⚠️New on #SecretSiam — In August I published a story on Vajiralongkorn's new favourite concubine. It was a tale of parachuting concubines, cryptic cartoons, symbolic silver heart-shaped pendants, & a mysterious woman identified by the colour pink & the code number 002. 🧵1/35 You can read that article here: 2/35secretsiam.news/p/pretty-in-pi…

In 1967, Britain's ambassador to Bangkok sent a cable to London that was highly insulting about the intelligence and character of Thais, and scornful about Thai culture. 42 years later it caused a minor diplomatic kerfuffle. A 🧵 1/15 For centuries, until the practice was stopped by the government in 2006, there was a tradition for British ambassadors departing a posting to write a valedictory despatch, in which they threw all diplomatic niceties to the wind and gave their uncensored opinions 2/15

⚠️ UPDATE — I have more details from royal and medical sources about what happened to Princess Bajrakitiyabha last Wednesday, and also spoke to a specialist foreign-based ICU and trauma consultant to help interpret the information. 1/ To make this clear once again, I have no personal animosity against the princess, and while everybody knows I am not a fan of King Vajiralongkorn, his grief is clearly genuine and he deserves compassion and understanding right now. 2/13

⚠️ UPDATE — Here is the latest on what we know so far about the death of Princess Bajrakitiyabha on Wednesday and what will happen next. You can also read the post on Facebook: facebook.com/zenjournalist/… 1/26 The latest information from royal sources is that the palace may try to keep her artificially alive on an ECMO machine at Chulalongkorn Hospital for days, maybe even until after New Year, at which point they will turn off the machine and announce she has died. 2/26

⚠️UPDATE — Here is what we know so far about the health emergency suffered by Princess Bajrakitiyabha yesterday. While running with her dogs in Khao Yai national park she had a heart attack. She is only 44 years old. 1/9 She was initially taken to Pak Chong Nana Hospital where CPR was attempted for hours without success. Vajiralongkorn rushed to the hospital in a military helicopter. 2/9

A fascinating note written by former prime minister written by former Sanya Dharmasakti in June 1979, while he was head of the Privy Council, details the meddling of Queen Sirikit and the rifts in the palace. 1/14 The note says Sirikit's political meddling was causing severe problems in Thailand and the royal family had become "completely divided". It says King Bhumibol had warned that Sirikit became violent when angry. The situation was getting "getting more serious every day". 2/14

How bad are the problems at Thai royal company Siam Bioscience which have derailed Thailand's mass inoculation drive after just a week and caused delays in deliveries to Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines (and maybe more countries we don't know about)? Here comes a THREAD 1/15 As is widely known by now, Siam Bioscience is a totally opaque company which has consistently failed to provide even basic information, and the Thai government is routinely lying to cover up problems at Siam Bioscience because they are terrified of offending Vajiralongkorn 2/15

My latest #SecretSiam article tells the story of political godfather Newin Chidchob, and it struck me that like a malignant Forrest Gump, he was present at most of the disasters and scandals of recent decades. Here's a THREAD about his shady past secretsiam.news/p/mafia-bosses… 1/16 An early classic episode in Newin's career was when he paid some crooked police to bomb his own house, to try to make him look like a brave whistleblower at risk of being assassinated by his enemies. Professor @bkksnow wrote about it in this paper journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09… 2/16

The @CNN trip to Myanmar was a debacle that produced zero useful information and led to the arrest of at least 11 people whose fate remains unknown. It was a case study in how not to do ethical reporting. Here’s a THREAD about what went wrong 1/24 #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/1379050188375986178

I should make clear at the outset that I am a white male journalist and @clarissaward is claiming that criticism of what @CNN did in Myanmar is just coming from sexist male foreigners, so if you think that’s true you can disregard my opinion and ignore this thread. 2/24

https://twitter.com/clarissaward/status/1379356818963595265

The latest edition of my #SecretSiam newsetter is about the tragic history of refugees in Thailand. For decades, the military has violated the human rights of people seeking asylum on Thai soil. 1/8 secretsiam.news/p/the-tragic-h… The latest developments on the border, with troops forcing Karen people fleeing airstrikes to go back to Myanmar, and PM Prayut and foreign ministry spokesman @SangratTanee lying about it, are typical of how successive regimes have dealt with refugees vimeo.com/532734572 2/8

Hong Kong-based journalist @FChangy is publishing a book that claims to “solve” what happened to flight #MH370. I’ve now read a review copy and far from solving the mystery it just raises some questions then proposes a bizarre conspiracy theory without convincing evidence. 1/11 Rather tastelessly, the publication is being promoted as coinciding with the 7th anniversary of the disappearance of MH370 on March 8, 2014, which should already raise red flags, because if you really solved the mystery you would not wait for an anniversary to tell everybody 2/11

