A Thai minister accused of insulting the country’s revered king announced his resignation yesterday in an attempt to defuse political tension following coup rumors.
Rumors of a coup have circulated in Bangkok in recent days as the army and opposition parties escalated their verbal attacks on Jakrapob Penkair, a minister attached to the prime minister’s office accused of insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
“The coup rumor has put a lot of pressure on the prime minister. It is a key factor of my resignation,” Jakrapob said in a press conference. “I hope the talk about a military coup will cease after I resign.”
The resignation came ahead of an anti-government rally planned for the evening. One of the protesters’ demands has been that some action be taken against Jakrapob.
The military has strong loyalties to the palace and has in the past used alleged attacks against the monarchy as a pretext to seize power in some of Thailand’s perennial coups.
“No soldier wants to stage a coup to topple the government but I cannot guarantee that there will be no more coup,” Supreme Military Commander General Boonsang Niempradit told reporters on Thursday, urging Jakrapob to resign.
The last coup occurred in 2006 following months of mass street protests against then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who went into exile but has since returned to fight corruption charges against him and his family.
Jakrapob, a close Thaksin ally, will be summoned to hear charges against him next week, police had earlier said. A police officer in March filed a complaint against Jakrapob, alleging that he had insulted the monarchy.
Police Lieutenant General Adisorn Nonsee said yesterday that authorities have “clear evidence that Jakrapob’s committed lese majeste” during a speech last August when he was part of a group opposed to the military-installed government then in power.
The lengthy speech was about the clash between democracy and what he called the “patronage system,” but police have declined to specify what part of the speech allegedly insulted the king.
Jakrapob became a Cabinet minister when an elected civilian government took power again in February. He has repeatedly denied the allegation and said he is the target of a conspiracy.
The charge of insulting the monarchy carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. The statute reflects the deep devotion almost all Thais hold for the monarchy. However, the charge is often used for political purposes as a way of smearing its targets, and relatively few cases come to court, with even fewer successfully prosecuted.
The resignation came ahead of another street protest yesterday by anti-government groups, led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy.
The group has demanded Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s government resign for allegedly trying to amend the Constitution for political gain.
The protesters have also heavily attacked Jakrapob for allegedly insulting the monarchy.
The demonstrators accuse Samak, widely seen as a proxy for Thaksin, of trying to change the military-backed Constitution as a way to hold onto power and to prevent Thaksin from facing justice.
Thaksin faces charges filed by special committees set up by the military after the coup.
Lawmakers from the core party of Samak’s coalition yesterday withdrew support for the motion now before both houses of parliament to amend the Constitution.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS