A young Thai deputy was sentenced this Wednesday to three years in prison for retweeting Diderot. And three more years for bouncing another tweet about the vaccine business. In total, six years behind bars on account of the lese majeste law, which pursues any indication of insult or threat towards the monarchy, the royal family or the opulent and diversified Office of the Royal Household.
Rukchanok Srinork still had his smile on his face this morning as he attended the sentencing in a Bangkok court. The magistrates had denied his request to postpone the hearing because it coincided with the reopening of Parliament. But twenty-nine-year-old Rukchanok will not only miss today's session, but all the others. Since the law provides for the disqualification of any parliamentarian who spends more than one day in jail, even without a final sentence.
Although Rukchanok, a promise of the progressive Avanzar party, has appealed the sentence and her lawyer has requested her release on bail, she has been imprisoned for now, after the verdict has been read.
The deputy maintains her version that she never retweeted the two messages in question, for which she has been incriminated and convicted. The prosecution once showed an alleged screenshot, but the police have been unable to find them online. Does not matter.
In the messages supposedly retweeted on Twitter (now The young woman would also have retweeted photos of an opposition demonstration in which cryptic or ostensibly republican banners appeared. Although these messages have not been reproduced, according to a press agency it is a quote attributed to the pre-revolutionary French encyclopedist, Denis Diderot. Probably his boutade "with the guts of the last priest, let's strangle the last king."
It is not a type of humor appreciated in Thailand. Although that does not mean that the mood of the Thais has not changed. Under the previous monarch, Rama IX, it was unthinkable - as well as very dangerous - not to stand up when the monarchical anthem was played in movie theaters, before each film. Currently, under the reign of his son, Rama X, half the room remains seated, without consequences.
The representative of sovereignty has been accompanied in today's ordeal by Pita Limjaroenrat, advisor, former leader and former candidate of the party, whom she made the most voted in the May elections, the first since the 2014 coup d'état. She has also been flanked by the current head of Avanzar, after Pita's resignation, Chaithawat Tulathon.
The young Rukchanok Srinork attracted attention during that campaign and even more after winning the seat in a Bangkok constituency that had been under the same family for decades. For this reason, details of her biography have been circulating for some time, which has little to do with the life of privilege of Pita Limjaroenreat or Thaksin Shinawatra, both billionaires, although they are or have been a thorn in the side of the military.
Rukchanok, in fact, was adopted when she was still a baby by a working family. Then, in her first years of political activism, she was a "yellow shirt", a furious monarchist, who even stated that she would have given ten years of her life if it would extend the longevity of the previous king, Rama IX, by one week.
The young woman says she changed her perspective after working as a housekeeper in the United States and realizing that, in a few months, she saved enough for more than one whim and even went on vacation. A privilege available to few within the Thai socioeconomic and political structure.
Back in Thailand, he decided to join Avanzar. He fought for his seats, with a bicycle and a loudspeaker. Against all odds, he did it. Although his legal problems show that his rivals were not without resources.
His local victory was also that of his party at the national level, with the ability to weave a change majority with the latest version of Thaksin Shinawatra's force, Pheu Thai. But the military junta, which participated with its own parties, was not discouraged by its poor results and maneuvered to prevent the impeccable Pita from becoming the youngest, most prepared and photogenic prime minister in Asia.
Pita also presented, in the eyes of the military leadership, the risk of crossing two red lines. Firstly, because of his campaign in favor of relaxing the lèse majesté law. Secondly, for his promise to realign Thailand's foreign policy with that of the United States, in contrast to the distribution of the game in recent years with respect to the great powers.
The would-be prime minister who never made it is a product of Bangkok's economic and social elite, which was not enough to catapult him to power, but may have saved him jail time. Both Pita's father and grandfather had already had political or government responsibilities. He, in turn, in addition to having his own companies, has been the former general director for his country's Grab, a kind of combination of Uber and Glovo, based in Singapore and inevitable in Thailand.
A Thai equidistance that has excellent relations with the US and Japan, but also a very good relationship with China, its main trading partner and tourist market. Even Vladimir Putin received an official invitation to visit Thailand a couple of months ago.
It should be said that the social segment that supports the Thai monarchy and its institutions with the greatest intensity and greatest means are the Chinese of Bangkok. They have dominated Thai commerce and industry for generations. Since World War II, all but a couple of Thai prime ministers - including the current one, Srettha Thavisin - have their family roots in China.
This enterprising and not entirely endogamous population sees in the monarchy - whose dynastic founder was partly of Chinese origin - an umbrella for the community. A guarantee that they would not suffer the same fate as the hundreds of thousands of Chinese massacred in the Indonesia of dictator Suharto, an ally of the West, or, bloodlessly, but with legal hostility, in neighboring Malaysia.
The lese majeste law, contained in article 112 of the Penal Code, establishes penalties of between 3 and 15 years in prison. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) denounces the increase in lèse majeste cases in Thai courts since November 2020, when the Government once again used it to quell the pro-democracy movement led by university students in the courts.
Advance, with many votes among young people, wanted to reduce the penalties and that only institutions linked to the Royal House could report infractions. According to TLHR, at least 259 people, including some minors, have been charged with lese majeste since then.
In the last legislative campaign, there were older people who asked candidate Rukchanok what was the need to get into the mess of modifying the lèse majeste law. "Because it is used for political purposes," she replied.
