THAILAND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH - ZENJOURNALIST

For that reason, the cables may, finally, force Thailand to confront some uncomfortable facts about its
past, its present, and its future.
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Bhumibol has remained in Siriraj to this day. And the king still suffers restless nights, according his
youngest daughter Princess Chulabhorn Walailak in an extraordinary interview with popular talk show
host Vuthithorn “Woody” Milintachinda, broadcast in two parts in April. Amid scenes of an emotional
Woody prostrating himself on the ground, eagerly sharing a cupcake fed to the princess's pet dog, and
frequently bursting into tears, Chulabhorn told him:
HM goes to sleep very late. Sometimes he cannot sleep. Sometimes he sleeps a little. Sometimes
when there are problems, he would follow them up, like floods, for example, concerned about
the hardship of the people. He would order [officials] to send bags of emergency supplies to
the people. When he sees on TV where are floods, where it is hot, or where people have been
injured, he will give help without telling anyone. He does good without being seen indeed. If I
were not his child, I’d never know this.
His continued hospitalization since September 2009, even when his health had seemed to be on the mend,
has troubled Thais and baffled foreign observers. As Eric John wrote in February last year:
The real question at this stage remains: why does he continue to be hospitalized? The stated
rationale - to build up his physical strength and endurance - could be accomplished in a palace,
either in Bangkok or his preferred seaside residence in Hua Hin. Some will suspect other
motives, but what those might be remain unclear. [10BANGKOK287]
More than a year later, Bhumibol's behaviour seems even more of a mystery.
During the king’s seclusion in Siriraj, the malady afflicting the nation has only worsened. In March 2010,
many thousands of Red Shirt protesters began congregating in Bangkok for a series of mass rallies against
the government of Prime Minister Abhisit. Over two tragic months in April and May, as the military
moved in to try to crush the protest, 91 people were killed and more than 1,800 wounded in a series of
violent clashes between Thai troops, Red Shirts and shadowy groups of armed men known as "Black
Shirts" or "Ronin warriors" with unclear affiliation to Thaksin and the protest leaders. For weeks the Red
Shirts occupied an area of five star hotels and luxury malls in the centre of the capital, a few miles east of
Bhumibol's riverside hospital. When soldiers finally stormed the barricades around the Red encampment,
on May 19, dozens of buildings in Bangkok were set ablaze in an apparently well-planned wave of arson
attacks. The months that followed saw a determined crackdown by Thailand's resurgent military and the
Abhisit administration. A state of emergency was imposed in several areas,. Most Red Shirt leaders were
imprisoned. Community radio stations in rural areas where Red support is strong were shut down. The
millions of rural and urban poor who form the main support base for the Red Shirt movement were left
seething with anger and a bitter sense of injustice.