones: And in Turkey, Leyla Zana, Kurdish politician and winner of the 1995 Sakharov human rights award, has been sentenced to ten (more) years in prison, for terrorist speech.

Oremus…

§ Matins. From the report filed today:

At a pro-Thaksin rally in July a young activist ranted against the monarchy, calling the king “a thorn in the side of democracy” for having backed so many coups, and warning the royal family they risked the guillotine. She was quickly arrested. What shocked the royalist establishment was not just the startling criticism of the king—but that the activist was cheered. “It is more and more difficult for them to hold the illusion that the monarchy is universally adored,” says a Thai academic.

This illusion is crumbling amid growing worry about what happens when the king’s reign ends. The fears over Mr Thaksin’s past influence on the crown prince are overshadowed by far deeper ones about the suitability of the heir to the throne. Vajiralongkorn has shown little of his father’s charisma or devotion to duty, and in his youth suffered from a bad reputation. In a newspaper interview he defended himself against accusations that he was a gangster. But even his mother, in an extraordinary set of interviews on a visit to America in 1981, conceded he was a “bit of a Don Juan”. “If the people of Thailand do not approve of the behaviour of my son, then he would either have to change his behaviour or resign from the royal family,” she said.

Succession issues are just what Thailand doesn’t need right now.

§ Nones. From this distance, it’s easy to dismiss the sentence as a counterproductive overreaction: Ms Zana is probably just doing politics as usual, not abetting terrorism; and, as a Sakharov laureate, she has Europe’s attention. If ever there were a problem for the UN to grapple with, demonstrating its maturity, it is the (inevitable?) formation of a Kurdish state.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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