Lèse-majesté: those who dare defy the king of Thailand

Her name is Chatwadee Amornphat but her friends call her Rose. She works in London as a hairdresser – nothing special she says – another foot-solider in this multi-cultural mega-city’s workforce.

Still, there is more to Rose than meets the eye. When she met up with Channel 4 News she wore a rich, velvet coloured dress with matching knee high boots and her dramatic look was matched by the intensity of her political views. Rose, the London hairdresser, grew up in Thailand and she has plenty to say about the country of her birth. In fact, her comments and Facebook videos have made her one of the most controversial figures in South East Asia.

Ms Amornphat is a harsh critic of the Thai Monarchy. She wants the institution abolished and replaced with a democratically-elected head of state. “We need to the change the system in Thailand to become a full democracy. We need to cut the power of the Thai monarch down. If possible I don’t want them to live in Thailand,” she said.

To western ears, views like those may sound relatively mild but they represent a pointed attack on a man who is revered and respected by the majority of Thais. As a consequence, Ms Amorphat has found herself the recipient of criticism, abuse and threats the world-over. Her parents back in Thailand have even launched a legal action against their daughter in an attempt to silence her.

The streets of the Thai capital, Bangkok, are adorned with grandiose pictures of their king. His name is Bhumibol Adulyadej and he is this planet’s longest serving monarch. He marked the anniversary of his official coronation in 1950 with a special ceremony today and was greeted by tens of thousands chanting ‘long-live-the-king’ and ‘our father’ as he travelled to and from the event.

Under the Thai law of lese majeste however, views like these are the only ones people here are allowed to have. Article 112 of the Penal Code makes it an offence to defame, insult or threaten the king. People charged with lese majeste are routinely denied bail and in most cases, convictions result in harsh sentences. Sometimes the law is applied in cases where the accused hasn’t even written or recorded anything – journalists and editors for example, judged not to have removed questionable comments from readers ‘quickly enough’ from websites.

There’s nowhere else on earth quite like it – you’d have to go back 300 years to find anyone in Britain prosecuted for a similar offence.

Civil rights groups say there has been a huge increase in the number of lese majeste cases lodged in Thai courts. Rival political groups use the law as a way to attack and discredit each other, reflecting rising tension in the country deadlocked between groups representing Bangkok’s middle class and the rural poor. Once submitted to court, officials rarely block or filter such charges. Sunai Phasuk from Human Rights Watch said: “Anyone can take a case and make accusations and officials feel obliged to take them on,  for fear that if they don’t they will be (seen as) not loyal.”

Nonetheless, there are plenty of people in Thailand who do not think the law is applied rigorously enough. Doctor and hospital director, Reintong Nannah, has formed his own society, the “Rubbish Collection Organisation” to deal with problem.

Lese majeste offenders are “garbage” he says and they need to be “eliminated”.

“We’ve found out that there are people who have been ungrateful to the king – a man who’s done so much for us. These people insult the institution in a way the country cannot bear.”

Mr Nennah told me the organisation will not resort to violence – instead, their objective is to “bring all lese majeste offenders to justice.” At the very top of the Rubbish Collection Agency’s ‘garbage list’ is one Rose Amornphat. He wants the London hairdresser extradited to Thailand – but if that’s not possible, he wants the British government to find a way to shut her up.

“(What she says) is beyond freedom, beyond democracy. You can have opinions but what she has done is beyond freedom of expression.”

Surprisingly perhaps, that’s a view shared by Rose Amornphat’s parents in Bangkok. Ms Amornphat’s businessman father asked his daughter to stop speaking out 2 months ago. The hairdresser refused and learned a little later that her mother and father had filed a lese majeste case against her.

Ms Amornphat says they have been put under pressure by the “pro-royalists”. “I think they have to do it because they’ve been threatened a lot and they have to keep their lives because Thai royalists out there, they are really crazy. That is really sad for me to think about it.”

In a sign of the febrile atmosphere which surrounds this issue, one of Thailand’s best known poets was gunned down in a restaurant parking at the end of April. His name was Kamol Duangpasuk and he actively campaigned against the lese majeste law. In the eyes of some here in Thailand, questioning the legislation is tantamount to questioning the position and authority of the king. It seems Mr Duangpasuk paid for his views with his life.

Follow John Sparks on Twitter: @c4sparks