Thai king intervenes to stop his sister entering politics
A Thai political party swore loyalty to the king, a day after its stunning decision to nominate the monarch’s sister as its candidate for prime minister backfired when the king called the move inappropriate and unconstitutional.
The statement of fealty comes as the country ponders a whirlwind in which Princess Ubolratana Mahidol broke with tradition to become a candidate for the Thai Raksa Chart Party. Then her brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, invalidated her action with an order.
Thai Raksa Chart’s statement said the party loyally accepted the king’s order.
Thailand’s March 24 election will be the country’s first since a 2014 military coup put in place a junta determined to reshape the political system to eradicate the influence of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose allies have won every national election since 2001.
So it was not only a shock that Ubolratana was formally entering politics, but also that she was doing so in alliance with a Thaksin-backed party.
Her candidacy would have pitted her against the junta leader and current Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, the preferred choice of the proroyalist military.
Thaksin was ousted by the military in a 2006 coup, and the country’s establishment has spent more than a decade trying to neuter his political machine through court rulings, constitutional rewrites and other changes to the electoral system. Just eight years after ousting Thaksin, the military stepped in again to remove his sister’s government.
Thaksin remains popular with the country’s rural majority.
Thaksin, who went into exile in 2008 to avoid serving prison time on a conflict of interest conviction he insists was political, was generally believed to have been involved in setting up Ubolratana’s candidacy. That shook the country’s royalists, who have long seen their campaign against Thaksin as way to protect the monarchy.
It was widely assumed that Ubolratana, thought to be close to her brother, had received his approval for her action. Vajiralongkorn’s order stressed that Thailand’s constitution insists that the king and those around him stay above politics, and the principles of democratic government also put politics off-limits.
It directly addressed the point that his sister was a member of the royal family even though her formal royal titles had been lifted decades ago when she married a foreigner.
“She still retains her status and position as a member of the Chakri dynasty,” the order said. “Bringing high-ranking royal family members to be involved in the political system, in any way, is an act that is against the ancient royal protocol and national custom and culture, and is seen as a highly inappropriate act.”