The incarceration of a frail grandfather over sending text messages deemed disrespectful of Thailand’s monarchy has called the government’s Machiavellianism into sharp relief.

Five years after the bloodless coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, the fallout is, incredibly, still being felt. The latest victim, a 61-year-old known to his family as Akong, or ‘Grandpa’ in the Teochew dialect of Chinese economic migrants, has sent shockwaves reverberating across the civilised world. 

During his troubled tenure as prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra’s loyalty to the monarchy was repeatedly questioned by royalists, prompting authorities to ramp up their repression of those critical – or perceived to be critical – of the reigning sovereign, the institution of the monarchy, or the royal family. The result, most analysts agree, has been shameless political manipulation of the toughest computer crime and lèse majesté laws in the world.

Last August, 15 police officers raided ‘Grandpa’ Ampon Tangnoppakul’s home and arrested him. He was formally charged in January with violations of Article 112 and the Computer Crimes Act. On November 23, a criminal court sentenced him – “on the basis of circumstantial and inconclusive evidence after an investigation riddled with irregularities”, according to Freedom Against Censorship Thailand – to 20 years’ imprisonment over four SMS messages deemed offensive to the monarchy.

Dubbed ‘Uncle SMS’ by Thai media, Ampon Tangnoppakul protested his innocence throughout, insisting he had no idea how to send text messages from his mobile phone and that the number the message was sent from was not his. His case, notes Human Rights Watch, illustrates the misuse by successive Thai governments of laws intended to protect the monarchy. In the years since the coup, they have been increasingly used to stymie activists and silence free speech.

In a public speech in 2005, King Bhumibol Adulyadej himself challenged traditional dogma. “Actually, I must also be criticised. I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know. Because if you say the King cannot be criticised, it means that the King is not human. If the King can do no wrong, it is akin to looking down upon him because the King is not being treated as a human being. But the King can do wrong.”

That Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration can do wrong appears equally true. “The new government seems to be responding to questions about its loyalty to the monarchy by filing countless lèse majesté charges,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The severity of penalties being meted out for lèse majesté offences in Thailand is shocking. A chokehold on freedom of expression is being created in the name of protecting the monarchy.”

Since Shinawatra took office in August, the government has campaigned vociferously. A ‘war room’ was set up at police headquarters in Bangkok to supervise the surveillance of offending websites, and the deputy prime minister told parliament that lèse majesté “will not be allowed during this government”. The National Human Rights Commission’s Subcommittee on Political and Civil Rights estimates that more than 400 lèse majesté cases were heard in 2010, nearly three times the amount the previous year.

Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, lead researcher for political and strategic affairs at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said the case of Ampon Tangnoppakul – accused of being a Red Shirt leader in his hometown of Samut Prakan – is all-too indicative of the Machiavellianism inherent to Thai politics. “The King once said that he was not above criticism. The problem is with the royalists who continue to use this law for political purposes, as a weapon to undermine opponents.

The process has opened itself up for abuses and this law has to undergo reform. The monarchy, while still very much powerful, is being used by the state to legitimise many actions. Sadly, just when the state believes that it can use Article 112 to curb dissidents, it is not showing authority, but desperation on its part.”