slappy wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 12:56 pm
tomoufc wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 11:40 am
https://twitter.com/OUFCOfficial/status ... 5750561793
"This weekend saw the coronation of King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand. The staff and players at Oxford United stand in unity & reverence with our chairman Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth and the people of Thailand to mark this event.
Long live the King of Thailand
ทรงพระเจริญ
"
I'm not sure I want my club associated with this. I'm not very clued-up on Thai politics, but the country is run by a monarchist military junta, with a questionable record on democracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/worl ... junta.html
Thailand is a very pro-monarchist society, so I am not surprised that our Thai owner has chosen to mark the coronation. The previous king and queen were very much revered and respected. Also I'm not sure what the event has to do with the politics of the country.
Though in a couple of weeks we may get another tweet congratulating the official results of the Indonesian elections, where Bakrie was part of the winning campaign team?
I am a republican. But even I would probably express my heartfelt reverence for the monarchy if my real views could
lead to arrest, decades of imprisonment, possibly by a military court (
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/c ... s/thailand). Undoubtedly, many are monarchists in Thailand, but you need to think about the ones that aren't. And it seems to me that there's an important relationship between the monarchy and the military that has pernicious effects on human rights and democracy. So it does indeed look like a political statement, especially the way it was worded. Even in our monarchy-obsessed society, you rarely see phrases such as 'unity and reverence'.
So, without wishing to labour the point, it was at least a very strange tweet, and, at worst, the chairman using this club for his own, potentially questionable, political ends.
"I've been a slave to football. It follows you home, it follows you everywhere, and eats into your family life. But every working man misses out on some things because of his job. "