good news for his majesty

[phuketrichard]

looks like "koi" is back in favor

BREAKING—Palace sources say King Vaj's consort Sineenat “Koi” Wongvajirapakdi may fly to Germany as early as tonight after being released from the Central Women’s Correctional Institution at Lat Yao. Previously the plan was for her to fly next Thursday but sources say the king has changed his mind and she will fly sooner.



What a story;

Thai nurse, army officer, and member of the Thai royal court. She was named concubine of Crown Prince of Thailand, who granted her several military ranks and positions, including the noble name of Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi (Thai: สินีนาฏ วงศ์วชิราภักดิ์; RTGS: Sininat Wongwachiraphak). After Prince ascended the throne as King x, he appointed her as his Royal Noble Consort, giving her the noble title of Chao Khun Phra Sineenat Bilaskalayani (Thai: เจ้าคุณพระสินีนาฏ พิลาสกัลยาณี; RTGS: Sininat Philatkanlayani) in July 2019. She was the first woman to be a concubine of the King of Thailand in almost a century because the previous kings were monogamous.

However, in October 2019, King X issued a royal edict stripping her of all her government, military, and noble ranks, positions, and titles, as well as royal decorations, citing her conflict with and disrespectful conduct towards his wife, Queen Suthida. As of April 2020, she had not been seenand till this week was rumored to either be in prison or dead

[yong]

Maybe he's bored with the 20

[Alex]

If the German authorities had both a spine and a sense of humor, they would deny her entry based on being a convicted criminal in her home country.

[phuketrichard]

BREAKING—King Vaji consort Sineenat “Koi” Wongvajirapakdi has been sighted at Munich Airport after arriving from Bangkok following her release from prison. Disembarking from the plane, she was given royal treatment, with ceremonial umbrellas. Photographs are likely to be published within a few days.
now 21 ladys to share his bed....

[DaveG]

But the big question is............Would ya Doc ???????

[phuketrichard]

Interesting read about His majesty's early life in Australia

When Qantas flight 736 touched down in Sydney just before 8am on Saturday, September 5, 1970, a shy young man was on board. He was carefully guarded, with a king’s most trusted aide on the flight plus a security detail, and his best friend along for the ride. No visa or entry permit was needed as the only son of Thailand’s king was waved through immigration; a diplomatic passport was packed in case it came in handy.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-mis ... 55otc.html

[Cowshed Cowboy]

The sad thing is his son is being brought up in the same isolationist background far removed from reality and of course the country he is supposed to be a figurehead for. History repeating itself, he also seems to have a bit of a learning difficulty or handicap.

[yong]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-mis ... 55otc.html

The miseducation of King Rama X
By Michael Ruffles
August 30, 2020


Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn in 2018. He spent six years as a young crown prince in Australia, studying first at the King’s School in Parramatta before four years at the Royal Military College Duntroon and time with a regiment in Perth.Credit:AP

When Qantas flight 736 touched down in Sydney just before 8am on Saturday, September 5, 1970, a shy young man was on board. He was carefully guarded, with a king’s most trusted aide on the flight plus a security detail, and his best friend along for the ride. No visa or entry permit was needed as the only son of Thailand’s king was waved through immigration; a diplomatic passport was packed in case it came in handy.

After being greeted at the airport by a group of Thai students, the 18-year-old was escorted to the Wentworth Hotel to get down to the business at hand. Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn Mahidol had to get ready for school.

Nearly 50 years later he is King Rama X, a controversial figure who has been the subject of the strongest protests against Thailand's throne in decades, arguably since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932. In nearly four years since his father’s death, Vajiralongkorn has shown himself to be much more overtly interventionist in politics, consolidated army units under his direct command and converted a sovereign wealth fund into a personal fortune.

Vajiralongkorn spent six years in Australia, studying first at the King’s School in Parramatta before four years at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and time with the Special Air Service Regiment in Perth. The National Archives of Australia has 490 pages of declassified cables and memos from that time, detailing how diplomats and bureaucrats concerned themselves with military drills, pocket money and more.

