KING WEEKEND

Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Thai King's coronation, and the town's been going King-crazy for a week. The royal colour is yellow (a very vivid yellow), as the king was born on a Monday and Monday's colour is yellow - so yesterday everyone (literally everyone) was wearing a vivid yellow T-shirt. There's normally 10% of the population walking around in one, but yesterday (and this weekend) it was a yellow sea. I asked a Thai colleague what colour the princess is ‘purple’ in a heartbeat, what about the prince ‘don’t care’ with venom. No one likes the playboy Prince, everyone loves the hard working, caring Princess. A few years ago the princess was elevated to the ‘crown’ status so that she can contest her elder brother for the crown, as that’s what the people want and the king obviously recognises the greater quality of his daughter.

The key ceremony over the weekend was the royal barge ceremony – basically the King floating down the river on one of the seven royal barges, all the barges are sailed as well. Friday was the practice run, Monday the full ceremony. Friday was also the anniversary day, and Fri-Tue were public holidays.

On the Friday 800,000 Thais went to the river to watch the rehearsal, and similar numbers on Monday. Tears of love flowed everywhere, people were there all day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the King.

I’ve never seen devotion like it. He’s revered, but not seen as a God, more as the most wonderful person to the power of infinity. Throughout Bangkok there’s pictures of the King, many skyscrapers have multistorey pictures. They’re put up by choice, as a sign of the affection of the people and the company owners. My Thai teacher was so excited to tell us that her foreign boss had agreed to let the staff wear the yellow shirts on every Monday that she could barely contain herself. There’s absolutely no reservations, consternations or cynicism in their love for the King.

The King’s a constitutional monarch, but rules the hearts. Earlier this year, during Thailand’s political crisis, there were many pleas for him to step in and appoint the prime minister, an act that’s barely constitutional. He was able to see the bigger picture and declined, turning the issue back to the electoral and constitutional court. That respect for the democracy of his nation is something that politicians the world over could learn from.