【08.12.04经济学人】国王与他们

flawcharacter

Thailand's monarchy
泰国的君主制
The king and them

Dec 4th 2008
From The Economist print edition
经济学人 12月4日  2008
The untold story of the palace’s role behind the collapse of Thai democracy
不为人所知的故事----泰国民主政府倒台背后皇室所的扮演的角色
THAILAND’S tourism business, its export industries and its reputation have been wrecked by recent events. Crowds of royalists have occupied the government’s offices for months and then seized Bangkok’s airports. The police refused to evict them. The army refused to help. This week the siege was ended after the courts disbanded three parties in the ruling coalition. But the parties plan to re-form under new names and continue governing, so fresh strife threatens. It is as if a thin veneer of modernity, applied during the boom of the 1980s and early 1990s, has peeled away. Until recently a beacon of Asian pluralism, Thailand is sliding into anarchy.
泰国的旅游业，出口业以及国家声誉都在最近的事件中受到了损害。成群的泰国反政府示威者占据了首相官邸长达数月，之后又占据了曼谷的机场。警察拒绝驱逐他们，军队也拒绝行动。本周随着泰国法院解散了执政联盟中的三个政党，示威终于结束。但是执政联盟的政党们准备变换名字重组政党，因此很可能争端再起。20世纪80年代和90年代初期的兴盛时期，被贴上的那层薄薄的现代民主国家的外衣，终于被剥去。作为亚洲多元政体的典范的泰国，正陷入无政府状态。
The conflict began three years ago as peaceful rallies against corruption and abuse of power in the government of Thaksin Shinawatra. The protesters, wearing royal-yellow shirts and accusing Mr Thaksin of being a closet republican, got their way when royalist generals removed him in the coup of 2006. But on democracy’s restoration last year, Thais elected a coalition led by Mr Thaksin’s allies. The yellow-shirts of the inaptly named People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) revived their protests and adopted increasingly thuggish tactics, prompting Mr Thaksin’s supporters to don red shirts and fight back.
这场争端起于三年前反对他信政府腐败和滥用职权的和平集会。抗议者穿着代表皇室的黄色谴责他信为搞密室统治的共和党人，在2006年并通过军队的政变终于将他信赶下台。去年，通过民主选举回复和民主政体，但选取的执政联盟仍由他信的同盟者所领导。这些不合时宜地自称“民主人民联盟”的黄衫军们重新举行抗议，并采取了暴徒策略，鼓励他信支持者脱掉红衫，反戈一击。
Speak it not
Throughout this conflict, the great unmentionable, not just for the Thai press but also for most foreign reporters, has been the role of King Bhumibol, his family and their closest courtiers. The world’s most ferociously enforced law against lèse-majesté (offending the crown) prevents even the mildest discussion of the palace’s role in Thai public life. Such laws are mostly in disuse elsewhere, but Thailand’s was harshened in the 1970s. Absurdly, anyone can bring a lèse-majesté suit. The police have to take seriously the most trivial complaints. All this makes the law a useful tool for politicians and others seeking a way to damage their foes. Often, the press is not allowed to explain the nature of any supposed offence against the crown, so Thais have no way to tell whether it really was so disrespectful.
在这场争斗之中，不仅是泰国记者，而且对于大多数外国记者，却恰恰忽略了国王普密蓬和他的近臣们所起的作用。泰国有着最严格的法律来制裁亵渎君主的行为，哪怕对王室在公共生活中的作用稍有提及，也被视为违法。这样的法律在世界其他君主制国家都已经被废除，但在泰国却从20世纪70年代以来愈加严厉。 可笑是，人们竟可以穿着王室的黄衫。警察对于最轻微的关于王室的抱怨也会严厉打击，这经常被一些政客所利用来打击其政敌。通常，媒体也不允许对王室受到的批评进行性质的分析，因此泰国人也不明白这些批评为何是大不敬。
The lèse-majesté law is an outrage in itself. It should not be enforced in any country with democratic pretensions. Worse is that the law hides from Thais some of the reasons for their chronic political woes. For what the king himself calls the “mess” Thailand is in stems in many ways from his own meddling in politics during his 62-year reign (see article). In part, the strife also reflects jockeying for power ahead of the succession. With the king celebrating his 81st birthday on December 5th, that event looms ever larger.
在任何一个号称是民主国家中，亵渎君主法本身就是不合法的。更为糟糕的是这部法令掩盖了泰国人民饱受长期政治折磨的一些真正的原因。对于国王自称的这个“混乱”的泰国，其混乱在多方面正是根源于国王自己在62年统治泰国期间对政治的干预。泰国的政党争斗也部分地反映了在政权更替前对权利的争夺。在12月5日，国王庆祝其81岁生日之际，这场争斗变得愈演愈烈。(未完待续）



[ 本帖最后由 妩人少将 于 2008-12-7 15:55 编辑 ]

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