The King Never Smiles
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The King Never Smiles is an unauthorized biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej by Paul M. Handley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Asia for more than twenty years, including thirteen in Thailand. Handley had previously worked for the Far Eastern Economic Review. The book was published by Yale University Press in July 2006. The book was banned in Thailand before publication and the Thai authorities have blocked local access to websites advertising the book.
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[edit] Book summary
The publicity materials at the Yale University Press website describe a book telling "the unexpected story of (King Bhumibol Adulyadej's) life and 60-year rule — how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha, and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political, autocratic, and even brutal... Blasting apart the widely accepted image of the king as egalitarian and virtuous, Handley convincingly portrays an anti-democratic monarch who, together with allies in big business and the murderous, corrupt Thai military, has protected a centuries-old, barely modified feudal dynasty."[1] Yale University Press Senior Editor John Kulka has called the book an "interpretive biography".
The New York Times noted that the book "presents a direct counterpoint to years of methodical royal image-making that projects a king beyond politics, a man of peace, good works and Buddhist humility." The Times also noted, "The book describes [the King's only son], Vajiralongkorn, as a willful man prone to violence, fast cars and dubious business deals."[2]
[edit] Censorship in Thailand
Well before its release, in January 2006, the Thai Information and Communications Ministry banned the book and blocked the book's page on the Yale University Press website and at Amazon.com. [3] In a statement dated 19 January 2006, Thai National Police Chief General Kowit Wattana said the book has "contents which could affect national security and the good morality of the people." [4].
On July 19 ThaiDay, an English-language Thai paper, reported that the Thai government made great efforts to suppress the book, even contacting former American president George Herbert Walker Bush to help them:
Pansak Viyaratn, chief advisor to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, yesterday refuted allegations made last Friday by Sondhi Limthongkul that the Thaksin government did nothing to stop the release of an unauthorized biography of His Majesty entitled The King Never Smiles.
Speaking on FM 94 radio, Pansak said the government had, last January, taken serious action to defend the institution of the monarchy by sending then Cabinet Secretary-General Bowornsak Uwanno on an unpublicized trip to the United States. Bowornsak met with former US president and Yale alumni George Bush Sr and the president of Yale University to convey the government’s strong reservations about the book, which is published by the prestigious Yale University Press.
[edit] Duelling biographers
The Handley book was published six years after the first biography of King Bhumibol, "The Revolutionary King" by William Stevenson.[5] Handley commented on the Stevenson book on pp.437-439 of "The King Never Smiles":
"Ten years earlier, Bhumibol had invited William Stevenson, the author of the original Intrepid, to write the book. Stevenson lodged in the princess mother's Srapathum Palace and was provided research support and unprecedented interviews with court staff and the king himself ... The result was a book that presents Bhumibol as truly inviolate, magical, and godly ... the book is chock-full of the standard Ninth Reign mythology, matching the view of the palace and royal family projected in Thai publications .... When it came out, the book proved a misadventure. Stevenson was liberal with style and careless with facts to the point of embarrassing the palace. His errors were legion. The book opened with a map that showed Thailand in possession of significant portions of Laos and Burma, and put the king's Hua Hin palace 300 kilometers and a sea away from where it should be. It ended with a genealogical chart naming Rama VII as the son of his brother Rama VI ... (But) Thousands of copies circulated in Thailand, and the general reaction was to castigate the author's failings while not questioning the essence of his story, the magical and sacral monarchy of Bhumibol Adulyadej."
Stevenson reviewed the Handley book in the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal Online (June 16, 2006)[6]
"Thais dislike seeing in print careless references to their king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, the reigning Ninth Rama of the Chakri dynasty. The king is venerated as a guardian of ancient traditions that are believed to have saved the Thai people from imperialists, communists and neocolonialists. They will disapprove of Paul Handley's gossipy, unfair account of this apotheosized man, the world's longest-reigning monarch. Mr. Handley casts the king as an enemy of democracy who, to solidify his once-shaky authority, allied himself with scheming generals and crooked politicians. None of this can be supported by the facts ... Mr. Handley focuses more upon the king's allegedly Machiavellian virtues than his spiritual ones. He writes, 'Bhumibol's restoration of the power and prestige of the throne was ... the fruit of a plodding, determined, and sometimes ruthless effort by diehard princes to reclaim their birthright, [and] Bhumibol's unquestioning commitment to the restoration under their tutelage.' ... Mr. Handley has largely turned King Bhumibol's story into a political screed to suit the prejudices of those with a stake in sidelining the monarch."
[edit] References
- ^ Handley, Paul M. The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10682-3.
- ^ The New York Times, A Banned Book Challenges Saintly Image of Thai King, 26 September 2006
- ^ Warrick-Alexander, James (February 06, 2006). Thailand Bars Univ. Website. Yale Daily News.
- ^ Warrick-Alexander
- ^ Stevenson, William (2001). The Revolutionary King. Constable and Robinson. ISBN 1-84119-451-4
- ^ Wall Street Journal Online (June 16, 2006)
