Thai King's 60 years' worth of political acumen

By Peter Janssen Jun 7, 2006, 16:12 GMT

Bangkok - Thailand's usually combative politicians have taken a break this month from their usual verbal onslaughts and histrionics to pay due respect to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 78, who on Friday celebrates his 60th year on the throne.

The special anniversary, which will be celebrated Friday through Tuesday with religious rites, ancient pageantry, pyrotechnical displays and the arrival of royalty or their representatives from 25 countries, is also an occasion to take stock of the king's special contribution to Thai politics.

This year's political crisis provides a good example of how King Bhumibol, as head of state under Thailand's constitutional monarchy, has won respect over the past six decades for his political acumen, which some say is on a par with his more widely heralded achievements in rural and social development.

The king's political role became a topic of heated debate in March and April when mass anti-government demonstrations in the capital repeatedly called on the Thai monarch to intervene by appointing a new prime minister and cabinet to replace the allegedly corrupt administration of premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The protestors argued that the king had been empowered by the 1997 constitution, under Article 7, to step in whenever the country's political situation hit a constitutional impasse.

Throughout the tempestuous period leading up to the April 2 snap election the king kept quiet. But when the crisis continued into the post-election period he finally stepped in on April 25 with a constitutional solution to the political 'mess.'

On that day, in an audience granted to newly appointed Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court judges, King Bhumibol encouraged the two high courts to use their judiciary clout, together with that of the Constitutional Court, to solve the political problems caused by the April 2 snap election, which was broadly deemed illegitimate in that Thailand's three opposition parties had boycotted the polls.

In effect, the king had raised Thailand's Supreme Court to a similar political role played by the US Supreme Court.

'That was a very useful, very important and very intelligent intervention by the king, and its having its affect at the moment,' opined Jon Ungprakorn, an outgoing Thai senator.

Since the April 25 audience, Thailand's three top courts have decided to annul the April 2 election on the grounds of procedural irregularities and have started to tackle some of the worst forms of political imbalances in the current political system, although much still needs to be undertaken.

'I think His Majesty has provided a guiding light to resolving the crisis. Obviously this is not the first time he has done so,' said Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the opposition Democrat Party, one of the three to boycott the April 2 polls.

King Bhumibol has played a similarly pivotal role in defusing politically explosive, and much bloodier, showdowns in the past.

In the 1992 'May event,' when anti-military demonstrators and troops clashed on the streets of Bangkok - leaving more than 100 dead and missing - it was the king who put an end to the bloodshed with his advise proffered in an audience with the two chief protagonists - then-premier General Suchinda Kraprayoon and protest leader Chamlong Srimuang.

In 1973, when thousands of students flocked to the Chitlada Palace, the king's Bangkok residence, to demand the resignation of the Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, the king granted the dictator an audience and advised him to leave the country, which Thanom promptly did.

To fill the political vacuum, King Bhumibol then appointed Professor Sanya Thammasak as prime minister.

Political observers point out that the king has always acted within his constitutional powers in these crises.

'He used legal instruments that were still available at the time, and once the prime minister was appointed the king stepped back,' said Vasit Dejkunjorn, the author of 'In His Majesty's Footsteps: A Personal Memoir.' Police General Vasit, who was the king's top security officer during 1970 to 1982 and was witness to the 1973 turmoil, in a recent interview insisted that the king was at heart a democrat.

'He wants to keep the monarchy constitutional,' Vasit told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'I think the king understands democracy, more than some of the leaders of this country.'