The Times - UK (2020-07-21)

36 2GM Tuesday July 21 2020 | the times

Wo r l d

Anti-government protesters in
Bangkok carried banners calling for
the overthrow of Thailand’s king in
an unprecedented display of hostility
towards a once-revered institution.
Hundreds of protesters defied a
pandemic ban on gatherings to rally
at the Democracy Monument. They
called for the resignation of Prayuth
Chan-ocha, the prime minister, who
took power in a coup in 2014 before
changing the constitution and then
winning last year’s election under a
system opponents say was rigged.
As well as demanding elections
and reforms the demonstrators used
slogans that criticised and insulted
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, which is
a crime in Thailand.
Some chanted “Mi Xo” — Not OK
— a coded way of saying “No to O”,
O being a nickname for Vajiralong-
korn. Others alluded to the case of
Tiwakorn Vithiton, 45, who was com-
mitted to a psychiatric hospital this
month after wearing a T-shirt that
said: “I have lost all faith in the insti-
tution of monarchy.” Slogans at the

Thailand
Kenneth Denby

Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s supreme

leader, has publicly sacked the man-

agers of a hospital construction

project for soliciting donations from

the public.

State media reported “serious

problems” in the building of Pyong-

yang General Hospital yesterday, a

huge undertaking that appears to be

linked to the country’s struggle

against coronavirus.

“The construction co-ordination

commission is organising... in a

Kim sacks builders of his pet project hospital

careless manner with no budget

properly set up,” Mr Kim said on a

visit to the site. The report said that

the supreme leader “severely re-

buked [officials] for burdening the

people by encouraging all kinds of

‘assistance’ ”. According to the Kore-

an Central News Agency, “he said...

the noble plan and intention of the

party... could be distorted and its

image tarnished”.

It seems that the project’s manag-

ers have been reduced to begging for

supplies; unless “assistance” is a

euphemism for extortion.

Mr Kim broke the ground on the

hospital’s construction in March

and ordered that it be built by the

75th anniversary of the founding of

the Workers’ Party of Korea on Octo-

ber 10.

In a speech marking the beginning

of construction he said: “The coun-

try’s health and medical sector... was

scientifically and honestly evaluated,

and it pained my heart... that our

country’s capital does not wholly

have modern treatment facilities.”

North Korea claims not to have

had a single case of Covid-19, a claim

regarded as unlikely by many foreign

observers.

North Korea

Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor

Thais risk 15 years in jail

by decrying king in public

Perfectly ghoulish This photo of Papua New Guinea tribesmen won the Hamdan International Photography people’s choice award

rally included “We didn’t lose faith,

because we never had faith” and “We

had no faith in you from the start”.

Vajiralongkorn’s father, Bhumibol

Adulyadej, who died in 2016, was

loved and respected by many Thais,

but his son has an unsavoury reputa-

tion. Under Thailand’s lèse-majesté

laws, any “insult” to the royal family

can be punished with 15 years in jail.

Available intelligence, including

the accounts of US diplomats, indi-

cates that the new king, 67, is at best a

bizarre eccentric and at worst venge-

ful. Since his father’s death he has

spent much of his time in Germany.

Over the years he has taken and

cast off a series of wives and “con-

sorts”. Several slogans made obscene

reference to his alleged womanising.

Displays such as the one in Bang-

kok and Chiang Mai on Saturday

would have been unthinkable even a

few months ago. They are an indica-

tion of growing unrest as the pan-

demic leads to rising unemployment.

One slogan articulated fear of a vio-

lent response from the armed forces.

Addressed to Thai soldiers, it said: “If

something happens in future, point

your guns at the sky, not the people.”

HERMAN MORRISON/HIPA/SWNS

Modi’s £2bn ‘vanity scheme’

downgrades Lutyens’ Delhi

India

Hugh Tomlinson

The new triangular building will

stand beside the round parliament

Parliament House, which has stood

for almost a century at the architec-

tural heart of Delhi, may be con-

signed to history as the Indian gov-

ernment forges ahead with a contro-

versial plan to redevelop the capital’s

famous central vista.

Built by Sir Edwin Lutyens as a

symbol of British imperial might in

India, and later adopted as the seat of

power for a proud, independent

democracy, the beloved circular

building could be little more than two

years from closure. Contractors sub-

mitted tenders this week for the con-

tract to build a new parliament, envis-

aged as the heart of a new India by the

Hindu nationalist government of

Narendra Modi, the prime minister.

The £2.4 billion plan has attracted

ferocious criticism since it emerged

last year, pushed through without

public consultation by the Modi gov-

ernment, emboldened by a second

landslide victory at the general elect-

ion. Alongside the new, triangular

parliament building, the develop-

ment includes a luxurious new resi-

dence for Mr Modi. Critics have de-

nounced the plan as a desecration of

India’s heritage and a symbol of fears

that Mr Modi aims to sweep away

India’s secular foundations and

establish a Hindu theocracy.

The parliament complex was

designed by Lutyens and Sir Herbert

Baker after the British decided in 1911

to move the capital of the Raj to Delhi

from Calcutta. The wide boulevards

and lawns echoed European capitals

such as Paris, while the red stone was

the same used by Mughal emperors

to build their forts and palaces. The

parliament buildings showed flour-

ishes drawn from Hindu, Buddhist

and Muslim architecture. The central

vista, down the avenue from the India

Gate war memorial to the Rashtra-

pati Bhavan, or president’s house, is

seen as the pair’s masterpiece, the

most famous view in India after the

Taj Mahal.

The Indian government and the

architecture firm overseeing the

project, HCP Design, insist that the

old parliament is no longer fit for pur-

pose. The lower house holds almost

550 members, but a proposal to in-

crease the number of MPs to better

reflect India’s growing population,

would demand a radical increase in

the building’s capacity. Rather than

renovate the existing structure, the

government proposes redeveloping

Parliament House as a museum.

“What we are trying to do is respect

history... This is exactly what Lut-

yens would have done. It might be a

radical change but certainly not

something that breaks with the past,”

Bimal Patel, head of HCP Design,

said in January.

A group of almost 100 architects,

historians and artists wrote to Delhi’s

planning commission earlier this

year, however, claiming the plans

submitted by the government were

“misleading and illegal”, and de-

manding that the Indian public be

allowed to scrutinise the scheme.