BANGKOK?Thoughtful Thais break into cold sweat over a question few ask aloud: What happens when this king goes?
King Bhumibol Adulyadej turns 81 in December. The Chakri Dynasty?s ninth king, he?s the longest-reigning monarch in a world where coup d? état, war, law or modernization shatters thrones.
?Commoner? King Gyanendra was shown to Narayanhiti Palace?s exit by Nepal?s newly elected regime. The sword toppled Prince Shihanouk in Cambodia (1970) and Laos King Vatthana Laos (1975). Only Thailand?s 205-year Chakri Dynasty remains.
Tradition melding into constitutions buttresses the crown in Britain and Japan. And there?s Hawaii. In a tent outside Lolani Palace, Her Majesty Mahealani Kahau would reinstall the monarchy overthrown in 1893. Her decrees?junking the State of Hawaii, welfare programs, etc.?are good-naturedly ignored.
Jazz-loving Bhumibol had no legal or military clout when he was crowned in 1946. He could inaugurate a gasoline station, though, notes Joseph Wright in his book, ?The Balancing Act: A History of Modern Thailand.? The throne was a pawn that the military, the elite and monks bickered over to manipulate. They still do so today.
Yet over the next five decades, this youngster morphed into a monarch who can defuse major crises with a few words. In May 1992, Thailand teetered on the brink. Troops of the corrupt Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon fired into demonstrators led by ascetic Chamlong Srimuang (a Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient in 1992).
We watched both kneel before the king. Bhumibol didn?t fume, order or demand. Instead, he spoke of the damage inflicted. Stop before the kingdom is wrecked, he said. As the broadcast ended, soldiers and demonstrators dismantled the barricades.
?When he speaks, the people listen,? the BBC noted. ?Genuine affection goes both ways. Thais love him as though he were a cherished family member. In his speeches to the nation he likes to joke and tease them.?
Yet, that bond didn?t come overnight. From the start, he reached beyond palace comforts that the elite shackled him to. He devoted time, effort and resources to reach Thailand?s poorest. Those trampled by the Thai elite found in him an advocate.
?He has been a constant reminder against destructive greed,? writes Paul Handley in ?The King Never Smiles.? ?All the time, he?although not his controversial family?has shown little interest in luxurious trappings that a bejeweled crown brings.?
The result has been ?a mythology of a selfless, just and apolitical king.? This is rarely questioned, in a society where a harsh lese majeste law (outlawing slurs against the monarch?s dignity) prevails. Only lavish praise for the royals see print. ?The King Never Smiles? isn?t sold in Siam Square?s well-stocked bookshops. Cops banned a Wall Street Journal article by Michael Schmicker that asked in 1981: Would the monarchy survive into the 21st century?
This king rode out 17 military coups and 26 prime ministers. The onset of the ?demographic transition? in the early 1970s improved life spans, health service, etc. Per capita income has gone up 40-fold. Many from the Thai middle class were educated abroad. Less than half of the population remains agrarian.
Nonetheless, the gap between rich and poor persists. ?Conspicuous consumption and conspicuous corruption are accepted as part of everyday life.? Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra?s graft makes our Marcoses look like pikers.
The king raised the inevitable just before his 70th birthday. ?One day, we will grow old and die,? he said. ?The water of the Chaophraya river must flow on. And the water that flows on will be replaced??
By his son, the tainted and disliked Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn? ?[He] is nothing that his father is and everything his father isn?t,? notes Handley. ?Even in this monarchy where every blemish on the throne is kept secret, throughout city streets and hamlets, the prince is feared and reviled... By the early 1980s, he had become the very thing every modern monarchy fears: an heir whose intractable behavior endangered the throne?s future.?
Bangkok has a glut of crown prince scandals: sycophants, disreputable businessmen who?d pick up his tabs and offer women, Mafia-style bodyguards, temper bouts, including pulling a gun on his sister, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (a Magsaysay Awardee in 1991).
?My son is a little bit of a Don Juan,? Queen Sirikit said in an unprecedented interview. ?He is a good student, a good boy. But women find him interesting and he finds women even more interesting...
?But for the crown prince of Thailand ? he does not give enough time to his people. [The royal family] does not have Saturdays or weekends? And [he] demands his weekends. Well, he is quite handsome, and he loves beautiful women, so he needs his weekends.?
The king?s moral power, however, cannot be inherited, pointedly notes the savvy former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun (a Ramon Magsaysay Award receipient in 1997). The crown prince must earn that all over again.
?A monarch must be loved, not merely tolerated,? the banned Wall Street Journal article said. ?Royalty is too expensive to afford otherwise.?
?The Chakri Dynasty, judged by any standard, has been outstanding,? Thai historian Prince Chakrabongse once noted. Most agree with that assessment. The issue now is, will the 10th Chakri king be as good as the ninth? Thailand?s future stability, which impacts the Philippines, is locked into that question.
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Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com
