In effect, it gives him control of a personal private army. “I thought that Thailand would end up having a weak king,” Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a scholar of Thai politics and a dissident exiled from the country when Vajiralongkorn’s father was still king, told me in a Skype interview from Japan, where he lives. A portrait of Thailand's late King Bhumibol Adulyadej seen at Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre in Bangkok on October 15, 2016. Among at least 35 … But that doesn’t mean he’s detached from politics back home. In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. “They are royalists.”. Some of Thailand’s highest profile protest leaders dressed in crop tops and paraded at a Bangkok shopping mall on Sunday in a jibe against King Maha Vajiralongkorn to … Two died while in custody while another reportedly fled to Myanmar. Mr Boyce allegedly recounted the event in a leaked cable, writing: “Foo Foo was present at the event, dressed in formal evening attire complete with paw mitts, and at one point during the band’s second number, he jumped up on to the head table and began lapping from the guests’ water glasses, including my own. A diplomatic cable from 2010, released by Wikileaks, reported members of Thailand’s political elite expressing hopes that the King would override the laws in order to appoint the Princess as his heir. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Naked pictures emerge of Thai king who was filmed in tiny yellow crop top. She was also pictured in the cockpit of a fighter jet and wearing a gray camouflage pattern crop-top at the controls of a light aircraft. Two years later, huge Yellow Shirt demonstrations took place. With the Southeast Asian … Video of the king was reportedly shot at a mall in Munich last year in July, and has been widely shared on the social … He rushed home from Germany – where he spends much of his time, reportedly with a former Thai Airways air hostess who he is planning to marry – when his father’s health deteriorated and has since requested to delay taking to the throne so, he says, he has more time to mourn. Bild. Thailand’s king has terrible fashion sense and likes wearing fake tattoos. “Take the Belt and Road project,” he said, referring to Beijing’s plan for a network of ports, railroads, energy corridors, and shipping lanes aimed at making China the center of a vast Eurasian economic network. Vajiralongkorn does none of that, cultivating instead an image of sternness, command, and Olympian distance from ordinary people. A private army would be very useful if there were ever a coup attempt, including a move against him from some dissenting faction in the army. Even the most senior officials in the government and the military literally drop to their knees when in his presence. Crop-tops, mistresses and flying poodles: Meet the next King of Thailand Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkor will take the throne following the death … He’s arranged for units of the army to report directly to him. Some would prefer the Crown Prince’s younger sister, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, to take the throne but Thai law forbids a female monarch. The king’s crop tops. It does this by refusing to criticize these countries for human rights violations, by offering aid and military support when such support is withheld by the US and Europe, and, not least, by presenting a model that seems to be successful and that China itself proclaims as an alternative to Western ways of doing things. It would be hard to overstate the extent of what seems to be an almost medieval reverence for the king in Thailand. Thailand’s new king is a kooky crop top-wearing playboy By David K. Li. In one of them, for example, he eliminated a requirement that when the king is out of the country, which Vajiralongkorn is most of the time, his authority would revert to a regent. In Thai society, the king is a figure of inestimable importance, a Hindu-Buddhist paragon of presumed dignity, virtue, and morality — none of which Vajiralongkorn seemed to be exhibiting on his stroll through the mall. Jorge Silva/Reuters. The 64-year-old Crown Prince was pictured at Munich airport earlier this year wearing a small white crop-top, faded slim-fit jeans and a fake tattoo sleeve. “The Air Chief Marshal’s antics drew the full attention of the 600-plus audience members, and remains the talk of the town to this day.”. But I was wrong,” Chachavalpongpun continued. He is famous for his dedication to his pet poodle, Foo Foo, which was awarded the rank of Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Thai Air Force and given its own Wikipedia page. “It’s all a way of making his power formal, visible,” one person whispered to me. In 2011 four of the children she had with the Crown Prince published a letter claiming they had been abandoned by their father and banned from returning to Thailand. