THAILAND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH - ZENJOURNALIST

of the gate over there: if any commoner in the land has a grievance which sickens his belly and
gripes his heart, and which he wants to make known to his ruler and lord, it is easy: he goes and
strikes the bell which the King has hung there; King Ram Khamhang, the ruler of the kingdom,
hears the call; he goes and questions the man, examines the case, and decides it justly for him. So
the people of … Sukhothai praise him...
The authenticity of the inscription is the subject of considerable debate: it is, almost certainly, fake. But
the paradigm of monarchy it depicts became central to the modern Thai reinvention of kingship. As
Prince Dhani said in his 1946 lecture:.
The old Thai had their own traditions of kingship. The monarch was of course the people's leader
in battle; but he was also in peace-time their father whose advice was sought and expected in all
matters and whose judgment was accepted by all. He was moreover accessible to his people, for
we are told by an old inscription that in front of the royal palace of Sukhothai there used to be a
gong hung up for people to go and beat upon whenever they wanted personal help and redress...
The ideal monarch abides steadfast in the ten kingly virtues, constantly upholding the five
common precepts and on holy days the set of eight precepts, living in kindness and goodwill to all
beings. He takes pains to study the Thammasat and to keep the four principles of justice, namely:
to assess the right or wrong of all service or disservice rendered to him, to uphold the righteous
and truthful, to acquire riches through none but just means and to maintain the prosperity of his
state through none but just means...
The ten kingly virtues above cited are often quoted in Siamese literature... They are: almsgiving,
morality, liberality, rectitude, gentleness, self-restriction, non-anger, non- violence, forbearance
and non-obstruction.
Bhumibol’s role as father of his people was emphasized through the royal development projects
sponsored by the palace and his travels around the country to inspect the work being done for the benefit
of the poor:
The monarch has been highly praised for his dedication to royal development projects that aim at
helping the poor, particularly the rural and highland people. Beginning in the 1950s, the breadth
and scope of the royal projects expanded enormously especially during the Cold War and after
1973... Several of them began as non-governmental but eventually most of them were integrated
into government bureaucracies and budgets. The truth about these projects, and their successes
and failures, will probably remain unknown for years to come, given that public accountability
and transparency for royal activities is unthinkable. Suffice it to say that the endlessly repeated
images of the monarch travelling through remote areas, walking tirelessly along dirt roads,
muddy paths and puddles, with maps, pens and a notebook in hand, a camera and sometimes
a pair of binoculars around his neck, are common in the media, in public buildings and private
homes. These images have captured the popular imagination during the past several decades.
Bhumibol is portrayed as a popular king, a down-to-earth monarch who works tirelessly for his
people and, we may say, has been in touch with his constituents for decades long before any