On April 6, King Vajiralongkorn signed Thailand's 20th constitution. Charters have come and gone in the country since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, often without much woe or jubilation. While the new constitution was met with similar general apathy, the unprecedented journey it went through offers a rare insight into the secretive new reign of King Vajiralongkorn and his developing leadership style.
The King ascended to the throne on December 1, 2016, a month and a half after his father died after seven decades on the throne. As the nation mourned the much-loved monarch, the succession caused anxiety among the Thai people about the future of the institution and doubts over the new monarch's ability to fill his father's shoes.
Many saw the new King as an erratic playboy more interested in fast cars, parties, and women than in ruling a country that over the past four decades has turned to his father to arbitrate political conflicts. Since his ascension to the throne, King Vajiralongkorn has proved them wrong. The first four months of his reign have seen a forceful monarch, even more hands-on than his father. Yet, while the late King Bhumibol ruled by inspiring love in his subjects, Vajiralongkorn is starting his reign by instilling fear.
King Bhumibol ascended to the throne in 1946, after the mysterious death of his brother, who was found shot in his room. Initially an irrelevant figurehead controlled by military governments and secluded in his palace in southern Thailand, the young Bhumibol started to travel to rural provinces, support local monks and temples, and establish development projects across the country. These popular enterprises laid the groundwork for the construction of his unprecedented popularity among Thais.
Over the following decades, Bhumibol acquired more and more power, cultivating his image as the benevolent and charismatic father of the nation, together with an unprecedented accumulation of wealth and the 1957 introduction of a lese majestelaw which punishes anyone who criticises the monarch with three to 15 years in jail. Even with such policies, his dedication to the Thai people remained, until the very end, a largely celebrated feature of his reign.
A new style of leadership
The same can not be said for his son.Vijiralongkorn spent much of his adult life outside the country enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Europe and since his return to the country, he has shown indifference to the crowd-pleasing rituals established by his father.
Five weeks after his coronation, on January 9, the new King delivered university degrees to students of Rajabhat University in the northern city of Chiang Mai, a practice established by the late King. Vajiralongkorn kept the students waiting for more than four hours. This was only the first sign of his emerging style of leadership.
The following day, Vijiralongkorn demanded changes to a constitutional draft voted on in a popular referendum in August 2016 under a military junta that prevented anti-charter activists and politicians from campaigning. The details of the royal intervention remained unknown during the initial consultations and were disclosed to the public only after the new constitution was promulgated in a royal ceremony on April 6.
The changes provide the King with complete control over the appointment of a regent in his absence, cancel the need for a parliamentary counter-signature to royal orders, and re-establish royal crisis powers which were taken away from the palace in the 2016 draft, including the ability to impose executive and legislative vetoes and the right to dissolve the legislative assembly. Overall, with the new constitution Vajiralongkorn will wield more power over the parliament than his father ever did.
A tighter grip on power
Since he took the throne, the new King has imposed tighter control over the palace's inner circles and the powerful figures who ran it under his late father. In the past four months, Vijiralongkorn has stripped more than 40 palace officials of their ranks, with official accusations that go from behaviour unfit for senior bureaucrats to abuses of power for personal profit, from engagement in politics jeopardising national security, disclosing the late King's personal health record to having lost His Majesty's trust.
Among those removed from their positions in the palace were two important cases: that of Jumpol Manmai, a former deputy police chief and Grand Chamberlain of the Bureau of the Royal Household in charge of security and special affairs; and that of five members of the Vajarodaya clan, one of the most prominent families in the palace under Vajiralongkorn's father. While the five Vajarodayas were quietly removed from their roles and stripped of their titles, the purging of the former deputy police chief was a much more public business.
Jumpol was fired for undisclosed "extremely evil misconduct" - in the words of the Royal Gazette - and went incommunicado amid rumours about his death, a fate that befell two former members of Vajiralongkorn's inner circles, who died in mysterious circumstanceswhile in detention.
A week after his disappearance, Jumpol was accused of land encroachment and appeared in court with his head shaven, a treatment reserved to those who fall out of favour with the new King. His former spouse Princess Srirasmi faced a similar punishment in 2014. After being divorced, Srirasmi was stripped of her titles, shaved, and kept away from the public eye while her parents and four more members of her family were jailed for royal defamation.
Fear has spread within prominent families in the country. A source close to the palace who preferred to remain anonymous declared: "People are developing contingency plans, moving money abroad and putting things in place in case the King turns against them."
