Thailand’s controversial king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, has taken the world’s biggest royal fortune under his personal control to boost his already considerable power.
A new law approved by Thailand’s military dictator places the Crown Property Bureau under the direct control of King Vajiralongkorn, who succeeded his late father, King Bhumibol, last October.
The value of the bureau’s assets is not made public but they have been independently estimated at close to $30 billion, compared to $20 billion for the Sultan of Brunei and £415 million for the Queen.
The property bureau had previously been headed by the minister of finance. The new law, the first revision to royal property laws since 1948, places responsibility for managing the bureau with the king personally. It gives him sole power to appoint its officers and its chairman.
In 2015 Forbes magazine reckoned Bhumibol’s wealth at $30 billion, the bulk of which was accounted for by the Crown Property Bureau. Its assets include stakes worth $9 billion in Siam Cement, southeast Asia’s biggest cement company, and Siam Commercial Bank.
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Thailand has been run by a military government since a coup in 2014, although the dictator, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, has promised to restore democracy eventually. Earlier this year the national assembly granted Vajiralongkorn direct control of five royal organisations formerly run by the police and army.
Staff at three more key palace organisations, the Privy Council, Royal Household Bureau and Royal Security Command, are now considered personal employees of the king, who can be appointed and promoted at his pleasure – rather than, as previously, civil servants answerable to the state.
During his 70-year reign Bhumibol, who was loved and revered by many Thais, exerted wide influence and sometimes intervened to break deadlock between squabbling politicians.
The monarchy is protected by a lese majeste law, which makes it a crime punishable by 15 years in prison to criticise members of the royal family. However, the king’s official powers used to be limited and subordinate to those of elected political leaders.
Vajiralongkorn’s efforts to change this will alarm those who regard him as a less temperate and responsible character than his father. In 2010 the then US ambassador to Bangkok wrote that Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn “neither commands the respect nor displays the charisma of his beloved father” and was “known for violent and unpredictable mood swings”.
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Since his succession, which will be marked by a coronation following his father’s funeral later this year, Vajiralongkorn has spent much of the time in Germany, where he also owns property and where he spends time with the Thai woman whom US embassy cables have described as “his leading mistress”.
He has been photographed in public shopping and cycling in a bra-like cropped top, with elaborate tattoo-like designs painted on his body.