At his majesty, displeasure: Thailand’s anti-monarchy push

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Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. In Uganda, the government is brutally crushing protests in the run up to elections in January. We speak to the wildly popular singer and opposition leader Bobby Wine, who is sure against the odds that his movement people power, can power change. And in America, it's Thanksgiving Day. And although the pandemic has upended plans for many, one Thanksgiving staple is still likely to the turkey. We look back on the Big Bird's globe spanning history and how it got that name. But first, protests escalated in Thailand this week where calls to reform the monarchy are getting louder. This morning, police blocked rush hour traffic to stop demonstrators, they said, from breaking the law. This isn't the first time this year there have been protests against King Mahavajira Longkorn, who took the throne four years ago. He's one of the richest royals in the world and a playboy. He's churned through four wives and spends the majority of his time living in a German hotel amid lots of women. In the past few years, he's taken steps to consolidate power, leading mostly younger student campaigners to demand the monarchy become more accountable and transparent. Yet even suggesting these reforms comes with a hefty price. Thailand has one of the strictest Les Majest laws in the world. Criticizing the royal family is punishable by up to 15 years in jail. Yet it's a law that people are increasingly willing to break.

Yesterday evening after I left the protest site, there was a pipe bomb. When the protest in front of parliament happened a week ago or so, there were six protesters being treated for gunshot wounds and a man was arrested. So it's a very unstable situation.

Tom Felix Jung writes about Thailand for the Economist and is based in Bangkok.

At the same time, one has to see that the students are in a different position because many of them are the kids of the Bangkok establishment. So the hope here, some say, is that you don't go around killing your own children.

What do you mean? How is the makeup of these protests now different?

The biggest difference is that the kids on the street, some of them are 15, there are university students as well, but they are incredibly young. And if you were looking for a sentence to describe what's going on out there, they are fearless. The fear is gone. And I say that because the Les Majeste laws, the royal defamation laws in this country are incredibly harsh and they have been applied in the past. So every time kids go out there and demonstrate, some of them sneaking out of the house of their parents, they are committing a criminal offense and they are risking ending up in jail. And yet no one really seems to care. So what you see now when you go and I went to observe the protest yesterday, is all sorts of taunts and abuse directed directly at the head of state, which is something that has happened in the past, but not in the way that it is now.

And why is there this upsurge of animosity against the head of state, the king?

So his father passed away in 2016, and since he ceded to the throne, taken a lot of steps to concentrate power in his hands. So there's been a shift from what once looked as a relatively normal constitutional monarchy towards a more absolute type of monarchy. He has changed the Crown Property Bureau law, which essentially said previously that these assets are being held in trust for the people, for the nation. And now with this law changed, the King has direct control over these assets and they are actually, if you look at the shares in companies, and it's no longer the Crown Property Bureau owning these, it is the name of the king. The students and many people who sympathize with them are now asking, well, what is this all about? These assets are ours and we want to see a reversal.

So what is it that the protesters are demanding here?

So the three demands initially, many months ago, were that they wanted to change the constitution, basically a more democratic Thailand. The second one, they wanted to be able to speak freely and not face arrests. And the third one, which is by far the most controversial, is a reform of the monarchy. Now, in recent months, more and more, the last demand has become the most prominent, to the extent that even neutral observers here refer to these protests no longer as pro democracy protests, but anti monarchy protests.

And what likelihood that what the protesters are demanding will actually be met? What chances for actual change to the monarchy?

Well, if you look at the original three demands, one of the demands was that they wanted essentially to express themselves, really without landing in jail. Now you see the opposite. Now you see a hardening of the stance on the part of the establishment. So on that front, the students are not getting anywhere. The second part is that there was a hope until last week that the constitution might be amended and made more progressive. That door now seems closed because the pro military, royalist government, coalition government, they have a majority in Parliament. One proposal in particular, particular which mirrored the demands of the students, was voted down. So there is no way now through the parliamentary process to bring about change. And on the third demand, it is pretty clear now that this is heading for confrontation. And everybody knew that because the way that power is acquired, exercised and held in Thailand isn't really up for debate.

You say this is heading for a confrontation, but it sounds as if the confrontation is kind of already here. The students don't have any recourse left either in the protesting or real constitutional reform. So where do you see this going?

One thing that is really worrying is that it is perceived to be now this one dimensional quest for essentially getting rid of the monarchy in its current state or modernizing it or whatever it is. But all the other things, the original demands are now in the background. And what that means for the students, I think, is that they will find it very difficult to build broader alliances, entire society that will allow them to carry on with this. And I do not see any fundamental change happening in the near future.

Tom Felix, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you for having me.

