What will new Thai king do with all that power?
The monarch’s future plans seem unclear as he is still dogged by his bitter divorces and controversial playboy reputation.
BANGKOK: Three days of elaborate centuries-old ceremonies begin today for the formal coronation of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who has been on the throne for more than two years.
What Vajiralongkorn – also known as King Rama X, the 10th king of the Chakri dynasty – will do with the power and influence the venerated status confers is still not clear.
The 66-year-old monarch has sent mixed signals. Bursts of assertiveness alternate with a seemingly hands-off approach in other matters – a perception girded by the amount of time he spends at a large residence he maintains in Germany.
Last Wednesday, he suddenly announced his fourth marriage to a former flight attendant, who is a commander of his security detail, and appointed her Queen Suthida.
The timing of the announcement, just before his coronation, suggests a fresh commitment to his duties.
Vajiralongkorn is likely to remain burdened by old gossip about his personal life that has dogged him since returning from his education in England and Australia.
Vajiralongkorn early on was pinned with the reputation of a playboy, a trait his own mother acknowledged. He has gone through bitter divorces with three women who have borne him seven children.
His father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej – the only monarch most Thais had known when he died in October 2016 after seven decades on the throne – won deep love and respect as an exemplar of rectitude and an avid cheerleader for his country’s economic development.
“The defining years saw King Bhumibol spending large amounts of time in provincial Thailand, visiting ordinary people,” said Michael Montesano, coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at Singapore’s Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“We have yet to see similar behaviour on the part of his heir.”
Paul Chambers, a political scientist at Naresuan University, finds Vajiralongkorn’s style “more hands off ”, even as he has brought more of the country’s administration directly under the palace.
His early actions as king included replacing his late father’s loyalists with his own in key palace posts.
“The new king is a very decisive man and he’s very daring, unlike his father,” said Sulak Sivaraksa, a conservative social critic.
There have been suggestions that the new king’s purges amount to an anti-corruption campaign. Such a case can be made, said Montesano.
“But the same actions also appear to bespeak an interest in gaining or exerting greater control over certain institutions,” he said.
There is little question that Vajiralongkorn has tightened control over royal institutions and what amounts to political privileges.
His greatest challenge is likely to be sorting out the palace’s relationship with the military.
Bhumibol and the army worked out a delicate balance of power, with the palace arguably holding the stronger hand, especially after a 1973 pro-democracy uprising temporarily discredited military rule.
But as Bhumibol’s health declined, that balance began to shift. Now, with the army entrenched in government after staging a coup in 2014, things seem to have shifted more in the military’s favour.
Vajiralongkorn has supporters in the military. He studied military academies, took part in the 1970s counterinsurgency action against the Communist Party of Thailand and is a qualified pilot in the air force.
“He has sought to bring more army units under his personal control,” said Chambers.
“Prior to his father’s death, the junta leaders seemed to have acted for the king but they were becoming too big for their britches, so to speak. The new sovereign wanted to ensure personalised monarchical control over the military.”
Vajiralongkorn’s actions help restore the balance of palace-barracks relations and “reflect a diminution of the army’s own influence,” agreed Montesano.
But the relationship is a two-way street. An election held in March has been widely seen as rigged through convoluted election laws to favour the military.
New political jousting may follow Vajiralongkorn’s coronation within days, when election results are certified and will almost certainly be challenged by the losers.
The Thai people, said Sulak, will probably be peaceful and “full of joy” during the coronation ceremony period. “But I’m not sure about afterwards.”