เมื่อสามปีกว่ามาแล้ว ในเดือนเมษายน พศ 2560 รัฐมนตรีว่าการกระทรวงดิจิทัลเพื่อเศรษฐกิจและสังคม ได้ออกประกาศไม่ให้ชาวไทยติดต่อทางออนไลน์กับผม, สมศักดิ์ เจียมธีรสกุล, หรือ ปวิณ ชัชวาลพงศ์พันธ์ 1/5 ทั้งๆที่ไม่มีหลักการอะไรทางกฎหมายมารองรับการสั่งห้ามนั้น แล้วมันก็เกิดผลตรงข้าม กลับส่งเสริมให้คนมาติดตามพวกเรามากขึ้นไปอีก 2/5

EXCLUSIVE—Why does King Vajiralongkorn have a 100-million-baht Boeing 737 with a fake registration parked in the middle of Bangkok? A detective story... 1/17 A few days ago, Somsak Jeamteerasakul shared Google Earth images showing a large aircraft with Thai Airways colours parked in the grounds of Ampornstan Palace in Bangkok. Photographs of the plane, plus a picture of it arriving at Ampornstan Palace by road, have now emerged. 2/17

ด้วยความที่เด็กนักเรียนไทยต้องหันมาเรียนออนไลน์จากวิกฤตโควิด-19 ชาวโลกมากขึ้นจึงมีโอกาสได้เห็นความเป็นจริงอันน่าอนาถของการเรียนสอนในประเทศไทย 1/5 บทเรียนออนไลน์ส่วนมากที่สุดสำหรับนักเรียนชั้นประถมศึกษา เน้นการโฆษณาชวนเชื่อให้รักเจ้า มีน้อยมากที่จะสอนกันจริงๆจังเกี่ยวกับการอ่านหรือคณิตศาสตร์ 2/5

With school pupils in Thailand having to study online due to the covid-19 crisis, more people around the world can now see the tragic reality of Thai education. 1/4 The vast majority of online lessons for primary school children are just royalist propaganda. Very few online lessons teach crucial literacy and numeracy skills. 2/4

ทวิตเต้อร์ได้พลาดไปครั้งใหญ่ในทางกลยุทธ ด้วยการเปิดตัว @TwitterThailand แอ็คเค้าท์ พร้อมด้วยแถลงการณ์จาก ผู้อำนวยการภาคเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ อาร์วินเดอร์ กุจราล ยอมรับว่า ทวิตเต้อร์ ได้ร่วมมือกับ กระทรวงทบวงกรมของรัฐบาลไทย #ไม่เอาทวิตเตอร์ไทยแลนด์ 1/6 คนไทยต่างรู้ดีกันว่า ตัวรัฐบาล ราชวัง และฝ่ายทหาร นั่นแหละ ที่เป็นตัวหลักของแหล่งข่าวปลอมและการให้ข่าวผิดๆในราชอาณาจักร 2/6

Twitter has made a huge strategic blunder by launching a @TwitterThailand account along with a statement from Southeast Asia CEO @arvindergujral that admits Twitter has been working with “government departments and ministries”. blog.twitter.com/en_sea/topics/… #ไม่เอาทวิตเตอร์ไทยแลนด์ 1/8 Thais are well aware that the government, palace and military are the main sources of fake news and misinformation in the kingdom. The regime is also trying to get Facebook and Twitter to censor critical posts about the monarchy and military. 2/8

ข่าวด่วน – ภาพเพิ่มเติมจากการประท้วงเมื่อคืนที่แล้ว ที่โรงแรมในเยอรมนีที่ กษัตริย์วชิราลงกรณ์พำนักอยู่

ฝ่ายต่อต้านฉายภาพไปบนผนังตึกของโรงแรม เรียกร้องให้ทางการเยอรมนีเตะโด่งไล่พระราชาออกไปจากประเทศของเขา

BREAKING—More images of the protest at King Vajiralongkorn’s hotel.

There’s a sinister trend in Britain that emerged clearly during the battles over Brexit and intensified in the coronavirus crisis — not just worsening polarisation, but also an extraordinary hostility towards facts, and truth, from those on the right of the political spectrum 1/5 Social media is being flooded with posts denouncing the media for holding the government to account. They want the media to show uncritical adulation towards Boris Johnson and his government, even though the UK death toll is the 2nd worst in the world. 2/5

King Vajiralongkorn is heading back to Germany after some time in Switzerland.

Palace sources say that in recent days the king was with Queen Suthida at Hotel Waldegg in Switzerland. He was there for their first wedding anniversary, and the anniversary of his coronation 1/4 Vajiralongkorn is now heading back to the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the Bavarian resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he lives with a harem of around 20 women, known as the SAS, all of whom have short hair, military ranks, and the royally bestowed surname Sirivajirabhakdi 2/4

Thailand's monarchy routinely lies to the people to pretend the royals are working very hard to help Thais when actually they just spend taxpayers' money and live in luxury and don't care about ordinary people at all. 1/18 The latest palace propaganda, released on the wedding anniversary of Vajiralongkorn and Suthida, is a set of 21 photographs showing the royal couple observing soldiers preparing bags of relief supplies. Suthida is also pictured sewing a face mask. royaloffice.th/2020/05/01/%E0… 2/18