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Indeed, the old politics was breeding such extreme conflict that Thailand was in danger of civil war. Thailand threatens to prosecute Facebook for running a video of the country's heavily tattooed king walking through a shopping mall … In effect, it gives him control of a personal private army. “That’s the way they keep control. Once you go through the lovely king and queen tattoo … The playboy king has also been linked to former nurse Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi — the woman seen with him in the German shopping centre last year. Reports by Wikileaks in 2011 revealed that many in the inner government would have preferred one of Maha’s younger sisters to take the throne upon the death of King Bhumibol — but Thai law forbids a female monarch. Read about the 10 most popular kings and monarchs of history of all time. To get a sense of that, I spent a day in November in an area of fish farms and rice paddies in Chachoengsao province southwest of Bangkok to talk to members of an environmental group opposed to a planned industrial zone called the Eastern Economic Corridor. The threat of the US withdrawing its support is less serious.”, “China is not democratic,” he continued, “but it’s able to deliver fast economic growth, and people feel that if this can happen, what’s the need for democracy?”. 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. In 2001 the king married his third wife — former waitress Srirasmi Suwadee, who had been in his service since 1992. ; Following reports that the king had fled to Bavaria, a Thai … In a country where polygamy has been banned for 100 years, the king seemed to be saying that a kind of polygamy would be a prerogative of the monarch (and nobody else). Why, it’s none other than the king himself, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun. In Thailand’s neighbor, Myanmar, the military has allowed elections but retains its hold on power, and even the country’s ostensible democratic champion, Aung San Suu Kyi, has supported her government’s genocidal attacks on its Rohingya minority. A new constitution written by the coup leaders allowed an election to take place in March 2019, but the new law gives the military so many automatic seats in parliament that it would be almost impossible for an opposition party to take control. “Yes,” he replied. Indeed, it’s difficult these days to think of a single country in Southeast Asia, with its 620 million people, that is becoming more democratic rather than more authoritarian. One more king tattoo idea would be to ink your own name and then add a crown tattoo design just above it. The two places give you the freedom to get creative with your designs. “Actually, the 2014 coup was a way for the military to assure Vajiralongkorn’s succession at a time when his father was sick and Thaksin was becoming more popular than the king,” Pavin said. He married Yuvadhida the following year but after a mysterious bust-up two years later, she fled to the UK to escape her husband. We were afraid to risk even demonstrating the slightest inference of disrespect toward the Royal Family.”. It would be hard to overstate the extent of what seems to be an almost medieval reverence for the king in Thailand. But then things got even stranger. “There’s a mutual interdependence between the military and the monarchy. “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.”. “It’s all a way of making his power formal, visible,” one person whispered to me. Maha has recently promoted her to the rank of General in the King’s Guard, the first woman to reach such a rank in the Thai forces. Around the same time, several palace aides were dismissed — two of them, identified as bedroom guards, for “inappropriate acts and adultery,” according to the official Palace Gazette. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed, King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a croptop in Munich, With wife Srirasmi and Air Chief Marshal Foo Foo, Queen Sirikit branded her son a womaniser, Maha fathered four sons and a daughter with his mistress during his first marriage, With wife Srirasmi Suwadee and their son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, Leaked footage appears to show a mostly naked Srirasmi on the King's birthday, The Thai monarch is a fan of fake tattoos, Maha was known for bullying other children at school, Unlike his son, King Bhumibol, left, was well loved by the people of Thailand, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). She was unable to challenge him, due to the strict laws which prohibit criticism of the monarchy, so the divorce was finalised. But that doesn’t mean he’s detached from politics back home. He can often be seen speeding around the German countryside in a white Porsche 911 Turbo, or out shopping dressed in skimpy clothes. “He is basically running the country now, though he’s not doing that like his father did through moral authority. They have elections, some independent newspapers that even do good critical reporting, and while they do not hesitate to get rid of opponents, they also keep disappearances at low levels so as not to arouse public animosity or international sanction. “He wants everybody to see, whether it’s taking back the land that the zoo is on or assuming direct control of military regiments. This means it’s important to understand the meaning before choosing one of these. Comments Share your thoughts and debate the big issues. Vajiralongkorn’s assertion of his power comes at a time when Thailand has been moving in an authoritarian direction, the government largely controlled by the military, which, after years of sometimes violent political turmoil, took power in a coup in 2014. “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. The universally held belief in Bangkok is that she was thrown into the Bangkok women’s prison; on exactly what legal authority other than the king’s demand, nobody is saying. The incident that has attracted the most attention in the new king’s reign so far involved the woman walking next to Vajiralongkorn in that shopping mall video, a former nurse named Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi. But this scantily-clad man is actually the king of Thailand — and he does not want you to see these pictures. 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. Thai king 'releases his concubine from jail and flies her to Germany to join his harem' a year after she was stripped of royal titles. Thailand’s rich culture is home to some incredible tattoo designs, and the traditional Sak Yant tattoos are packed with symbolism and intention. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. “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. image caption Many customers have asked for a tattoo declaring they were "born in the reign of King Rama IX", as the king was also known. The crime is punishable by 15 years’ jail in Thailand. Richard Bernstein is a former foreign correspondent at Time magazine and the New York Times. One of the leaders of the protests, a local fish farmer named Sarayoot Souraksa, described in succinct terms how people in the region of 4 million people felt about the country’s past turmoil and the coup that put an end to it. Two years later, huge Yellow Shirt demonstrations took place. He kept the marriage secret from the public until 2005, when she gave birth to their son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti. King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who just got married for the fourth time and is known for his unusual antics, cuts an unorthodox figure in the Thai royal family. Well now, who is this bad boy of the Thai monarchy, walking around in an at-best brave choice of a crop top, sporting some colorful tattoos? And monarchs of history of all time Foo Foo was a guest at time! 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