Lese Majeste

Lèse majesté comes from a French expression derived from the Latin phrase Laesa maiestas or Laesae maiestatis meaning injury to royalty. The crime is listed on the books of every country led by a monarch whether titular or reigning and yesterday the Australian writer Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to 3 years in prison for besmirching the heir to the throne in his book VERSIMILITUDE. The novel is out of print, even though only 10 copies were sold to his public. It is not even available on Amazon.com, however someone somewhere must have read the book to discover its slander against the throne.

Now the Australian will languish in jail until his 44th birthday, despite his apologies to the court and King as well as his guilty plea.

"This can't be real. It feels like a bad dream."

All this for a single paragraph. Every word of which earned him a 1000 days in prison.

The new Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, might be a fan of alternative rock such as Oasis, the Killers, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and the Arctic Monkeys/Rascals side project, the Last Shadow Puppets. This divergence from popular Thai taste might signal a threatening modernism, however he has announced on several occasions that the monarchy must be protected because it offers "immense benefits to the country as a stabilizing force."

The PM knows his people after all.

Years ago I was in Malaysia on Tiomann Island. A sultan was reviewing the island's people, each of whom wai-ed His Majesty, as he distributed alms to his subjects. The Westerners watching the ceremony didn't show any respect and I was angered by their lack of etiquette. I bowed my head with my hands pressed together and the sultan came over to me.

"Where are you from." His English spoke of a youth at Eton.

"New York."

"I went to Studio 54 there. It was a good time."

"I worked the door at Studio for a month."

He thanked me and walked onto the waiting yacht.

Obviously it's one thing to have bad manners, it's another to know when to not use them.

Sadly for Harry Nicolaides this is a lesson he'll have to learn behind gray walls.