ZENJOURNALIST

Confidential cable from British ambassador David Cole on November 5, 1976, with comments on the involvement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara in recent political events. Cole’s source was the Danish ambassador, who was close to Prime Minister Tanin Kraivixien whose wife was Danish.

A declassified secret cable in the UK national archives, reporting on a meeting between Sir Desmond Dreyer, admiral of the British navy’s Far East Fleet, with King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit. It appears that this cable has been ripped out at some point, and reattached with tape, rendering some parts of it illegible. Cable…

A confidential cable from British ambassador Berkeley Gage on April 17, 1957, suggests King Bhumibol Adulyadej and royalist politicians were already plotting with military leader Sarit Thanarat several months before the field marshal seized power in a September 1957 coup.

Confidential cable sent on October 13, 1976, from British ambassador David Cole to Foreign Minister Anthony Crosland. Excerpts: 10c: Did the King approve? A vital factor in the situation must have been the role of the King. In February 1976, following the downfall of the Kukrit Government, the King let it be known that he would…

On the morning of June 9, 1946, the 20-year-old Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Siam, was shot through the head and killed in his bedroom in the Barompiman Hall building in the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok. Later that day his 18-year-old brother Bhumibol Adulyadej was proclaimed King Rama IX. Bhumibol has reigned ever…

In December 2011, members of the Anonymous hacktivist group penetrated the computer systems of Texas-based “global intelligence company” Stratfor and accessed more than five million e-mails. Over the past year, these e-mails have been published in batches by WikiLeaks, and several sensitive discussions relevant to Thailand are now available online. Stratfor likes to give the impression that is…

It’s time the truth is told about an archaic, elitist and secretive institution that is increasingly out of touch with reality and badly failing the people of 21st century Thailand. I am referring, of course, to the FCCT. The once-proud Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand has been in decline for decades: its antiquated website boasts of “the good…

In a previous article three months ago, I shared some intriguing audio files from “The Landon Chronicles”, the recorded reminiscences of Kenneth Landon, who was the U.S. State Department’s top Thailand expert in the 1940s and 1950s, and his wife Margaret, author of the famous book Anna and the King of Siam. I’m still going through the…

In 1998, the BBC broadcast a two-part documentary on Thailand’s royal family, entitled The Royal Court of Thailand. Unlike the previous BBC documentary on the subject, Soul of a Nation, broadcast in 1980, it was a balanced and sometimes critical view of the monarchy. A very interesting article by British academic Roger Kershaw that reviews the documentary…