Recently, a Swiss man pled guilty to the crime of defacing with spray paint a portrait of the king... one of Thailand's most serious crimes. He faces a minimum sentence of 7½ years, although diplomatic wrangling apparently could get him more leniency.I'll only add comment by quoting his majesty:
The king himself, who celebrated 60 years on the throne last year, said in an earlier birthday speech that he would no longer take lese-majeste charges seriously as it would put him above criticism.And here is a BBC link that has a few thoughts worth mentioning.
"I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know," he said. "If you say the king cannot be criticised, it means that the king is not human."
UPDATE:
Since this article seems to be getting a lot of hits, here is the original story I posted back in December. The Farang was quite drunk (no... not an excuse), and may have been hired by Thai people to do it. Just some background for you.
5 comments:
Well, for a change, the BBC makes some good points, especially about the feelings for the crown prince. These feeling are actually far better than they were 5 years ago and I have a personal view that he has left those days behind and that he will make a better King than many have given him credit for.
Its good to see his majesty's own views on this but changing the views of 60 million will take a lot more.
At the end of the day it is so well documented that you DON'T insult the king, either directly or indirectly here - especially this one for whom most ex pats have warm feelings towards too.
By the way Jil - is there such a word as "pled"?? I am no expert on American English but there isn't in "English English" LOL. I even tried an American spellchecker and that doesn't recognise it either. If that's the case you don't get a gold star this week young man. If I am wrong then I will go away and eat another hat :)
Ah... a fellow grammar stickler.
Of course I'm not wrong. My mother was an English teacher and she didn't raise no bad talker.
It gets easy once you finish the brim.
I cant believe the ignorance that someone would do this. Against the law or not doesnt matter to me. He was a guest in the country and should have acted accordingly. Just another Farang making the rest look bad. Nothing good could come of it. If he had serious disagreement he could have showed his distaste by leaving the country and not returning. I have witnessed something like this once. I was working at Don Muang airport in Bangkok in 1998. A fellow military officer who was incredibly childish went on a verbal rant in front of US embassy personel. The crowd that heard the rant also included some high ranking Thai immigration workers. Basically this person was upset that our aircraft could not depart because the Thai crown prince was doing his daily F-16 flight. This person basically used a few choice words against the Prince and the King. Later someone sent a letter to the US embassy about the incident. The ranter was quickly ordered to depart the country via military aircraft and was black listed. Therefore never allowed to enter Thailand again. I was told at the time that if he had not left at that time he would have recieved a lengthy prison sentence. My advice watch what you say about anyone including on blogs you never know who is listening or reading. From Jakal
They should kick his ass out and send him back to his Swiss home.
Jonathan Head is an arrogant anarchist that joined a Jakrapob/TRT propaganda program to help Thaksin. The BBC are GUILTY of meddling in the affairs of other nations - he deserves 75 years in prison with Jakkapop as his cellmate
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