EXCLUSIVE—Leaked
documents show that the Thai military is bringing more than 110,000
people to Bangkok on Sunday to boost the size of the crowd at King
Vajiralongkorn's coronation procession.
One document from the 11th Army District HQ in Bangkok states that 202,717 people are expected to line the route in Rattanakosin Island during Vajiralongkorn's procession, when he will be carried around the streets in a palanquin.
But only 91,112 of them are expected to be "walk-ins" — people who go of their own accord.
The other 111,605 have been ordered to go. They include 9,697 military, police and civil defence, and 101,908 civilians, including provincial officials and people rounded up from all over Thailand and bused to Bangkok.
The cost of this is substantial — an attached document shows that for just five provinces around Bangkok, the cost for transport and lunch for people being taken to the coronation is 2.675 million baht. Of course, the total cost of bringing people from all over Thailand to the ceremony will be far higher — all of it funded by Thai taxpayers.
In Bangkok at least 22,000 state employees have been ordered to attend. Many of them must assemble at Thammasat University at 0800 and then wait around all day in intense heat to cheer the royal procession at 1630 and another at 1000. So it will be an immensely long and exhausting day for them. They have been told to wear yellow shirts.
All of this huge and costly effort means that the royal district will seem very busy during the coronation procession, with probably more than 200,000 people. But it will be fake.
During the reign of King Bhumibol, it was never necessary to spend millions of baht to come to Bangkok for royal occasions. People came because they wanted to. But times have changed — the popularity of the monarchy is waning, and Vajiralongkorn is a very unpopular king.
Further evidence of how few Thais care about the coronation is that the vast majority of people across the kingdom have ignored efforts by the junta to get them to wear yellow shirts for a month. Aside from state employees who had no choice, hardly anybody bothered.
Even on the day of the coronation on Saturday, estimates from sources all over the country put the number of Thais wearing yellow at less than 10 percent.
In many parts of the north and northeast, the number was even smaller.
And even in most of Bangkok, people were just ignoring the coronation and very few were wearing yellow.
One document from the 11th Army District HQ in Bangkok states that 202,717 people are expected to line the route in Rattanakosin Island during Vajiralongkorn's procession, when he will be carried around the streets in a palanquin.
But only 91,112 of them are expected to be "walk-ins" — people who go of their own accord.
The other 111,605 have been ordered to go. They include 9,697 military, police and civil defence, and 101,908 civilians, including provincial officials and people rounded up from all over Thailand and bused to Bangkok.
The cost of this is substantial — an attached document shows that for just five provinces around Bangkok, the cost for transport and lunch for people being taken to the coronation is 2.675 million baht. Of course, the total cost of bringing people from all over Thailand to the ceremony will be far higher — all of it funded by Thai taxpayers.
In Bangkok at least 22,000 state employees have been ordered to attend. Many of them must assemble at Thammasat University at 0800 and then wait around all day in intense heat to cheer the royal procession at 1630 and another at 1000. So it will be an immensely long and exhausting day for them. They have been told to wear yellow shirts.
All of this huge and costly effort means that the royal district will seem very busy during the coronation procession, with probably more than 200,000 people. But it will be fake.
During the reign of King Bhumibol, it was never necessary to spend millions of baht to come to Bangkok for royal occasions. People came because they wanted to. But times have changed — the popularity of the monarchy is waning, and Vajiralongkorn is a very unpopular king.
Further evidence of how few Thais care about the coronation is that the vast majority of people across the kingdom have ignored efforts by the junta to get them to wear yellow shirts for a month. Aside from state employees who had no choice, hardly anybody bothered.
Even on the day of the coronation on Saturday, estimates from sources all over the country put the number of Thais wearing yellow at less than 10 percent.
In many parts of the north and northeast, the number was even smaller.
And even in most of Bangkok, people were just ignoring the coronation and very few were wearing yellow.
One document from the 11th Army District HQ in Bangkok states that 202,717 people are expected to line the route in Rattanakosin Island during Vajiralongkorn's procession, when he will be carried around the streets in a palanquin. 2/9
The cost is substantial — for just 5 provinces around Bangkok, the cost
for transport and lunch for people being taken to the coronation is
2.675 million baht. The total cost of bringing people from all over
Thailand to the ceremony will be far higher — funded by taxpayers. 4/9
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar