A Royal Dilemma

The fluting, mannered voice broadcast over the radio on Aug. 15, 1945, was one my Japanese grandmother never dreamed she would hear. The widow of a soldier who undertook a death mission for his country, she was told her husband had sacrificed himself for a divine cause. Now the Emperor of Japan, the living god who sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne, was deigning to address his subjects for the first time in history to announce the end of the Pacific war. It gave my grandmother the shock of her life.

I thought of the Showa Emperor’s historic speech — and his postwar evolution into a gentle figurehead with a penchant for top hats and marine biology — when another monarch recently took to the airwaves. On April 26, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-serving royal, gave a rare public speech since being admitted to a Bangkok hospital last September. The capital was still reeling from the nation’s worst political bloodshed in nearly two decades, and many Thais hoped their beloved King might say something to end the cycle of antigovernment protests.

(See pictures of Thailand’s Red Shirt protests.)

For four years now, Thailand has been unsettled by a revolving door of civil unrest by color-coded protesters. After months of rallies by the royalist yellow shirts, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was deposed in an army coup in 2006. After a yellow-supported government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power through a 2008 parliamentary vote, the pro-Thaksin red shirts took their turn on the streets. Their latest siege of central Bangkok has been going on for more than a month. An attempt on April 10 by the army to clear out the demonstrators degenerated into street fighting that claimed 26 lives.

Though considered above the jugular cut and thrust of Thai politics, the constitutional monarch has, on rare occasion, interceded to alleviate crises. But as he addressed a group of judges in an 11-minute speech, King Bhumibol declined to mention the political violence in Bangkok. A kingdom waiting for semidivine intervention was left disappointed.

(See pictures of the 2008 protests in Bangkok.)

The national angst over what the King might say threw a spotlight on the future place of the monarchy in Thai politics. The Thai government constantly cautions foreign observers of Thailand that, according to the nation’s constitution, the King is above politics. Yet the truth is that Thailand has come to count on the monarch’s moral authority as a voice of last resort, even if he has no formal political role.

If Thailand wants to evolve into a mature democracy, however, it will have to accept that relying on the counsel of one man, no matter how revered, will only stunt the nation’s development. King Bhumibol is 82 years old and ailing. His presumed heir, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, does not command the devotion his father does. While visiting the U.S. last month, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya — in surprise remarks the government quickly described as “personal” — said that Thailand needed to face a “taboo subject.” Thais, opined Kasit, should “talk about the institution of the monarchy, how it would have to reform itself to the modern globalized world. Let’s have a discussion: What type of democratic society would we like to be?”

(Read “No Birthday Bash this Year for Thai King.”)

But such a discussion is difficult in Thailand because of a strict lèse-majesté law that could land offenders in prison. Over the past couple of years, the law has snared a range of people from a website moderator to an Australian who self-published a novel that was deemed by Thai authorities to have defamed the Crown Prince. Details of such cases rarely appear in the Thai press since repeating the alleged offenses could be judged to be illegal. In a 2005 speech, the King said he was not above criticism, leading some to wonder whether the lèse-majesté law might be amended. But since then, governments both yellow and red have declined to do so.

Led by Prime Minister Abhisit, the current Thai government is now accusing the red-shirted protesters of plotting to overthrow the monarchy. On April 26, an army spokesman presented to journalists a document with an explosion of lines that looked like Jackson Pollock trying his hand at diagramming. This flow chart, he said, indicated that the red-shirt leaders were guilty of treason.

Certainly, some people associated with the red-shirt movement have expressed republican sentiments. But even the most fervent red shirt knows by rote the words of the royal anthem, which is broadcast at formal occasions or before a movie begins in the theater. Its lyrics start, “We, subjects of Our Excellent Lord, prostrate our heads and minds in deepest homage to your Majesty, whose merits are boundless.” The anthem then goes on to implore, “May every hope in your Majesty’s heart be realized in every way.” But what, wonder many Thais, does the King’s heart desire now? He isn’t saying. That leaves it up to the Thai people to divine their own course.

Read “Thailand PM Gains Upper Hand in Protest Crisis.”

See TIME’s Pictures of the Week.