Thai king reinstates royal consort after earlier fall from grace
Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has reinstated his 35-year-old consort less than a year after she fell from grace for “disloyalty” and showing too much “ambition.”
A Thai palace order published on Wednesday reinstated all royal and military ranks to Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, declaring her now to be “guiltless” and to be treated as if she had never been stripped of her titles and role.
Her downfall came last October less than three months after the king granted her the title of Chao Khun Phra, or royal noble consort - the first such appointment in nearly a century.
She was dismissed after being accused of “disloyalty to the king," as well as "acting against the appointment of the Queen (Suthida)... for her own ambitions."
According to a two-page announcement in the Royal Gazette, she was trying to sabotage the appointment of Queen Suthida and had overstepped in the affairs of the royal couple. Among the charges against her was an attempt to make herself equivalent to the queen.
The status of the two women had been elevated during the same short time period. The king suddenly married Suthida Tidjai, a former flight attendant, shortly before his coronation in May 2019.
His fourth wife had been serving as deputy commander of his personal guard since 2017, but the palace had refused to acknowledge long-standing rumours of their romantic liaison before the monarch decided “to promote” her.
Two months later, on his 67th birthday in July, King Vajiralongkorn decided to also appoint Ms Wongvajirapakdi as his consort, reviving a Thai royal tradition that had not been used since the reign of King Rama VI, who ruled until 1925.
Born in 1985 in the northern Thai province of Nan, she graduated from the Royal Thai army nursing college and also trained as a pilot and completed several military courses including jungle warfare and night parachuting.
Like Queen Suthida, she served in the royal bodyguard unit, reaching the rank of major general.
According to German media reports, she has joined King Vajiralongkorn and his entourage in southern Germany where he is believed to have been staying throughout much of the pandemic.
Few details are known about the lives of Thailand’s revered monarchy as the royal family is protected by strict lese majeste laws with jail terms of three to 15 years prevent any open discussion about them.
However, students holding pro-democracy protests over the past few months have made unprecedented calls for more checks and balances on the powerful royal court.
Social media giant, Facebook, has also launched legal action against the Thai government after it was forced to shut down a group of one million members discussing the monarchy. The firm called the government’s move a contravention of international human rights law.
