Thousands of Thais yesterday gathered on a Bangkok bridge named after late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on what would have been his birthday, the latest organized mass display of grief in a divided nation adjusting to life without him.
For much of his remarkable seven-decade reign, King Bhumibol’s Dec. 5 birthday was an auspicious moment for Thais, with the monarch often delivering key speeches offering social — and sometimes distinctly political — guidance in a nation buffeted by years of coups and instability.
Stricken with ill health in the last decade of his life, he missed his last two birthday appearances before his death at age 88 on Oct. 13.
Photo: AP
His passing has plunged Thailand into a year of mourning, heavily orchestrated by an arch-royalist junta that seized power two years ago, and has removed a key pillar of stability.
“I still feel lonely and empty, as we don’t have him anymore,” visibly moved Yaowana Kaewpud, one of the mourners on the bridge, told reporters.
The 47-year-old and her daughters had traveled from the outskirts of Bangkok to attend yesterday’s dawn ceremony, which featured black-clad mourners giving alms to Buddhist 999 monks.
King Bhumibol was widely revered as a calming constant and afforded a near god-like status among many Thais through his many years criss-crossing the nation, a reputation further burnished via a slick palace propaganda machine.
He was also shielded from any criticism or scrutiny inside the kingdom by a strict lese majeste law forcing subjects and the media to heavily self-censor.
His passing is a delicate transition both for the monarchy and its backers in the military elite.
King Bhumibol forged a strong alliance with Thailand’s coup-prone generals, who often used perceived threats against the monarchy to seize power in putsches that were almost always recognized by the king.
His reign saw breakneck development, but also entrenched disparity between a Bangkok-centric elite and the rural poor.
In the past 10 years Thailand has been torn apart by competing political factions representing those two sides.
While King Bhumibol was widely revered, King Maha Vajiralongkorn has not yet achieved the same level of popularity. The 64-year-old prince ascended to the throne on Thursday last week after a seven-week hiatus in which he asked to be allowed time to mourn his father.
He is comparatively unknown to ordinary Thais, choosing to spend much of his time outside of the kingdom and has not given an interview in years.
While critical reporting on King Vajiralongkorn is curbed, most Thais are aware of his colorful lifestyle, his three marriages and some of the uncensored overseas articles that have been published about him, largely thanks to social media.
However, forwarding such articles can be perilous.
On Sunday, prominent dissident Jatupat Boonpattararaksa was arrested for lese majeste for posting a profile by the BBC’s Thai-language service on the new monarch on Facebook. He faces up to fifteen years in jail if convicted.
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