A Kingdom in Crisis by Andrew MacGregor Marshall

Author:Andrew MacGregor Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2015-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

‘I cannot afford to die’

The tragedy of King Bhumibol

Bhumibol would never have become king of Thailand if he and his mother had told the truth about Ananda’s death. In the weeks after the shooting, the government began to discover compelling evidence that Rama VIII had not committed suicide as they had assumed. Bhumibol had shot his brother through the head, probably by mistake, pulling the trigger while playing with Ananda, not realizing that the Colt 45 was loaded (Marshall, 2013). Had Bhumibol and Sangwan admitted what had happened, the heir presumptive Prince Chumbhot – son of the hawkishly royalist Paribatra, who had died in exile in Java in 1944 – would have become monarch instead.

Even after they realized the truth, Pridi’s government covered up what happened. It suited them to have a weak monarch on the throne; the prospect of the assertive Chumbhot becoming king was much more worrying. The royalists and Phibun’s military faction also conspired to conceal the truth, exploiting the regicide to smear Pridi and provide the pretext for their coup in 1947. But after allying with the military to overthrow Pridi, the royalists became increasingly unhappy with Bhumibol. They wanted a strong king who could rally support for the royalist cause. Bhumibol was indecisive, unassertive and languishing in Lausanne, deep in depression. In 1948, leaders of the royalist Democrat Party hatched a plan to reveal that Bhumibol had killed his brother, to force him to abdicate (Marshall, 2013). Phibun’s military faction, like Pridi’s progressives, wanted to keep Bhumibol on the throne precisely because he was weak and appeared harmless. The explosive secret of his killing of Ananda could be used to keep him under control – as Roger Kershaw observes, it left Bhumibol vulnerable to ‘blackmailing insinuation’ (Kershaw, 2001). Realizing the royalists wanted to topple Bhumibol and replace him with Chumbhot, Phibun foiled the plot by ousting the Democrat Party and seizing power in April 1948. Meanwhile, a sensational show trial began of two palace pages and a former royal secretary falsely accused of plotting to murder Ananda on behalf of Pridi. As so often before in Thai history, a dominant elite faction was trying to keep a pliant monarch on the throne, while rival factions sought to replace the king with an alternative candidate who could better serve their interests.

After he finally returned in 1951 to formally take up his duties, Bhumibol was ignored by Thailand’s military rulers. He later told the New York Times: ‘When I’d open my mouth and suggest something, they’d say: “Your Majesty, you don’t know anything.” So I shut my mouth. I know things, but I shut my mouth. They don’t want me to speak, so I don’t speak’ (Crosette, 1989). Kobkua describes Bhumibol during this period as ‘a non-entity ruler in the affairs of the nation’ and a mere ‘figurehead whose duty it was to symbolize the nation through parts played in various religious and traditional rites and ceremonies’ (Kobkua, 2003). The king tried to assert his influence during

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