Public support is key to royals' survival

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

In een land waar je gemakkelijk gearresteerd kan worden als je 'iets'
over de Koninklijke Familie zegt, wordt een seminar gehouden over
soortgelijke families in Europa en Japan.
Dat is natuurlijk vragen om moeilijkheden ;)

Vandaar een uitgebreide correctie van onze ambassadeur ter plekke, nadat
een krantenverslag zijn uitspraken te kort door de bocht weergeeft.

Waarom dit seminar? Uitwisseling van kennis tussen families? Tussen
omstanders?

Groet / Cees

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/162247/postbag-what-was-actually-said
Re: the article ``Public support is key to royals' survival'' written by
Achara Ashayagachat (Bangkok Post, Dec 9). On behalf of Netherlands
Ambassador Tjaco van den Hout, hereunder is the correction of the
statement attributed to the ambassador in the above-mentioned article.
What the ambassador said, verbatim, was:

`Nowadays, Dutch law enforcement authorities must determine whether
prosecution of a violation of lese majeste law is genuinely in the
interest of the monarchy. Sometimes it is not. On the contrary,
prosecution can be counter-productive and actually undermine that which
the lese majeste law sets out to protect. Prosecuting acts of lese
majeste not only draws more public attention to the offence itself,
which might be undesirable, but also inevitably to a judicial practice
that in today's society is seen to be blatantly at odds with the
principle of equality under the law _ a principle cherished by most
democratic societies.'

PANNAWAT WONGSASITHORN
Secretary, Political Affairs and Development Cooperation
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/28892/public-support-is-key-to-royals-survival

Published: 9/12/2009 at 12:00 AM
The popularity of Europe and Japan's serving monarchs has stood the test
of time because they still have the backing of most of their people,
according to diplomats.

King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Spanish royal family continue to enjoy
wide public support because of the monarch's philosophy of hard work,
Spanish ambassador to Thailand Ignacio Sagaz Temprano told a seminar
yesterday on "Constitutional Monarchies Outside Thailand: Experiences
from Europe and Japan".

Mr Temprano said more than 70% of Spaniards believed their king had
outperformed elected officials and saw him as the country's pillar of
democracy. In Spain, the maximum penalty for committing lese majeste is
a two-year jail sentence. Recently, a person was fined 200 euros (about
9,800 baht) for burning a photo of the king, he said.

Norwegian ambassador Merete Fjeld Brattested said the Norwegian monarch
also was a popular ruler.

"The main reason [is] the King, the Queen and the Crown Prince are seen
as role models for their representative generation, especially the young
generation," she said.

Norway, a constitutional monarchy since 1937, has a lese majeste law
that carries a punishment of five to 21 years imprisonment for acts of
defamation and slander against the monarch.

However, no one except the king himself could file a lawsuit and the
last time there was such a case was in 1878, the ambassador said.

Japanese ambassador to Thailand Kyoji Komachi said his country's
constitution had explicitly listed what the emperor could do. In short,
the emperor was the symbol of the state and had no power related to the
government, Mr Komachi said.

"There is no lese majeste law and there has been no defamation cases
involving the emperor as the people consider him a symbol of unity," Mr
Komachi said.

"An NHK poll revealed last month that 85% of the respondents appreciated
the role of the monarchy, especially his visit to the victims who suffer
from natural disasters," he said.

Tjaco Theo van den Hout, the Netherlands ambassador, said the Dutch did
not consider lese majeste cases because everyone was equal under the
country's judicial system.

Yet, the Dutch monarch enjoyed 80% to 85% popularity, he said.

"The moral authority of the monarchy is not something written in the
constitution but something one needs to earn by performing," he said.

Swedish ambassador to Thailand Linner Lennart said the monarchy system
needed to be maintained.

People in Sweden believed a presidential system would be more expensive
to maintain than a monarchy, he said.

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