While Vajiralongkorn’s school results have been expunged and other material redacted on the grounds it could harm international relations, the archives reveal the government was worried about everything from rumours of an assassination attempt and political turmoil in Thailand to his older sister’s love life. Looming over all was King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the young man's father.


Unhappy in its own ways

The file begins in December 1968, when ambassador David McNicol dropped off a prospectus for Duntroon at the palace. Bhumibol was hoping military school would make a man of his son, but feared a great power might manipulate the prince for its political ends. It would be helpful too because the armed forces would be the “dominant ruling group for a long time to come”, as an aide said to the ambassador, in a country where “the mass of people were not ready for democracy”.

“The king and queen informed the Australian ambassador in Bangkok that the Crown Prince was [redacted] proud and nationalistic; nevertheless he had his good points,” reads one Department of External Affairs memo from mid-1970.


Thailand's Crown Prince talks briefly with a welcoming group of Thai students on his arrival at Sydney Airport in September 1970. Credit:Antony Matheus

Thomas Critchley, Canberra’s man in Bangkok from 1969 to 1973, was most often in the middle, typically dealing with the king’s principal private secretary or Bhumibol directly.

Critchley also had to break bad news: entry to Duntroon required graduating high school, and Vajiralongkorn's results from study in England were not good enough.

The King’s School in Parramatta, with the country’s oldest cadet corps, was an obvious choice. A minor Thai royal, Panadda Diskul, was already a student there, although the palace was keen to keep them in separate houses. (The son of a diplomat, Panadda was a career bureaucrat until drafted into the cabinet after a coup in 2014.)

On Vajiralongkorn’s arrival in Sydney, officials quickly concluded the prince had no chance of matriculating without a full year of high school in 1971. Persuading the palace took some delicacy.

Sir Keith Waller, secretary of the Department of External Affairs, wrote to Critchley that Vajiralongkorn “should not be exposed to the embarrassment of failure in the February 1971 [matriculation] examinations and to commencing the Duntroon course with an inadequate educational background”.

Critchley’s audience with Bhumibol on October 16, 1970, settled it: another year at Parramatta before Duntroon in 1972. “He spoke critically of the schooling in England which the Crown Prince had hated,” Critchley reported. “On the other hand the Crown Prince seemed to be settling in well in Australia and appreciated the friendliness with which he was being received.”


Declassified material pertaining to the education of then Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in Australia. Credit:National Archives of Australia

Between five and seven hours a day with tutors plus private study helped. “When he first came to Australia the prince was unable to write more than five or six lines on any topic but is now able to write quite respectable essays,” Sir Keith wrote in a confidential telegram to Bangkok in late 1970.

By the middle of 1971, with the aid of tutors and special attention from teachers, The King’s School was pleased with his improvement and “impeccable” behaviour. “He is not a difficult person,” one heavily edited memo says. “The problem is basically one of determination and attack.”

In September he had an “excellent chance of passing” when the king wondered whether he might send Vajiralongkorn to Britain to launch a frigate being built for Thailand. Sir Keith spoke to Vajiralongkorn, who “clearly does not want to go but will of course comply with the king’s wishes. He is working very hard and although much calmer than he was last year, is suffering from very natural pre-examination tension. The possibility of a trip to England in the present atmosphere is adding to these tensions.”

It was an unnecessary worry. After a phone call, the king changed his mind.

Twists and turns

A sprained ankle during the school holidays meant the prince's Duntroon days did not get off to a good start. The first five weeks adjusting to college routine were the most difficult, the Bangkok Post reported, as “any cadet falling short of the standards was woken up 30 minutes early and had to stand in the cold, open field with a load of about 16-20 kilograms on his back”.

Whatever progress Vajiralongkorn was making was soon overshadowed by a scandal involving his older sister.


The Crown Prince at Duntroon in 1972. Credit:National Archives of Australia

Princess Ubolratana Mahidol, who last made international headlines when Vajiralongkorn kiboshed her attempt to become prime minister in early 2019 and who recently sided with young protesters, was studying in the US in 1972 when she ran off with a man.

