In Thailand, protesters take aim at King Vajiralongkorn’s royal funding machine: the Crown Property Bureau

Name: Thai pupils in 'Bad Student' movement demand education reform
Uploaded: 2020-11-24T12:30:06.000Z
Duration: 2 min 49 s
Description: Thai pupils in 'Bad Student' movement demand education reform

Pro-democracy protesters plan to march on Wednesday to demand public oversight of the king’s purse

Thai police on Tuesday summoned seven leaders of the protests to face charges of lèse-majesté, or insulting the monarchy

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Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida greet supporters outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok after presiding over a religious ceremony at a Buddhist temple inside the palace earlier this month. Photo: AFP

SCMP Reporter

Published: 8:30pm, 24 Nov 2020Updated: 11:40pm, 24 Nov 2020

Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, faced a political and financial reckoning of sorts in September when youth-led pro-democracy protesters launched a campaign to have people withdraw money from the bank and boycott it.

The move was part of protesters’ demands to reform the monarchy by attacking the king’s own privy purse. King Maha Vajiralongkorn, or Rama X, is currently the biggest shareholder of the bank – which was founded by his great grandfather, King Rama V, in 1907.

In monetary terms, Siam Commercial Bank, which is one of Thailand’s largest commercial financial institutions, has yet to feel the pinch of the activists’ initiatives, but the campaign trained a spotlight on how the king accumulates and spends his fortune, adding pressure on the traditionally revered monarchy like never before.

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Thai pupils in 'Bad Student' movement demand education reform

Pro-democracy protesters initially planned to march on Wednesday to the office of the Crown Property Bureau, a quasi-governmental institution that manages the king’s wealth, to stage a peaceful and symbolic demonstration. Protesters later changed the location to the Siam Commercial Bank’s headquarters.

Pro-reform movement leader Anon Nampa said the group’s demands include the repeal of the 2018 royal amendment on the crown property act, so as to prevent the monarch spending his wealth at his discretion and to initiate public oversight of the king’s purse.

By doing so, “regardless of how many future kings there will be, the assets of the nation will not be lost”, he said on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

Thai police on Tuesday summoned seven leaders of the protests, including Anon, to face charges of lèse-majesté, or insulting the monarchy, over comments made at demonstrations in September. The charges carry prison terms of up to 15 years, but the protesters have until November 30 to answer the summonses.

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