A king to be feared
The new king's tighter grip on power has affected not only members of the elites but also commoners. Jatupat "Pai" Boonpattararaksa, a 25-year-old law student, was arrested and charged with lese majeste the day after Vijiralongkorn's ascension to the throne for sharing a Facebook post of a critical royal biography published by BBC Thailand. The case has been seen as a clear sign of the low tolerance for any public discussion of the new King's past.
Since his ascension to the throne, Vijiralongkorn has demonstrated that power can be waged both by consent and coercion, love and fear. If love - shielded by the draconian lese majeste law - defined his father's reign and commanded respect from his subjects, fear will define the son's reign. Whether the new strategy will work remains to be seen, but fear of the new monarch is something the country will have to grapple with.
ALLEGED RAPIST AND KILLER IFEANYI DIKE AND THE 8th YEAR OLD"S CORPSE Arrested Uniport student Ifeanyi Dike, who murdered his neighbour 8-yr-old girl, has revealed that power outage aided his escape and hunger led to his re-arrest. He, however, pleaded for mercy on the murder of the eight-year-old girl, Chikamso Mezuwuba. Dike, who spoke in Port Harcourt while he was re-paraded by the Rivers State Police Command, insisted that the Investigative Police Officer, IPO, Johnbosco Okoroeze, nabbed over his (Dike’s) escape was innocent. Ifeanyi Dike killed the eight-year-old Chikamso, removed her vital organs and was on his way to dispose of her remains when he was arrested by a local vigilante group in Okporo community, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state. The suspected ritualist had escaped from the custody of State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, but was re-arrested in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, last week, Thursday. Dike told ne...
MUM'S SEX WITH BOYS Married mum, 39, performed ‘striptease’ for string of schoolboys before inviting three into her bedroom for sex She admitted seven counts of sexual activity with a child, one of attempted sexual activity with a child, one of attempting to sexually assault a child and one of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child 8th February 2017 Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MUM admitted she had “striptease sex” with a string of schoolboys and invited them to her bedroom. The 39-year-old’s upcoming trial by jury was abandoned as she admitted 10 counts of sexual and physical abuse on seven boys aged under 16 years. FACEBOOK 6 Amanda Tompkins admitted 10 counts of sexual and physical abuse on seven boys under 16 FACEBOOK 6 Unemployed Tompkins could now face a lengthy jail sentence after she was remanded in custody FACEBOOK 6 The mother twice in...
Evidence has emerged of another Islamic State militant group (ISIS) mass execution, this time in the Syrian Christian desert town of Al-Qaryatain. The militant group killed at least 116 civilians in executions committed in the days before the Syrian regime recaptured the town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based monitoring group with an extensive network of contacts in Syria. "ISIS has over a period of 20 days executed at least 116 civilians in reprisal killings, accusing them of collaboration with regime forces," SOHR chief Rami Abdelrahman told the Agence France-Presse news agency. ISIS regained control of the town three weeks ago, and then the killings began. Syrian regime forces, backed by Russian air power, arrived and liberated the town on October 21 after dozens of ISIS fighters retreated, at which point the remains of the victims of the mass execution were found. "After the regime retook it, the town's residents...
THE FORMER LOVERS A General Court Martial of the Nigerian Air Force has arraigned one of its personnel, Aircraftman Bernard Kalu of Five-five-three Central Armament Depot, Nigerian Air Force, Makurdi, for the murder of his girlfriend, an Air Craftswoman, Oladipupo Sholape. Late Aircraftswoman, Oladipupo Sholape The accused, Benard Kalu, who is also standing trial for housebreaking, impersonation as a commissioned officer on Facebook with the intention to defraud the public, and attempt to murder one Samuel Onah. Aircraftman Kalu at the court martial He is also accused of failing to perform assigned military duties and using service property contrary to the armed forces Act. While reading the six charges against the accused, President of the General Court Martial, Group Captain Elisha Bindul, said the accused had on March 12, 2017, gone to Sholape’s house at Compound 9, Block B, Flat 9 at NAF Base and shot her with an FM rifle with an intent of causing her death. Kalu, how...
College of Education Staff Found Dead Few Hours After He Was Kidnapped in Benue 27th FEB 2017, A staff of College of Education (COE), Katsina-Ala, Godwin Yanbee Bosua, has been found dead few hours after his abduction last Saturday. It was gathered that the victim, a former bursar with the College of Education, Katsina-Ala had gone to his private nursery and primary school, close to the college but was abducted on his way by unknown gunmen,Daily Post reports. His lifeless body was found Sunday morning in an orchard belonging to the nursery and primary school. A close confidant of the deceased family told Sun that there were bruises on Bosua’s body, indicating that he must have been severely beaten by his assailants. The incident is coming barely three days after some gunmen shot and killed one Ugoh Terseer Akagbue, an assistant registrar with the College of Education, Katsina-Ala, Benue State in his residence. Reacting to the ugly development, a group...