Academics at Chulalongkorn University were sharing stories of how the princess had asked for permission to marry a Mexican. When a diplomat refused permission, “the princess said that she was going to be married anyway”. Journalists were sharing similar stories, “except that the press understands her to be marrying a Puerto Rican”.

Sir Keith shared the rumours on July 11 with the commandant of the Royal Military College, Major-General Sandy Pearson, with a word of caution that “any sort of entanglement on the part of the Crown Prince could be a major disaster”.

Two weeks later, Ubolratana resigned her title to become a “common citizen”. Rumours of falling pregnant to her maths tutor at MIT, and of her mother seeking to persuade her to fly to Switzerland “either to have [an] abortion or to release baby for adoption” were reported to Canberra. A few days later they evolved again, with Queen Sirikit apparently bringing Ubolratana home from the US to have the baby privately in a southern palace. (Ubolratana married a fellow student in August 1972; the first of their three children was born more than eight years later. She did not return to Thai public life until after her divorce in 1998.)

As it rocked the palace, the scandal also rattled Australia’s diplomatic ranks. “This development in the royal family will tend to focus attention on the crown prince’s activities in Australia,” charge d’affaires Leslie Gerard Sellars wrote in a confidential memo. Vajiralongkorn’s views of marriage seemed germane; the prince had recently told a reporter he would “accept whoever was chosen” as his wife.


The Thai royal family in 1966 in England, from left: Prince Vajiralongkorn, Princess Sirindhorn, 11, Princess Chulabhorn, 9, Queen Sirikit, King Bhumibol and Princess Ubolratana.Credit:UPI

The year ended with Vajiralongkorn returning to Bangkok for a ceremony marking the 20-year-old’s status as heir apparent. Pearson wrote to Critchley beforehand urging against making too much fuss about his progress at Duntroon.

“He is obviously unsure of himself, needs others to lean on and is seeking security,” Pearson wrote. “Should the king wish to hold a ceremony in December installing him as Crown Prince, then I would suggest for the Crown Prince’s sake that it be just that and not to celebrate his passing his first year at Duntroon.”

Life and death threats

At 6.23pm on Thursday, July 5, 1973, a machine in Canberra spat out an urgent message: the managing editor of the Bangkok Post had heard Vajiralongkorn had been shot, "could we please have immediate advice".

The reply was sent at 7.11pm: "Rumour is completely false repeat false."

For the rest of the month, however, the embassy was asked one variation of the question or another: was Vajiralongkorn shot in the leg? Did a bodyguard die trying to protect him? Did the queen fly to Australia and on her return try to kill one of the men who orchestrated the attempt?

While none of the above were true, new Duntroon commandant General Bob Hay discussed them with Vajiralongkorn on July 26. In a letter to Critchley the following day, in which he also reported an “acceptable level” of progress in military matters despite a weakness in topography, Hay wrote of the prince’s concerns. “It is clearly an unsettling influence and he has given some thought to the reasons behind it. There are no special security arrangements at the college … it is a pity the source of the rumours cannot be located.”

The stories climaxed at the end of the month when the palace publicly denied them, and having photographs of Vajiralongkorn at Duntroon in the media did dampen some speculation. The Australian embassy said only the prince’s reappearance in Bangkok would put them to rest, and formed the view that the stories had been started to discredit one of the so-called "three tyrants" who had ruled Thailand for a decade. After a student uprising in October, with the backing of Bhumibol, military rule came to a brief end and the “three tyrants” went into exile.


The Crown Prince during the graduation parade at Duntroon in 1975.Credit:Fairfax Media

As Thailand underwent upheaval, the prince was deep in rugged terrain south-west of Moruya in NSW. A camp from November 5 to 28 simulated a search-and-clear operation by a battalion against a low-level insurgency. Snakes, flies and mosquitoes were the other enemies, as it was hot and dry for the first 14 days before the weather deteriorated into near-monsoon conditions. “Staff Cadet Mahidol participated quite actively, although he had some difficulty in the rough going because of ankle weakness,” Hay wrote to the palace.

