I would like to talk about the Royal family in Thailand and their impact on Thai people. The King and his family seem to be very important for their citizens. Everybody must show a great respect to them and according to the Constitution, it is forbidden to say or do anything wrong towards them, or the consequence would be to go to jail. So this is obviously not a democracy, honest and free opinions are not allowed to be expressed about the Royal family. So when it looks like Thai people love their Royal family and their King, are they honest or just afraid to become law abiding people?

Respect must be shown towards the Royal family in many occasions, in particular to the King, by singing his anthem, in schools or in cinemas before the movie starts. Moreover, pictures of the King must be hung in every house, shop or any public place, and Thai people should respect every pictures of the Royal family. It can be seen as an emphasized tradition, but it is part of their everyday life. If you ask Thai citizens, they will be good in their speech, but the question is: is it because they are afraid to say anything wrong or because they really think it?

In fact, everybody says the King is good, since he did many efficient projects in order to improve Thai living conditions, a few knows he helped to install auto sufficiency in the country, but most of them cannot explain what the King did and most of them seem to satisfy themselves by simply saying that he is a good King. It looks like a sentence everybody has to say, just to follow the rules. However, they don’t exactly know their King, so they like him for they live in a country without major problem and reward it to him, they don’t seem to love him for what he achieved.

But I am not saying that Thai people don’t have any judgment. They are as clever as anybody else in the world and have their own opinions about this. If you get closer to them they will admit their minds are different from what they say about the