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. His son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, ascended the throne in December. Thailand is putting the squeeze on Facebook to remove dozens of pages that have video of King Maha Vajiralongkorn wearing a crop top. “That’s the way they keep control. It's here that the King lives a life of luxury and quirkiness: walking through German shopping malls wearing crop tops and fake tattoos and hiring out an entire hotel to live in with his harem of lovers. Amid the turmoil, prominent members of Thailand’s ruling class have reportedly been killed in a sign of what could become a more widespread conflict. X × Social media is one of the most important, strangest, and most unpredictable inventions of the 21st Century all at the same time. All of these countries have retained what a Filipino journalist, Marites Vitug, called “the trappings of power” in a conversation I had with her in Manila. Unusually for a Thai king, however, Vajiralongkorn spends most of his time in Bavaria, where he has been snapped wearing skimpy crop tops, sometimes with elaborate temporary tattoos splayed across his back and arms. An image taken from a video widely shared on Facebook in recent weeks appears to show King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand walking through a shopping mall in a yellow crop top. In Thailand King Vajiralongkorn is most often seen parading in his royal regalia, complete with a colourful array of medals. This has included closing areas that were once open to the public, including the Bangkok Zoo and one of Bangkok’s two horse-racing tracks. Of course, not forgetting his white poodle in hand. I hired a car to look at the royal compound, though it’s not easy to get glimpses inside. The second wife left the country when the relationship ended. “When he came to the throne, he looked at the past ... and he said, ‘Why should I let any of that go?’”. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. His body was even adorned in FAKE tattoos. Public criticism of the king or his family is illegal under Thailand's strict lese majeste laws, with insults to the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison. In the largest of them, in 2010, the Red Shirts occupied the commercial center of Bangkok for nearly three months before they were crushed by the army, with some 80 Red Shirts killed and more than 2,000 injured. But human rights groups say that, instead, similar prosecutions are taking place under the country’s computer crime laws. People of Thailand, meet your new king. The theater closed to mourn the king. And so, following the election, the former army chief who led the 2014 coup, Prayuth Chan-ocha, became the country’s prime minister. Vajiralongkorn is still a bit of an absentee monarch, living mostly in Europe. Thailand is a place where journalists, civic activists, lawyers, and others are summoned to a military base for “attitude adjustment,” as the well-known euphemism would have it. He’s also disturbingly authoritarian. Here’s a regal dilemma to consider: Is it right for a king with 70 million subjects and wealth in excess of 70 billion dollars to be seen frolicking around in a crop top rather than a crown? Updated on May 16th, 2017. Crop tops, tattoos and marrying his bodyguard - new Thai king's coronation sets the seal on years of eccentricity Here's the footage of … BANGKOK — The new king of Thailand is into his fashion, but unfortunately the Thai government doesn’t want its citizens to know that. On 16 May 2017, Thai officials warned Facebook after an online video was posted of the king wearing a crop top and with full view of his half sleeve tattoo. The footage prompted a national scandal in Thailand and attracted news coverage across the world. The film showed the then-64-year-old Vajiralongkorn roaming a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, where he lived most of the time, accompanied not by his wife but his mistress. It is Prince Maha’s “playboy” personal life that has attracted most attention. Prince Maha ended his relationship with his third wife, Princess Srirasm, in December. “They supported the Yellow Shirts,” he said, “because they were afraid of Thaksin coming back.” We were sitting in a covered yard alongside one of his ponds, where he grows plankton for sale to nearby fish and shrimp farmers. Among the photos of Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, the Thai King’s consort, are images of her wearing a camouflage-printed sports bra. After taking the throne, Vajiralongkorn had her recognized as noble royal consort, meaning that she would be a sort of official concubine — a second female companion to the king in addition to his actual wife (his fourth). Walls surmounted by the palace create constructive debates and crop tops to making a comment and adhere to Community. Boutique against the insult laws passed by the skimpy outfits their monarch, living in... 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