While Vajiralongkorn was in the bush learning the finer points of counter-revolutionary warfare, cables were flying between Canberra and Bangkok about the Crown Prince's future education. Much of what was discussed is still secret, but the upshot was Vajiralongkorn undertook a different academic course to his peers in the following two years.

Radio waves

Political turmoil prevented Bhumibol from visiting Australia, and appears to be the reason he interrupted his son’s study at the end of 1974. For all the correspondence between diplomats, Vajiralongkorn had received only the occasional phone call and three letters from his father during the first three years at Duntroon. In December and January, they spent a lot of time together.

Vajiralongkorn was ordered home early to accompany the king on all public appearances and a tour of Thailand. Bhumibol gave his son “a strong dressing -down” before sending him back to Duntroon, but let him into a private radio monitoring post where the king listened to the army and police signals through the night.

On return to Australia, Vajiralongkorn confided to his company commander that what he heard through the bank of radios left a profound impression. Sick and fatigued from travel, he was described as “generally in a state of considerable shock as a result of impressions and experiences during his visit home. He had mumbled incoherently a great deal."

Australian ambassador Marshall Johnston replied that it had been the king’s intention to “draw his attention to the responsibilities of the monarch and he probably found the experience somewhat traumatic, bewildering and overwhelming”.


Thailand's King Rama X is carried through the streets of Bangkok during the second day of his coronation ceremony in 2019. Credit:AP

“The relationship with the king seems a rather formal and distant one,” Johnston wrote. “The prince’s relationship with his mother seems closer although it also appears to an outsider to be lacking in warmth.”

Given the political ructions, Queen Sirikit was invited to attend the graduation ceremony while King Bhumibol stayed behind. The queen danced with her son at the graduation ball, as per tradition, and Vajiralongkorn received a commission as a captain in the Royal Thai Army from governor-general Sir John Kerr.

His academic results were glossed over. Johnston assured the palace the graduation ceremony would not cause any embarrassment to the royal family. “It is most important that the prince should not be made to feel different or inferior or to lose face in any way. If this happened we would risk losing the tremendous goodwill we have built up here by training the prince at Duntroon. I hope, therefore, this question will be approached with imagination and flexibility.”

The file peters out after the ceremony, although we know Vajiralongkorn spent much of 1976 with the SASR in Perth and his years in Australia left him better trained than most in the Thai military. For Thailand, it was also the year an ousted dictator returned from exile with Bhumibol’s blessing and student protests erupted.

On October 6, 1976, police and right-wing militia shot, lynched, burnt and raped students, leaving 45 dead in a massacre that continues to haunt the country. Vajiralongkorn, called back from Australia, had landed in Bangkok only days before.

Michael Ruffles is the chief sub-editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

[yong]

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/ ... -monarchy/

OPINION: THE IRONY OF A FACEBOOK GROUP CRITICAL OF THE MONARCHY
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer -August 30, 2020 8:00 am


A screencap of ABC's interview with Pavin Chachavalpongpun

That the Thai government’s initiative to pressure Facebook to geo-block aFacebook group critical of the monarchy in Thailand has backfired big time is for all to see.

Less than a week after the Thai government of Gen Prayut Chan-ocha ‘successfully’ threatened Facebook to block access to “Royalist Marketplace” in Thailand on Monday night or face a legal battle, Facebook caved in. A new marketplace was created and attracted members even faster than the last one.

It was nothing short of a full-blown Streisand effect. The Thai government’s attempts to regain cyber sovereignty have utterly failed, even though the Digital Ministry deputy permanent secretary said last week that the group shared false information deemed a threat to national security.

The situation is worse now with the world watching and organizations like Human Rights Watch decrying violations of people’s right to free speech.

The man behind the group with a million members is Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun who lives in Kyoto. He ends up being sought out for interviews from media around the globe over the past days, from The New York Times to Berlin’s leftist Taz newspaper and even a Singaporean TV station.

