The EconomistOctober 17th 2020 BriefingRuling Thailand 192
1was not simple. Thailand’s elites took
against him while his popular father still
lived. King Bhumibol Adulyadej was con-
sidered the richest monarch in the world,
his wealth outstripping that of oil-en-
dowed Middle Eastern rulers and Europe’s
royals with their castles and palaces.
Aristocratic types fretted because the
crown prince, as Vajiralongkorn was previ-
ously known, caused so many scandals.
Even his mother likened him to Don Juan.
After leaving his first wife, a princess in her
own right, he disowned four of his five
children with his second wife, an actress,
who eventually fled Thailand. When the re-
lationship ended with his third wife—once
filmed almost naked and crouching before
her husband with birthday cake—several
of her family members went to prison. The
prince spent lavishly and indulged in ec-
centricity, elevating his beloved poodle,
Foo Foo, to the rank of “air chief marshal”.
Still, King Vajiralongkorn took over un-
impeded after his father’s death. Whereas
the father was publicly loved, the son is pri-
vately loathed. His coronation last year at-
tracted tiny crowds compared with those at
the late king’s funeral rites. Despite his co-
operation with army regimes, millions of
Thais felt King Bhumibol displayed the vir-
tues expected of a Buddhist monarch.
King Vajiralongkorn does not even live
in Thailand. He rules a country of 70m peo-
ple from more than 5,000 miles away in
Germany. One insider bluntly appraises his
activities there: “Bike, fuck, eat. He does
only those three things.” The German gov-
ernment finds his presence awkward. “We
have made it clear that politics concerning
Thailand should not be conducted from
German soil,” the foreign minister, Heiko
Maas, told the Bundestag on October 7th.Money, money, money
The king’s militaristic harem inspires em-
barrassing headlines around the world.
Just months after his fourth marriage to a
former air stewardess last year, he elevated
one concubine, a former nurse, to the sta-
tus of “royal noble consort”. She is the first
woman to hold this title since Thailand be-
came a constitutional monarchy.
Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi fell from
grace soon after her elevation. She disap-
peared from view. Then, in September, she
was reinstated and declared “untainted”.
Chinese netizens have likened Ms Sineenat
to a crafty concubine from a popular televi-
sion series, “Empresses in the Palace”.
In March 2012 permission from the Jus-
tice Department was published in the Royal
Gazettefor a temporary prison. A spartan
map appears to show its location as possi-
bly within the grounds of a palace owned
by Vajiralongkorn. His bad books are a mis-
erable place to be. Pictures allegedly of Sri-
rasmi Suwadee, once his third wife, ap-
peared in a German newspaper last year.Head shaved and tearful, she was reported
as being under house arrest.
Airing such dirty linen in public in
Thailand, however, is perilous. The coun-
try’s lèse-majestélaw allows between three
and 15 years in prison for insulting “the
King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the
Regent”. King Vajiralongkorn has instruct-
ed the government not to use the law. But
this hardly reflects newfound tolerance.
Critics instead risk charges for sedition or
computer crime, among others. In July one
man was sent to a psychiatric hospital for
wearing a t-shirt that stated: “I have lost all
faith in the institution of monarchy”.
Playboy antics distract from the more
sinister feats of the monarch since he came
to power. In political, financial and mili-
tary matters King Vajiralongkorn has
gained powers never possessed by his fa-
ther. His interventions appear part of a
larger strategy to push Thailand closer to
absolute monarchy once more.
Take his finances. In 2017 he gained full
control of the Crown Property Bureau
(cpb), which manages royal investments (it
was previously run by the ministry of fi-
nance). Its holdings are estimated to be
worth $40bn. In 2018 the cpbdeclared that
its assets would be considered the king’s
personal property. As a result the monarchhas stakes in some of Thailand’s corporate
titans. He is the largest shareholder in Siam
Cement Group, a conglomerate with rev-
enues of almost $14bn in 2019, with a third
of its shares. The head of the cpb, long a
stalwart in the king’s circles, is a director of
Siam Cement Group and of the 113-year-old
Siam Commercial Bank, one of Thailand’s
biggest, in which the king also has a stake.
In addition to the king’s private means,
the Thai state showers the royal family
with funds. For the 2021 fiscal year govern-
ment agencies have drawn up budgets
which allocate more than 37bn baht—over
$1.1bn—to the monarchy. The Royal Office
will receive 9bn baht of that directly. Much
of the rest goes to government agencies,
the police and the defence ministry for se-
curity and for development projects. By
comparison, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth cost
her taxpayers the equivalent of $87m last
year. Precise details on where the money
goes are elusive. Huge sums go to pay for
royal transport alone (there are many
planes and helicopters to maintain).
King Vajiralongkorn’s political inter-
ventions are another demonstration of his
growing authority. In theory the monarch
sits above parties, parliament and politics.
But after a referendum in 2016, in which
campaigners were banned from opposing
the constitution put forward for approval,
the monarch demanded changes to the
charter. He altered it specifically to make
ruling from afar easier.
He meddled even more audaciously
ahead of last year’s parliamentary election.
Mr Thaksin persuaded the king’s older sis-
ter to run as a putative prime ministerial
candidate for a party with links to him. But
the crown in effect came to the rescue of Mr
Thaksin’s military foes. The monarch de-
clared his sister’s ambitions “unconstitu-
tional”. He also stated that royals should
stay out of politics—yet the night before
the election, he urged Thais to vote for
“good people”, which was taken as an en-
dorsement of Mr Prayuth and his allies.Tomorrow belongs to me
This is just one example of how the palace
and the barracks have continued to support
each other since King Vajiralongkorn came
to the throne. The king has a deep interest
in military matters. Trained in an Austra-
lian academy, he holds the titles of admiral,
field-marshal and air-marshal. The queen
is a general and Ms Sineenat a major-gen-
eral. The king has drawn military forces to
his direct command. The Royal Command
Guard has been created with some 5,
soldiers. They are stationed in Bangkok,
while other important army units, includ-
ing an infantry regiment and a cavalry bat-
talion which have facilitated past coups,
have been moved out of the city. Over-
throwing any government without ad-
vance co-ordination with royal troopsA life less ordinary
King Maha VajiralongkornSource:TheEconomist1952 Born on July 28th
1966 Starts attending school in England
1972 Begins training at Australian military academy
Given the title Crown Prince by his father, King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, making him the official heir
1977 First marriage, to his cousin, Princess Soamsawali
1978 First child born, Princess Bajrakitiyabha
1979 Fathers five children with actress
-87 Yuvadhida Polpraserth
1993 Divorces first wife, Princess Soamsawali
1994 Second marriage, to Yuvadhida Polpraserth
1996 Second wife flees Thailand; four sons disowned
2001 Third marriage, to Srirasmi Suwadee,
a lady-in-waiting
2005 Birth of Prince Dipangkorn, currently the
only officially recognised son
2007 Starts to spend large amounts of time in Germany
2013 Suthida Tidjai joins the palace guard and becomes
commander of the king’s security unit
2014 Srirasmi divorced and stripped of her royal title;
nine of her relatives, including her parents,
arrested for lèse-majesté
2016 Vajiralongkorn inherits the throne after the
death of King Bhumibol
Buys a villa in the Bavarian village of Tutzing
2019 Fourth marriage, to Suthida
Coronation
2020 Anti-monarchy protests begin
Amid pandemic, stays in a German hotel
with an entourage of 20 women