Good King, Bad King and The Man Who Would Be King

Posted on May 10, 2006

Rehearsal for Royal Barge Procession
on King’s Bhumibol’s 60th Anniversary, Bangkok, Thailand
Photo: Gary Wells

Good King, Bad King, Man Who Would Be King
Audio MP3

Here I am, hangin’ out in a bar. It is the Bamboo Bar at old Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. A nostalgic place for my wife and me, where a chanteuse sang our “Love is Here to Stay” on our honeymoon, then went back to the bar and fetched us hankies. Different singer this night, but the musicians haven’t changed. Good jazz from a Russian ensemble that has played here for some eight years.

Rummied up by glass of Cognac I started to think about a good king, a bad king and a man-who-would-be-king. I was, after all, in the place of a good king, Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.

Kings and Queens have, through history, played to mixed reviews. King Canute was thought of as a decent chap, as was Wenceslas of Bohemia. King John and Queen Mary, not so good, perhaps. My mom was Alfalfa Queen of Thief River Falls, Minnesota and she was good.

In the last few weeks, a good king has come to the rescue, a bad king thrown in his cloak and a man-who-would-be-king unraveled by a not-so-courtly jester.

King Bhumibol of Thailand is the moral voice of this country. Even friends of mine who grew up in America, UK, and Australia worship the man. (Insulting him is against the law). Every time there is a political crisis, Bhumipol steps in and saves the day. The much maligned Prime Minister Thaksin stepped down after a chat with the king. Now, after charges of rigged elections, voters are going back to the polls and Thailand will hopefully return to normal: corruption, yes, but accomplished with a smile and just enough of it to keep things running smoothly..

The bad king is Gyanendra of Nepal. In the name of Homeland Security (sound familiar?) Gyanendra dismissed parliament and declared himself dictator. But the Nepalese, who have only tasted parliamentary government since the early 90s, would have nothing of that. People filled the streets, breaking curfews, and brought him down. Or ,at least, he sort of let go. Gyanendra is still king, but a new parliament is forming and the Marxist insurgents are talking. I met the former King and Queen shortly before they were assassinated. They were pleasant enough, she wore big honking jewels, and democracy got a start under their rule. A few days ago in Thailand I ran into to two Nepali friends who were grinning ear-to-ear over the new developments, their smiles as wide and white as the Himalaya. After all of this turmoil, hope of peace.

It is a shame we don’t have a Good King in the US…someone with no real power, but a moral example we can look up. Mind you, I don’t have the slightest idea of whom that could be. Here we award the President the sceptre and just because a few more people voted for him than against him, wrap him in a flag and trust him, right or wrong, as a voice of morality when he should actually be trusted as the equivalent of a city manager. In other countries — UK, Canada, Thailand — when the prime minister screws up, new elections get called. Here, with our rigged winner-take-all congress, we are stuck for four years.

But last week, in a fine royal court tradition, Would-be-King George the Inarticulate was brought down by a jester at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Comedian Stephen Colbert stripped both the emperor and the America’s cowering mass media of their flimsy cloaks as “Would-Be” squirmed like a little boy who had smothered his sister’s cat. The mass media, of course, didn’t cover this at all. But the blogs did. (Watch on Google Video)

Given this good king, bad king thing, here are my travel plans for this fall:

Go to Thailand and wish Good King Bhumibol a happy 60th anniversary of his rational thought and good deeds. The Royal Yachtsmen are now on the river rehearsing for the official celebration in June, but the festivities are happening all year. While in Bangkok I’ll probably get a physical exam at a fraction of the cost of what it would be in The States.

From Thailand I will hop a nonstop flight to Nepal. Poor Nepal will likely be at peace again and in desperate need of foreign exchange. I don’t have too much of that to offer but I do have a great affection for Nepal having traveled there, worked there for the UNDP and even honeymooned there. I have lots of friends in Nepal and can’t wait to go back. It an affordable place to visit with both nature and culture you won’t find anywhere else. And there is a whole lot more there than Mt. Everest. September and October are the best times to go, after the rainy season when everything is green.

But in November I must return to the US for election day as we have to give our congress the power to curb the President-Who-Would-Be-King and help us regain for the US and we Americans who travel, some of the hard-earned respect we have lost in recent years. We don’t have a Good King to do that. We have to do it ourselves.