It helps promote a new marketplace as yet to be geo-blocked as of press time in Bangkok. The icing on the cake was probably an invitation for him to speak at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. He does not face any real threat of extradition to Thailand, regardless of what the Thai government may claim.

As of press time, the newly created political ‘marketplace’ is less than a week old, but it has already gained nearly 900,000 members. One cartoon compared Pavin to the new Moses, leading the monarchy critics in an exodus to the new Promised Land.

On Wednesday, I was alerted to a pending invitation by a member of the new marketplace to join. I posted on Facebook and Twitter asking for the views of my friends and followers whether I should accept the invitation and join. The answer was an overwhelming ‘yes’ and ‘what are you waiting for!’.

So I did. Then I tried posting this message:

“May I remind that everyone should try to use factual information as much as possible. And not accuse anyone without substantiation, so the the new Royalist Marketplace would not end up being assumed by Facebook to be like what the Thai government’s accused it of. And so it could be a centre for learning.”

The post never appears on the new ‘marketplace’.

It tells me that the group is Pavin’s fiefdom, after all. This is not a real marketplace of ideologies where people argue and communicate freely, it’s merely Pavin’s virtual ideological dominion.

As admin of the group, Pavin decides what he likes to appear or not appear on the market place. The group might be more aptly described as Pavin’s Ideological Marketplace and not a true marketplace of exchanges of ideas and views.

In the end, after days, that simple gentle reminder was not ‘approved’ by Pavin to appear on the new marketplace. He basically blocked the post. No, he didn’t block. Pavin, while crying foul for violations of freedom of his group’s speech instigated by the Thai government, simply decided my message was not fit for print.

Probably he found it potentially sobering, or even demoralizing as the place is pretty much a free-wheeling venue of frenzies for anyone wanting to not just criticize but trash the monarchy, even when there’s little or no substantiated evidence.

Hey, I get it, it’s free speech! But free speech not for all? At least not in Pavin’s royal marketplace realm. Even in the old realm which is now geo-blocked by Facebook, Pavin had earlier declared some intruding members from the other side of the political camp as persona non grata and deported a few from memberships, thus they won’t be able to even type comments following numerous Pavin-approved status made by others.

(I am strangely reminded of ultra-royalist Thais who say if you don’t love the king, then leave the kingdom!)

While acknowledging the invaluable importance of the ‘marketplace’ in opening up critical debate about the monarchy, it’s also disturbingly similar to the Thai semi-military government desire to be able to control what contents can appear in Thailand and what must not.

That’s why they pressured and threatened to take legal actions against Facebook to begin with. And this led to the geo-blocking of the Pavin’s original marketplace.

Thank Buddha that the best Pavin can do is to kick me out of being a new member of the new marketplace and I can still see most of the posts as a spectator. No lese majeste law protecting Pavin though.

The supreme Facebook group administrator still tolerates me as a member, and thus spectator of his influential group as of press time.

Ironic isn’t it. A man who is fighting for greater freedom for Thais to exercise online freedom of expression is also a rather active gatekeeper, keeping away what he doesn’t see fit to be published online in his marketplace from appearing.

Pavin simply can’t bear anything that’s off message on his virtual realm. There he rules supreme, absolute, not answerable to anyone as the Facebook group’s administrator except to Facebook itself.

Long may Pavin rule and reign his new royal marketplace with populations, oops members, the size bigger than some Pacific island nations. Under his dominion with foresight and righteousness, he shall bestow us with what we should read.

I’d end this column by being fair to Pavin and conceding that the ‘marketplace’ also offers a place for Thais to scrutinise and criticise the monarchy and more in an environment where Thai mainstream mass media self-censored itself on anything mildly critical of the institution.

In this regard, it serves as an invaluable virtual space for much-needed expressions. And credit goes to Pavin with the reservations I am pointing out about in this column.

[phuketrichard]

Its official, she back
his life reads like a TV soap opera

Thailand's king has reinstated his royal consort to the position, nearly a year after she was stripped of her titles in a dramatic fall from grace.

King Vajiralongkorn returned Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi's rank and titles on Wednesday, the Royal Gazette announced.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nsort.html