[The scandal began to unfold last week when a
group of police officers who have links to the princess’s family was arrested.
The group, which police say was led by Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, the powerful
former head of the criminal investigation unit, was accused of running illegal
casinos, oil smuggling and money laundering, among other crimes.]
BANGKOK — In a rare public display of palace
intrigue in Thailand,
relatives of a prominent member of the royal family have been charged with
numerous counts of corruption and stripped of their royally bestowed name.
The implications of the still-unfolding palace
purge are not yet fully clear but come at a time of extreme sensitivity
surrounding the monarchy, a potent symbol of national unity in a country that
has been deeply divided politically for the past decade. King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, 86, is ailing, and the current scandal adds to a
widespread sense of anxiety about succession.
The family members targeted in the purge are related
to Princess Srirasm, the wife of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and the
mother of Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the presumed heir to the throne after
his father.
The scandal began to unfold last week when a
group of police officers who have links to the princess’s family was arrested.
The group, which police say was led by Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, the powerful
former head of the criminal investigation unit, was accused of running illegal
casinos, oil smuggling and money laundering, among other crimes.
Troves of what the police say was ill-gotten
wealth were paraded for the news media and prominently displayed on front
pages, including what resembled a small museum of ancient Buddhist artifacts.
The police also said they had seized 24 gold bars, hundreds of Buddhist
amulets, stacks of property deeds and 80 truckloads of rare timber. The police
dug out many of the items from an underground vault and released images of a
backhoe tearing down a wall to get at them.
Reports of police corruption are common in
Thailand, but the highly unusual twist in the case was the charge of
lèse-majesté, specifically the allegation, not fully elaborated on by the
authorities, that the accused used symbols of the monarchy for their own
benefit.
On Saturday, the authorities released a letter
sent by the office of the crown prince ordering the government to strip his
wife’s family members of their royally bestowed name, Akkarapongpreecha.
The order appears to leave Princess Srirasm,
who was a commoner before she married the crown prince in 2001, in a fragile
position.
Yet as is typical with royal matters in
Thailand, the scandal is being reported in vague and oblique terms, and very
few basic questions are being asked or answered publicly.
“I would like to inform the press that this is
an important case, a sensitive case,” Somyot Poompanmoung, the country’s police
chief, told the media last week. “Sometimes we cannot reveal deep information
and detail.”
Some aspects of the crackdown remain shrouded
in mystery. One of the policemen accused of corruption, Col. Akkharawut Limrat,
died after plunging from a building. His body was immediately cremated,
contrary to traditional Buddhist practices.
Police officials have said little about the
death, including where it occurred.
“He got stressed out,” Lt. Gen. Prawut
Thavornsiri, a police spokesman, said. “So he jumped out of the building and
died.”
Discussion in Thailand, typically a garrulous
and freewheeling society, has been muted, at least publicly, on the possible
motives of the crackdown and the implications for the monarchy.
“The silence is deafening,” said Thongchai
Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of
Wisconsin who is more free to discuss the issue because he is based outside of
Thailand. “This subject is forbidden from open and reasonable discussion. This
fact tells a lot about Thai society today.”
The use of lèse-majesté law against Mr.
Pongpat, who until two weeks ago was one of the most senior members of the
police force, appears to further expand the scope of the controversial law.
In recent years, at least one member of the
royal family has suggested that awareness and admiration for the monarchy have
fallen among young people. Partly in response, the authorities have become more
aggressive in prosecuting lèse-majesté cases. Anyone is entitled to file a
lèse-majesté case in Thailand, so the law has turned Thais against one another.
A taxi driver was sentenced earlier this year
to two years and six months after his passenger recorded on his phone a
conversation with the driver that a court deemed insulting to the monarchy.
In October, a 67-year-old man was arrested in
a shopping mall in Bangkok for scrawling a cryptic message that the authorities
deemed offensive to the monarchy. Security guards in the shopping mall handed
him over to the military. He remains in detention and, despite health problems,
has been refused bail four times.
The lèse-majesté law calls for up to 15 years
in prison for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the “King, Queen,
Heir-apparent or Regent.”
The measure’s protection appears to extend
beyond living monarchs. In October, two career military officers brought
charges against a well-known Thai intellectual, Sulak Sivaraksa, for saying
that an elephant duel involving the ruler of a previous Thai kingdom was legend
and not fact. The ruler in question, King Naresuan, died in 1605.
David Streckfuss, a scholar specializing in
Thailand and the author of a book about lèse-majesté, said he expected the law
to be used with continued frequency in the coming months.
“However the succession unfolds, the
lèse-majesté law ensures that the Thai public will be silenced,” he said.
