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Andrew MacGregor Marshall
27m ·
UPDATE — Here is the latest on what we know so far about the death of Princess Bajrakitiyabha on Wednesday and what will happen next.The latest information from royal sources is that the palace may try to keep her artificially alive on an ECMO machine at Chulalongkorn Hospital for days, maybe even until after New Year, at which point they will turn off the machine and announce she has died.
They are worried that if New Year festivities have to be cancelled and the tourism and hospitality industries take another hit at this crucial time of year, following all the pain they suffered during the pandemic, it will further inflame anti-monarchy sentiment in Thailand which is already rampant.
In the meantime they will try to stir up royalist sentiment in Thailand by asking people to pray for her, even though everybody in the regime knows she will never recover.
This ghastly charade has already begun, with Vajiralongkorn visiting Chulalongkorn Hospital four times yesterday, and once today with Suthida. By now a crowd of prostrating royalists has been assembled to chant "Long live the king!" whenever he arrives.
Prime minister Prayut Chan-ocha and his cabinet have also visited the hospital to give symbolic offerings to a portrait of Bajrakitiyabha and sign a book of condolences.
The military is orchestrating vast North Korea-style displays of devotion with large groups of uniformed soldiers kneeling to pray for her recovery. Buddhists and Muslims across the kingdom have also been told to pray several times a day.
This is all just a dishonest pantomime because Bajrakitiyabha is dead.
Her brain was starved of oxygen for several hours. Her heart and lungs are not working. She is being kept technically alive with an ECMO machine, but by any sensible definition she has been dead for two days already and she will never come back.
The only question is how long it will take for the palace and the regime to tell the truth to the people of Thailand.
Bajrakitiyabha died on Wednesday afternoon during a Royal Thai Army event in Pak Chong district for the Working Dog Championship contest. CPR was attempted for at least an hour without success as she was taken to Pak Chong Nana Hospital. By the time she arrived at the hospital she was already dead.
However, because of her royal status, efforts continued at the hospital to try to revive her, even though it was clear that it was hopeless.
Meanwhile, Vajiralongkorn rushed to the hospital in a military helicopter, and the best intensive care medical helicopter in Thailand, registration HS-BHQ, was sent to Pak Chong too.
By the time Vajiralongkorn arrived it was clear his daughter was dead, and he broke down and wept. But he demanded that efforts must continue to save her and the doctors and medical staff didn't dare disagree. So this went on for hours.
Eventually a decision was made to bring her back to Bangkok, so in the early hours of Thursday HS-BHQ took off from the hospital in Pak Chong and flew back to Bangkok Hospital, flanked by military helicopters.
Bajrakitiyabha was then taken to Chulalongkorn Hospital by road, which would have wasted even more time. Chulalongkorn does not have helicopter landing facilities which is why they had to land at Bangkok Hospital then transfer her by road.
By the time Bajrakitiyabha arrived at Chulalongkorn Hospital she'd had no heartbeat or brain function for more than 10 hours.
Chulalongkorn Hospital doctors didn't dare declare her brain dead until much later on Thursday. But because she is being kept artificially alive on an ECMO machine, she is technically not dead, even though there is zero prospect of recovery.
Although doctors had initially assumed she had a heart attack, they have now concluded that she suffered a massive subarachnoid haemorrhage in her skull that then caused her heart to stop beating.
The palace now just has to decide when to take her off the machine and announce her death.
There is plenty of precedent in the Thai monarchy for delaying announcing a death until the opportune moment.
Bhumibol had been comatose and kept artificially alive for months before the machines were switched off in October 2016.
His younger sister Galyani died during December 2007 but her death was only announced on January 2, 2008, because the regime wanted to avoid disruption to the New Year celebrations.
In the current political climate, it's very unlikely that the mourning period will be long or strict, it would be madness for the palace or regime to try and inflict a mourning lockdown on the kingdom just as it emerges from covid lockdowns. The big issue is New Year because if Bajrakitiyabha's death is announced prior to that the various celebrations around the country will have to cancelled.
Various palace factions are also scrambling to figure out a new succession plan. Dipangkorn has autism and can never reign alone, Sirivannavari is widely hated and not a credible candidate, and so in my view it looks increasingly likely that exiled son Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse will be rehabilitated and will become Rama XI when Vajiralongkorn dies. More damagingly for the monarchy, their factions will now be scheming and fighting each other.
Although the palace and regime want to delay the announcement of Bajrakitiyabha's death for at least two weeks, I don't think it will be tenable.
They have been unable to keep her death a secret because I have been reporting it since a few hours after it happened on Wednesday, and the longer they delay telling the truth, the worse they will look when they finally do.
There will also be widespread anger that Thais are being blatantly lied to.
So I hope they reconsider and just let her go. Vajiralongkorn is visibly devastated and deserves the right to grieve. But Bajrakitiyabha deserves to die with dignity, not to be kept artificially alive.
Be honest, and let her go.
