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Abstract
This article examines the desacralisation of royal charisma in contemporary Thailand. Over the past few years an underground discourse has emerged among critics of royal ideology and supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that directly confronts the power of the monarchy. The images, metaphors and linguistic devices used in the process are difficult to study because they rarely appear in public. This article focuses on an unprecedented demonstration of rage against the monarchy on September 19, 2010, when red-shirted demonstrators painted anti-royal graffiti on a construction hoarding at Ratchaprasong intersection in downtown Bangkok. In analysing the Thai political crisis as a battle of different charismatic groups, the article will present the September 19 event as the first open strike against the sacred charisma of the Thai monarchy. This charisma has hitherto been protected by royalists from all walks of life who were “working towards the monarchy.” With their attacks on the monarchy the red-shirts were challenging a legitimacy-conferring system which had benefited wide sections of the Bangkok populace in the past. At the same time, a competing charismatic movement has emerged around Thaksin, who himself has to take into account the charisma he conferred upon his followers.
Acknowledgements
The author owes thanks to Katherine Bowie at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and to Erik Harms at Yale University for the opportunity to present a draft version of this paper at their universities. Heartfelt thanks are due to Kevin Hewison who gave valuable advice and to three anonymous reviewers whose detailed reports helped improve the first draft of this paper. The author is grateful to Chirayu Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya and Somboon Chaidejsuriya from the CPB for generous support with valuable information on the activities of the CPB in the Siam-Ratchaprasong area. Very special thanks to the person who made the photos of the red graffiti available. The research that informs the article is made possible by the support of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation).
Notes
1 A video of Thongchai’s talk can be found online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icM7PtlaSdA. Accessed September 17, 2012.
2 It would be wrong, however, to term such manipulated charisma “pseudocharisma” as has been suggested in the context of secular, mass-mediated societies (Bensman and Givant Citation1986, 48).
3 This is a working definition which will be further developed in the author’s PhD dissertation.
4 A similar observation was made in a classified diplomatic cable authored by the US embassy in Bangkok in November 2009: “Many figures in the various circles attempt to appropriate the charisma of the King and prestige of the royal institution for their own purposes without any official remit, a process known in Thai as \’ang barami.\’” (Thailand: Circles of influence inside the institution of the monarchy in King Bhumibol’s twilight, Wikileaks. http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/11/09BANGKOK2967.html). Accessed July 15, 2011.
5 Information obtained from the database at the Thai Ministry of Commerce, Amphoe Muang, Nonthaburi.
6 Sirindhorn’s attendance at the launch of Krispy Kreme appears in the “royal duties” section on her website: http://www.sirindhorn.net/HRH-activities.en.html?dc=28&mc=09&yc=2553&month=9&year=2010. Accessed September 18, 2012.
7 According to Somboon Chaidejsuriya, Assistant Director-General of the CPB, “since 2009 CPB has provided eight scholarships to the children [in the community] and as of now five remain because two of them decided to quit from school and the other failed his examination” (e-mail communication, July 8, 2011).
8 For a detailed discussion of the architectural development of Siam Paragon, see Ünaldi (Citation2013b).
9 I owe thanks to Erik Harms for raising that point.
10 Given the protection of private royal spaces from profanation it is hard to imagine the development of a European-style monarchy in Thailand. For Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebration the British ska-band Madness performed “Our House (in the Middle of our Street)” on top of Buckingham Palace while a row of ordinary town houses were projected on to the façade of the palace.
11 Weber’s concept of status honour referred to by Hewison (Citation2013) is a form of routinised charisma. In Weber’s (Citation1966, 369) own words: “With the process of routinization the charismatic group tends to develop into one of the forms of everyday authority, particularly the patrimonial form in its decentralized variant or the bureaucratic. Its original peculiarities are apt to be retained in the charismatic standards of honour attendant on the social status acquired by heredity or the holding of office.”
12 A link to the clip was posted on the message board of a red-shirt Facebook group in September 2010. It may still be found under the title “RedGraffiti_xvid.html” if typed into a search engine.
13 McCargo and Naruemon (Citation2011, 997) noted that in 2010 the UDD leaders had adopted the motto “Don’t ‘strike the sky’” (literally, ti fa, meaning don’t attack the country’s traditional institutions).”
14 Thaksin’s sister Yingluck who became Prime Minister in mid-2011, made sure to resume her brother’s leadership style. On her trip to the provinces to inspect flood-prevention measures in February 2012 she reportedly stayed overnight in the homes of villagers. One former local MP noted in front of a waiting crowd “that the premier’s working style was very much like that of her brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra” (The Nation, February 16, 2012).
15 In response to my question why these flags were sold one of the vendors smiled knowingly and said: “I can’t tell you.”
16 Thanks to Nick Nostitz for sharing this observation.