Dozens of people have been killed in Uganda over the past week in the worst violence seen in the country's capital for 10 years. Unrest broke out in Kampala after the arrest of Bobby Wine, a pop star turned politician who's the opposition's most popular candidate in January's presidential election. He was campaigning in the east of the country last Wednesday when police bundled him into a van. In the two days of violence that followed, police say that 45 people died. The true number is probably higher. The singer was released on bail, charged with negligence likely to spread disease. He draws crowds far larger than the 200 currently permitted under COVID 19 rules. January's election will pit him against Yoweri Museveni, who's kept an iron grip on the country for nearly three and a half decades. That will be an uphill battle, even though Mr. Wine has plenty of support on the streets.

Bobby Wine is a popular singer. His real name is Robert Chagrilagni.

Liam Taylor writes about Africa for the Economist and is based in Kampala.

He found fame styling himself as the ghetto president. He was raised in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Kampala, and many of his songs are about the struggles of everyday life and social issues. One of his most powerful tracks, released just after the last election in 2016, is called Setuka, which is Luganda for Rise Up. And it's calling on people to come out, walk together, he says, take to the streets and defend their rights. So about a year after releasing that, Bobby Wine decided he wanted to run for Parliament. He swept into office in a by election, winning three quarters of the vote. At the time, the president's supporters were trying to amend the constitution to remove a presidential age limit so that President Yoweri Museveni could extend his stay in power. So Bobby wine joined opposition MPs in resisting that change. But later, even though they failed to stop that amendment, they channeled some of the energy of that campaign into a new movement, which Bobby Wine called People Power. And it's now become the most powerful opposition movement in Uganda, trying to force out Yoweri Museveni, the incumbent, in presidential elections, which are due in January.

And does he stand a chance of doing so?

Most analysts think that his chances of unseating Museveni in an election are virtually nil. His party, the National Unity Platform, is just a few months old. It's not very well organised, and they're only contesting about half of the seats in Parliament. But where Bobby Wine really does pose headaches for the ruling regime is his popularity on the street, especially in urban areas like Kampala. His arrest last week was not an isolated incident. When he handed in his nomination papers to run for election, he was arrested briefly. Police smashed their way into his car. And as they were trying to break in, Bobby Wine was filming what was going on on his phone. We can hear the police smashing the passenger window in the front seat.

This is what the police is doing.

And then police, he says pepper sprayed him in the face before driving him back to his home. So I'd spoken to Bobby Wine about a week before that incident as he was preparing for campaigns. Can I put my recorder on?

Yes, please.

Yeah, so just tell me. I mean, just to begin with. And I asked him about the experience of running to be president in Uganda.

It's horrifying. Horrifying.

It's.

In Uganda, the biggest crime is to stand up against injustice. Running against Museven is running against the military. Running against Uganda police is like running against bank of Uganda. It's a crime for anybody to associate with me, including my relatives. Even my aunties and uncles are scared of hosting me. My old friends are scared of being seen with me or being known to be my friends. Horrifying.

But why is it, then, that the ruling regime finds Mr. Wine to be such a threat?

So, although Bobby wine doesn't present an electoral threat to misophony, he has huge support in urban areas and especially amongst the youth. And the opposition's strategy is increasingly to mobilize protest on the streets to try and provoke some kind of urban uprising, which eventually might force people around Mr. Museveni to reconsider their support for him. We've seen that, for example, in the protests of the last week and in Bobby wine. His biggest message is trying to give people hope. And his slogan, apologies for my bad.

Luganda, is tway beremu tueberremu means take charge, get involved. It has been our call right before I joined parliament, calling upon the young people to get involved in the politics of their country. That is the only way they're going to be able to change their country. Let them own their country. Let them think for themselves. Let them understand it for themselves. You know, let them. Let them be involved. It is about them.

So there is a long tradition of opposition in Uganda, a long tradition of discontent, and Bobby Wine inherits that. But he differs from other leaders in one crucial respect, which is that the young people, especially those in the ghettos of Kampala, see him as one of their own. And that's been clear in the events of the past week. As soon as he was arrested, there were young men all over the city erecting roadblocks, lighting fires, throwing stones at police, demanding for their hero to be released.

And so is that to say, then that we can expect more of that kind of protest, more violence in the run up to the election itself?

So unrest like we've seen in the past week is not unprecedented in Uganda. And it seems likely that we will see more unrest and more violence. Museveni will almost certainly be declared the winner. And what's likely is that Bobby wine will say that the election has been stolen, and at that point, he will be calling his supporters onto the streets.

So, ultimately, what chance is there for the kind of political change that Mr. Wine is aiming for here?

So it seems extremely unlikely that Bobby Wine will ever become president. Museveni has ruled Uganda for 35 years because he's an extremely skilled political operator and has tight control over the security forces as well as a huge patronage machine. However, as Museveni gets older and as the cities are growing, as young people become more frustrated, it's going to become harder and harder to for him to maintain that grip. So although Bobby Wine himself might never become president, he represents a social force which is very, very hard for the president to control.

