Legal Problems Concerning Statue Monument and Sacred Image Building

Abstract

The constructions of king monument, national monument, statue, history monument and worshipful picture are broadly famous among Thai people. The main reason is to praise the king, important person, or recall important events of national history. However, there is no exclusive regulation to monitor such constructions, resulting in inappropriate constructions and non-compliance with evidence in history, religion and believe. The cause may come from an absence of responsible section monitoring such constructions, these may harm king’s reputation, lessen a dignity of important person of the nation, distort national history or religion. In this regard, a construction without reasonable care, without responsible section and without applicable law may cause a serious negative effect because creators tend to build the constructions in accordance with his emotion, respect and believe and this distorts the true history and has negative effect in the long term. This is different from foreign countries which enact specific law to protect cultural heritage including monument or any sculpture which is important to the history or religious, such law is a binding force and contains legal punishment for those who violate the law, cause damage or deteriorate cultural history. Also, in such countries, specific department shall be directly set up for monitoring and preserving. Meanwhile, Thailand only established a Committee to consider the construction of national monument and statue of Buddha, no specific duty to control or provide the punishment for those who violate the Regulation of Ministry of Education relating to the constructions of national monument and statue of Buddha B.E. 2520. This is due to the Regulation has no biding force and no punishment provided for violator. Therefore, it is clear that the enforcement of Regulation is ineffective. The writer is of the opinion that the best solution is to enact the law containing compulsory measure or providing legal punishment to enforce people. Implementation of new law shall monitor the constructions of king monument, national monument, statue and worshipful picture to comply with the evidence in history of the nation, religion and believe; also, the appearance of such constructions shall be correct in accordance with the academic principle of art, engineer, architecture and landscape architecture.