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| Image: Flickr User - U.S. Department of State |
By Joshua Kurlantzick
It is a move that does not augur well for U.S.-Thailand relations.
Last week, in a move that was shocking despite the cooling U.S.-Thailand relationship, the Thai government announced that the U.S. ambassador in Bangkok, Glyn Davies, was being investigated on suspicion of having insulted King Bhumibhol Adulyadej. Davies had spoken to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in late November. During his talk, according to the New York Times, Davies criticized the “long prison sentences handed to some of those found guilty of criticizing [the] king” under Thailand’s lèse majesté laws, generally considered the harshest in the world. (This past weekend, Human Rights Watch warned that one prominent critic of the junta had disappeared after being questioned on lèse majesté charges.)
Davies enjoys diplomatic immunity, so even if he is found guilty of lèse majesté, he will not be tried and punished under Thai law. However, Thai authorities have hinted that the investigation will continue and that Davies could be subject to some kind of reprimand from the government. Still, it remains unclear what such a reprimand would entail.
Does the investigation of the United States’ ambassador suggest that U.S.-Thai relations are deteriorating even more rapidly than some Thailand observers fear? Certainly, the bilateral relationship is at one of its lowest ebbs in years, with the Obama administration having taken a relatively tough stance against the military junta since the May 2014 coup – a stance that clearly rankles Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and many other senior Thai military leaders. For example, even though the junta has cracked down hard on public protests in Bangkok, it has allowed a group of conservative, royalist demonstrators to gather in front of the U.S. embassy, holding profane signs and launching profane chants against the United States and the U.S. ambassador. The fact that these royalists are allowed to protest, in the heart of Bangkok, suggests that at least some members of the junta are extremely angry with the White House’s cooler approach toward Thailand.
Read the full story at The Diplomat