The whistle blowing policy of the Federal Government appears to be paying off as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday announced that it uncovered foreign currencies and Naira notes to the tune of $43.4 million, £27,800 and N23.2 million at a four-bedroom apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos. The total amount of money recovered at the current Central Bank exchange rate is over N13 billion. The operation followed a confidential information received by the Commission's Lagos office regarding some suspicious movement of bags in and out of a particular apartment in the building. Another source who is conversant with the apartment indicated that a woman usually appeared on different occasions with 'Ghana Must Go' bags, the EFCC said. "She comes looking haggard, with dirty clothes but her skin didn't quite match her outward appearance, perhaps a disguise", the source said. On getting to the building, operatives who were armed with a search w...
LEDELL LEE Sentenced to death after convicted in the February 1993for the beating to death of Debra Reese with a tire iron in Jacksonville Scheduled for execution on April 20, 2017 Date of original condemnation: Oct. 16, 1995 County in which crime occurred: Pulaski ______ Debra Reese called her mother, who lived houses away, just minutes after a man came to her house seeking tools for a broken-down vehicle. Reese, who had been home alone while her truck-driver husband traveled to Dallas for a delivery, planned to leave the Jacksonville house after detailing the encounter over the phone the morning of Feb. 9, 1993, but was unable to leave in time, her mother, Katherine Williams, testified. The man convicted in Reese's death, Ledell Lee, returned to the residence minutes later, barged inside and bludgeoned her to death with a tire iron that her husband had given her as a form of protection, prosecutors said. At Lee's trial, Holly Lodge Meyer, senior deputy pros...
There’s a story currently trending online about a Lady who stabbed her ex-boyfriend to death for proposing to another lady. Apparently, the story was shared by Frank Ufomadu on Facebook, where he posted some shocking photos while narrating the story of what happened. He revealed the Killer, Boma Mac-pepple is a choir member in her church, and she rejected a marriage proposal from her boyfriend,Junior.Then, the victim then proposed to another lady, a friend of his ex-girlfriend, and she accepted. The ex-girlfriend, being the jealous type got to know of her ex-boyfriend’s proposal to her friend, and she stabbed him to death. The incident allegedly happened on May 8th at 10:00 p.m. Also at the time of the incident, the accused shared a photo of the victim on her Facebook page alleging that he is a criminal on the run. Details are quite sketchy right now, but we’d sure bring you more details as they unfold.
Filipino soldiers walk past destroyed buildings in Marawi after President Rodrigo Duterte declared the city "liberated" on October 17, 2017. (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe) MANILA , Philippines (AP) — DNA tests have confirmed the death of one of the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects, who the Philippine military reported was killed in a final battle to quell an Islamic State group-linked siege in southern Marawi city, US and Philippine officials said Saturday. US Embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina told The Associated Press that DNA tests done in Virginia at the request of the Philippine military confirmed the death of Isnilon Hapilon. Washington has backed efforts by the Philippines, a treaty ally, to combat terrorism for years. "This is yet another example of how the US is supporting our friend, partner and ally in the fight against terror," Koscina said. Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute, another leader of the Marawi siege, were killed in a gunbattle Monday in a push by thous...
![Since his ascension to the throne, Vijiralongkorn has demonstrated that power can be waged both by consent and coercion, love and fear. writes Sopranzetti [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sTS9zCZ7i3zFCD0e5jiclEE49tsBl5BSBgSqtLebVnhuZzDOCupMBSEG22FOVbs8Qtj53NK4ZFuO_lWwLFnCDbictmQzaEpnaodr4-ClchnA0d_vy0BZupWg_-msAKfp8yt0NZHzsTusXnb3GpBoYyop_q9S_V8u3jtXWdGOZz_iraCZaLqp66B-T9egckGLWPGeLG-a5p7wpo=s0-d "From love to fear: The rise of King Vajiralongkorn")
![Since his ascension to the throne, Vijiralongkorn has demonstrated that power can be waged both by consent and coercion, love and fear. writes Sopranzetti [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2017/4/11/aa20c14749c4495cbec71b61bf5f784e_18.jpg "From love to fear: The rise of King Vajiralongkorn")
Comments
Post a Comment