Liam, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Jason. Thanksgiving, 1943.

By tradition for this most fortunate of nations, a day of family, a day.

Of feast, turkey and all the trimmings.

Thanksgiving today will probably look a bit different. Most American homes won't have generations of family stuffed around a crowded table. Fewer than a third of Americans plan to eat with people outside their households. But for many, going without one Thanksgiving tradition would be foul.

Today, the turkey has become so synonymous with Thanksgiving that many people refer to the holiday simply as Turkey Day.

Ellen nye writes for 1843, the Economist's sister magazine.

Americans guzzle up a remarkable 40 million turkeys every Thanksgiving. It's easy to think of the turkey as an all American bird, but actually this American enthusiasm for the turkey obscures a far more global story.

It's not the all American bird that I think it is.

Well, the turkeys global story starts in a rather unsurprising manner. Turkeys were native to the Americas, and both wild and domesticated varieties of these feathery fowl were important in Native American societies. Europeans first encountered turkeys through Spanish expeditions. They began shipping turkeys back to Europe. And unlike other American foods like the potato or the tomato, the turkey was an immediate culinary success. And the gobbler's travels didn't end there. In the early 17th century, a Turkey was presented to the Mughal emperor Jahangir, who was so taken by the turkey's ruddy neck and bright feathers that he commissioned a miniature of it after its star studded European debut. The turkey became so integral to European diets that by the early 17th century, when English colonists were headed to North America, they took these domesticated turkeys with them. Most turkeys eaten today are in fact descendants not of the North American wild turkey, but of these settler fowl.

But where did the name turkey actually come from for this centrally native American bird?

Everywhere the turkey went, linguistic confusion seems to have ensued. In English, the North American fowl is called turkey, but in Turkish the word is Hindi. The association between India and the turkey is common in many different languages, including French. In English, this confusion seems to have arisen from another bird entirely, the African guinea fowl. People thought it came from the Ottoman Empire, which they called turkey. So they named the bright, daintier African bird turkey hands. When the North American bird arrived, they simply slapped the Ottoman designation on it as well.

So how did it go from that to being so associated with Thanksgiving and the holidays?

Long before the turkey start on Thanksgiving tables, it was a European feast favorite. Henry VIII is believed to have served the turkey for Christmas, and in 1573 the poet Thomas Tesser penned verses instructing housewives to offer turkeys well dressed at Christmas. The turkeys connection with Thanksgiving came much later. Historians generally agree that turkeys were not served at the mythologized first Thanksgiving. Only in the 19th century, when Thanksgiving became an official annual holiday, did turkeys take the star Thanksgiving role. The turkey was receiving good PR at this time. Charles Dickens, wildly popular A Christmas Carol, presented Scrooge as a reformed man giving a prize turkey to the poor Cratchit family.

And I guess they've just grown in significance from there.

They've grown not just in prominence, but also in size. With the advent of refrigerated transport, Thanksgiving turkeys could be shipped frozen. This meant that birds no longer had to waddle to markets as they had done for centuries. Instead, farmers could focus on breeding bigger birds. The average turkey today is almost double the size of their 1960s counterparts, so large in fact, that they can no longer mate and have to be artificially inseminated with COVID 19. This year's festivities are tricky for birds bred to be big.

And what could happen to those big birds then? Could they again find a Globally, the.

Turkey'S future is looking bright. Today, Israel, not the US Consumes the most turkey meat per capita. This may be because in the early years of statehood, many were too poor to eat imported beef and chicken had to be refrigerated, whereas turkey could be farmed locally and cured as pastrami. In China, too, turkey consumption is on the rise, in part because, like in early modern Europe, where statues and frescoes were made in its honor, the turkey is seen as exotic. So it appears that the gobbling globetrotter's adventures are far from over.

Ellen, thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you, Jason. It's been a pleasure.

Ellen tells the full history of the Turkey in 1843. Find it@exter.com 1843 and for more thoughts on what to serve today, my colleague Ann McElvoy spoke to famed British food writer and cook Nigella Lawson for this week's episode of our sister show.

The Economist asks if I am actually all by myself. I don't think I'm going to brine a turkey, but one of the things I think that both Thanksgiving and Christmas have in common because the meals, you know, have an overlap is that it's the sides that are so wonderful. It's very hard to beat a good apple pie, I have to say. Very hard.

The Economist asks will be out later today. Before we go, we've got our own giving of thanks to you, the listeners. We're all of us grateful for your time. The show's editors, Marguerite Howell. Cheers, y'. All. And Kim Gitelson, thank you. Our senior producers, Chris Impey. Thank you very much. Hannah Mourinho.

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