That's the same Thai King who had the misfortune to hire Anna Leonowens to teach English to his household, and she turned around and wrote two books telling a pack of lies about him. (Princess Tuptim wasn't really put to death, et cetera et cetera...)

On a planet where wealth is concentrated in the hands

of people who in turn want more wealth and associated

power to promote that avarice countries the size of

Thailand face tough fights/choices. To allow the money

merchants to flood in opens to many terrible cultural

and economic pressures. Thailand is only one of several

SE Asian countries that have suffered repeatedly after

WW2 from the whims and flawed policies of the global

money merchants/corporatists and the militarism of the

Communism epoch. The current Thai government came in

as a direct result of the now deposed Shinawatra regimes

rampant and corruptive money politics and blatant abuse

of meaningful check and balance formats. Thailand now

faces some very steep corrections in order to unwind the

Shinawatra eras abuse of governmental format,form

and function. The new Suvarnabhumi International Airport

being just one standout example of typical Shinawatra

regime corruption and governance failure. Globalization

is a very real force in Thailand,Vietnam,Malaysia and

Indonesia. The environmental and social mayhem pressed

on these countries by outside money merchants is a very

real disaster in the making. Of course all these lands

must obey the law of gravity that China by virtue of its

incredible population/cheap labor and resultant impact

on global production and manufacture outcomes presents.

Shinawatra is now out as Thai PM but remains a force to

be reckoned with for the current Thai government. Sadly

Shinawatra is void of a valid moral or ethical compass

and is unwilling to admit to failures as Thai PM. The

Thai elite drive fancy cars and live like they are in

Southern California. Sadly much of Thailands natural

beauty and environmental/ecological condition is being

mercilessly plundered by the Thai elite repeatedly for

easy money payouts. The rural population of Thailand

sees little of this wealth. Shinawatra played a dubious

and cynical game off this fissure in Thai society to

bolster his own money grabs. Sadly for Thailand the

future will present some serious price tags for all this

historical,current and ongoing avarice,environmental

plundering and dereliction of sound/solid governance.

Is it still a Thai policy to murder drug users after iniviting them to the police station for questioning?

I guess that's not a question that is regarded as interesting or relevant to globalizaton at Salon.

I'm just wondering how much has changed since the coup.

It was the beloved King's desire to have a "Drug Free Thailand" for his birthday.

If the King backs the coup, does that mean the military government is backing his grisly "Drug Free" campaign?

That doesn't sound like it will work out for them long run. They all (similar countries who break drug patents) start out by making altruistic claims about helping their own miserable misfortunates but they all wind up cranking out fake Viagra, unregulated Lipitor, Toxic COX inhibitors and the like. And when they undercut even legitimate generic manufacturers like Teva then it only will get worse for them and for everyone else. Companies will stop importing drugs to Thailand so real drugs will have to be smuggled in or worse, they'll cook up their own with little or no regulation at all. Let me know how that works out when they need exotic vaccinations, a new generation of antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs.

It is incorrect to suggest HM King Bhumipol Adulyadej RAMA IX of Thailand

ever had anything to do with the "war on drugs" the Shinawatra

regime undertook.Shinawatra had been a colonel in the Royal

Thai Police and his willingness to cross-stich political

activity with official or murkier "unofficial" Royal

Thai Police acts is subject to current Thai government

ongoing investigations,inquiries and legal proceedings.

The Shinawatra regime was very inclined to put up shoddy

PR stunts in order to misdirect Thais attention from

other Shinawatra regime activities. It is fully wrong

to suggest HM King RAMA IX would have condoned these

drug war summary executions in any way.HM RAMA IX truly

is a modest,decent and honorable monarch. The situation

in the far south of Thailand again gives ample evidence

of the Shinawatra regimes thinly veneered political acts

and its heedless conduct against the Thai Muslims of

the far Thai south. The Shinawatra regime is now being

exposed for its failed policies regarding Thai Muslims

historical unrest in the south of Thailand and the murky

extra-judicial death dealing of the Shinawatra

regime against suspected Thai drug dealers/users of

whom well over 2,000 met mysterious and shrouded

deaths.

This is by far one of the least informed articles ever written about Thailand by a non-Thai.

The notion that King Mongkut, Rama 4, was cleverly playing Western powers off each other in the middle of the 19th century is Thai propaganda. How many books about Thailand has Mr. Leonard read?

King Mongkut opened up the economy to Britain with the Bowring Treaty, and then proceeded to sign free trade agreements with all the European powers and the US, which began the process of integrating Thailand into the world-wide economy. In terms of regional economics, Thailand was always trading with its neighbors, the Arab world, India and China.

Because Britain was the imperial power at the time, Siam more or less became a de facto British colony.

Further, Mr. Leonard certainly knows nothing about Thailand's current economy and its relation to globalization.

The current king's self-sufficiency theory has nothing to with protecting the Thai populace; it has everything to do with protecting his economic interests, such as his multi-billion dollar privy purse, and the interests of Thai capitalists who can't compete globally.

The fact is Thailand is one of the worst state criminals when it comes to ripping off intellectual property of other countries. Walk down any major street in Bangkok and hawkers are selling American brand name clothes, movies, software, DVDs for a couple bucks.

Now the Thai government is shamelessly stealing the intellectual property of US pharmaceutical companies, costing the US consumer and government millions of dollars in higher costs from this thievery. Americans are not responsible for Thailand's prostitution industry or Thai behavior that leads to HIV infections and heart disease.

Thailand's investment laws are incredibly restrictive, and the bureaucracy is incredibly hostile to investors. The Thai government is one of the most corrupt institutions in the world. The notion that a Thai politician or bureaucrat would do anything but protect anything other than his own interests in ridiculous.