(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s controversial “lese majeste” law makes it a crime to defame, insult or threaten King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close relatives. The law has always been controversial for its alleged misuse by the conservative establishment. Reformist party Move Forward broke a taboo when it publicly called for changes to the stringent law. It paid the price on Aug. 7, when the movement was dissolved and its charismatic leader Pita Limjaroenrat banned from politics for a decade.
Move Forward made amending the law a plank of its manifesto for a 2023 election, arguing that the law is problematic and lends itself to being weaponized for political gain. Pita said his intention in challenging it was not to harm the king, but to improve the monarchy’s relationship with the Thai people.
Rights groups have recorded a growing tally of prosecutions under the law in recent decades, which have been marked by periods of violent political conflicts and military coups.
In dissolving Move Forward, the Constitutional Court in Bangkok removed, for now, a thorn in the side of the conservative establishment that’s in an uneasy alliance with Pheu Thai, a party backed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Lawmakers from the disbanded Move Forward have since regrouped under a new banner and vowed to carry forward the same ideologies and reform agendas, including the push to amend the lese majeste law. But this time they must tread carefully within the legislative spaces still allowed by the court rulings.
1. What does the law say?
The law concerning lese majeste, a term based on the Latin for “injured majesty,” refers to Article 112 of the Thai criminal code. It calls for the imprisonment for three to 15 years of “whoever defames, insults or threatens” Thailand’s king, queen, heir-apparent or regent — a person who exercises the functions of the monarch during an interregnum. Laws against royal defamation have been part of Thai criminal codes dating back to the 19th century, during the reign of King Rama I of Siam, as Thailand was then known.
2. What’s the role of royalty in Thailand?
Siam was ruled by kings who held absolute power for centuries until 1932, when a bloodless revolution ushered in the current era of constitutional monarchy, with the king serving as the head of state. Every Thai constitution since then has contained a provision that codifies the monarchy as an inviolable and sacred institution. The current charter, written after a coup in 2014, stipulates: “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” Thailand’s reigning monarch is King Maha Vajiralongkorn, also known as King Rama X of the Chakri dynasty.
3. How often is the lese majeste law used?
Charges have been filed under Article 112 frequently over the past two decades, leading many prominent academics and political activists to flee Thailand and seek political asylum abroad to avoid prosecution.
- According to Thai legal watchdog group iLaw, at least 36 people were charged with lese majeste during the years of political turmoil that followed a coup in 2006. That year, the army seized power from Thaksin, who was accused by a royalist movement of corruption and disloyalty to then-reigning King Bhumibol Adulyadej, father of the current monarch.
- ILaw registered at least 98 people charged with lese majeste following another coup in May 2014 that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister. Sensitivities ran particularly high when Thailand mourned the death of King Bhumibol in 2016. The military regime of former army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha ramped up its crackdown on critics of the monarchy.
- After King Vajiralongkorn was officially crowned in 2019, authorities appeared to hit the brakes on lese majeste prosecutions. Prayuth later said this was at the king’s behest. Things changed again in 2020, when a youth-led protest movement broke taboos by making unprecedented calls for reforming the monarchy. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, at least 272 people, including 20 under the age of 18, were charged with the crime between November 2020 and July 2024.
- Thaksin was accused of lese majeste by political opponents during a political crisis leading up to the 2006 coup that toppled him. He found himself on the receiving end of the law once again upon his return to Thailand and was formally charged with it in June. The case against the de facto leader of the Pheu Thai party centers on an interview he gave in Seoul in 2015 that prosecutors deemed had breached the law. He was granted bail after his lawyer posted a 500,000 baht ($13,600) bond. The case suggests the deal between Thaksin and the conservatives — which allowed him to return to Thailand from 15 years in exile and helped them stay in power with Pheu Thai’s help — is coming under strain.
4. What led to the dissolution of Move Forward?
Move Forward was the only mainstream political group to put the lese majeste law at the center of its campaign for the 2023 election, which was cast as a referendum on nine years of military-backed rule under former junta chief Prayuth.
Move Forward’s success in the vote allowed Pita to form a coalition with a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives. However, the military-appointed Senate blocked him from becoming prime minister, effectively thwarting his party’s bid for power.
In May, Chonthicha Jangrew, a Move Forward lawmaker, was sentenced to three years in jail for defaming the king in a speech made in 2021 that called for the release of political prisoners.
Harvard-educated Pita said he wanted to loosen the lese majeste law to prevent it from being used as a tool to crack down on political dissent, especially in the aftermath of the protest movement calling for its total abolition.
In dissolving his party, the Constitutional Court referred back to an earlier court ruling that the party had violated the constitution by seeking to overthrow the monarchy with its election campaign. The court said it had no choice but to take the drastic action to prevent destruction of the constitutional monarchy.
Move Forward’s lawmakers may still face more legal troubles, as the National Anti-Corruption Commission said it was conducting a probe that could result in a lifetime political ban on about 40 lawmakers who had signed a draft bill to amend the lese majeste law in early 2021.
5. Who wants to preserve the law as it is?
The coterie of army generals, judges and bureaucrats who make up the royalist elites controls some of the nation’s most powerful institutions and holds sway over many large businesses. To this group, the monarchy must be protected at all costs as a matter of national security.
Politicians who advocate for the lese majeste law say the harsh sentences handed down under the law befit the king’s superlative status in Thai society, and that reducing them would undermine his inviolability as enshrined in the constitution.
As they rejected Pita’s nomination for prime minister in 2023, some conservative lawmakers said amending the law would unleash anarchy and lead to Thais killing each other in the streets.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
