On Tuesday, the former government official, Anchan – a woman in her 60s, whose last name was withheld to protect her relatives – was given 87 years in jail for 29 violations of Section 112 involving sharing posts on YouTube and Facebook, with each offence punished by a three-year prison term. Her sentence was halved as she had previously acknowledged her violations.

According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre, the punishment was the most severe since a Bangkok office worker by the name of Wichai was in 2017 sentenced to 70 years in jail for 10 Facebook posts deemed to have contravened the royal defamation law.

The complaint against Thanathorn, whom a court last year banned from politics for 10 years, was based on his comment that Thailand’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy was too reliant on a company owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which is under the king’s personal control. Thanathorn had also asked the government to provide more details about the deal and guarantee that government funds allocated to vaccine production were meant for national interest rather than profit.

Critics warned that instead of sending a warning to protesters, the government’s heavy-handed approach would only spur protesters to reassemble.

Royalists scour internet for defamation cases against King Vajiralongkorn

A NEW ROUND OF DISSENT

While open dissent on the streets has gone dormant after a second wave of Covid-19 cases, the protesters’ presence is still being felt. In recent weeks, mysterious banners have been put up in many parts of Thailand, calling for the lèse-majesté law to be revoked and supporting the activists facing prosecution under it.

On January 18, the lawyers’ centre reported a police raid at the home of a university student in Lampang, a province 600km north of Bangkok, in possible relation to a banner hung in the province last month that read “Monarchy’s budget > Covid-19 budget”.

Two days earlier, scuffles had broken out in the capital between police and activists calling themselves “Free Guards”, who had earlier unfurled 112-metre blank banners and invited people to write down their thoughts as part of a campaign to revoke the royal defamation law. At least seven people were arrested.

On Tuesday, more warrants were issued for student activists in Chiang Mai on lèse-majesté charges. The same day, a mysterious banner was hung from a Bangkok bridge that read “A royally given vaccine comes from the people’s tax money”, in a reference to the company Siam Bioscience – founded by Vajiralongkorn’s father, King Bhumibol – which is currently producing the AstraZeneca vaccine under a technology transfer agreement with the British firm.

Tyrell Haberkorn, professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, said there had been “a very concerning sign of a possible new wave of harsh suppression of speech”, especially when government official Anchan’s four-decade jail sentence was “in excess of those received by many who have committed violent crimes”.

David Streckfuss, an independent scholar on Thai politics, said the court’s “poorly timed decision will serve only to highlight the [royal defamation] law’s use, and will hasten opposition to the law and increase calls for its abolition”. He added that the “absurd cruelty” of Anchan’s sentence would “only lead to greater discontent”.

A NEW WAVE OF SUPPRESSION

There has been an increase in lèse-majesté cases in Thailand after Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in November vowed to deploy “all laws” to deal with the pro-democracy movement, which has since July last year been calling for the resignation of the government, a constitutional amendment and reform of the monarchy.

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Thai demonstrators gather near UN office calling for action against royal insult law

Thai demonstrators gather near UN office calling for action against royal insult law

“I assume [using the law] was a concerted decision made by Prayuth and the palace to curb the antimonarchy movement, which was getting out of hand. I assume the king had not anticipated such an overt challenge of his position,” said Serhat Ünaldi, author of Working Towards the Monarchy: The Politics of Space in Downtown Bangkok.

The use of lèse-majesté is not only meant to safeguard the royal family from public scrutiny deemed as sacrilege against their semidivine status, but also to bar any intellectual debate about the institution.

Ünaldi said royal charisma was used to justify “dictatorial and socially divisive politics”, while the constant threat of lengthy jail terms and social exclusion for any criticism of the monarchy guaranteed that alternatives to the “charismatically sanctioned order” would remain undiscussed, at least in public.

“Not only slanderous remarks but also intellectual debate had to be barred at all costs to prevent the profanation of the monarchy,” he said.

Thai protesters take aim at king’s royal funding machine: the Crown Property Bureau

WHAT NEXT?

The outcry over the defamation law has been met with a backlash from royalists, who have launched counter-attacks against those calling for it to be annulled; this month, the Twitter hashtag #112protectstheruler was trending as those loyal to the king and his family sought to drum up support.

An ultraroyalist group on Wednesday launched a new political party to defend King Vajiralongkorn, amid unprecedented calls for reform of the monarchy by a youth-led protest movement. The Thai Pakdee, or “Loyal Thai”, party is an offshoot of a group of the same name formed last August to counter street demonstrations with rallies in support of the king.

“Before we defend … today we declare war, we will fight to protect the monarchy,” said veteran politician Warong Dechgitvigrom, who will lead the party against what he called “the three-fingers mob”, referring to the Hunger Games salute used by protesters.

But for many activists, the law no longer holds the sway it once did. “How is losing faith in the monarchy wrong? Despite its good and bad aspects, we have to maintain our faith and love?” tweeted lawyer and prominent pro-democracy activist Anon Nampa this month. The activist is currently facing eight lèse-majesté-related cases, mostly from speeches he made during last year’s demonstrations.

“I don’t think a new generation buys into this thinking. It is the end of an era to force people to love and have faith in the monarchy through the use of Article 112.”

Thailand’s pro-democracy movement pauses protests, but for how long?

The young activists behind the protest movement have yet to announce their next move, but several observers expect the confrontation this year to be leveraged on the question of the monarchy’s legitimacy. Since Vajiralongkorn’s unofficial coronation in 2016, he has invited public scrutiny over his repeated sojourns in Germany; the transfer of the Crown Property Bureau’s assets into his own name; and the government’s increase of the monarchy’s budget.

However, Ünaldi warned that more open discussion about the king’s conduct would be suppressed with more legal measures, leading Thailand into “a vicious cycle where the application of the law might lead to ever more violations of the law”.

“The military is applying the law heavily at the moment, but it seems to stoke public anger directed against the powers that be even further,” he said. “Despite the appearance of having the country under their control, Thailand’s generals will find it hard to turn back the wheels of time.”

On Twitter in December, activist Anon wrote: “Next year will be the year of change as we have targeted.

“We want to bring all political refugees home to celebrate 2022 New Year together at Ratchadamnoen Avenue.”

Additional reporting by Reuters