RED IN USA

Updated: Fearing Thaksin

Updated: Fearing Thaksin  A reader tells PPT that a new book by U.S. journalist Tom Plate is not being stocked by two of the major bookshops in Bangkok. What is the book? Thaksin in the series “Giants of Asia.” The reader tells us the other “Giants” are Lee Kuan Yew,  Mahathir, and Ban Ki-Moon. It seems remarkable that major bookshops should refuse to carry a book, effectively being censored by some invisible force or self-censoring their stock and what readers can see. Or is it a reflection of the fear and loathing of the man amongst the royalist business class? PPT hasn’t read the book that is claimed to present an “inside look” at Thaksin and his ideas and thinking, apparently “warts and all.” The book is available for order in Singapore. Update: A reader writes to observe that Asia Books and Kinokunya Bangkok – the major distributors of English-language books – have long been weak-kneed about books seen as potentially controversial. The reader believes a Thai-language version is in the works and that it will sell like hot cakes. Wait for the claims that the book is propaganda, paid-for, nothing we didn’t know before, and so on.

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