All vestiges of the prince’s former consort are purged from royal society
The purge of all relatives or associates of Thai Princess Sirasimi, the swiftly-departed consort of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, is continuing, with an order from the prince’s office stating that anyone using the royally-granted family name Akharapongpreecha stop using it and go back to his or her family name.
Despite the attempts to characterize the affair as a dramatic cleanup of a deeply corrupt Central Investigation Bureau headed by the now-arrested and disgraced Pongpat Chayaphan, it appears directed at dispossessing the couple’s nine-year-old son, Dhipangkorn, who was diagnosed two years ago with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, officially putting him out of the succession process.
Thailand has been wracked behind the scenes for several years with uncertainty over the succession process. According to a new book on Thailand, A Kingdom in Crisis by former senior Reuters journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest serving monarch at age 86, suffered a stroke in July 2012 that ended his ability to play an active role in Thai political life.