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In His Majesty's Footsteps. A Personal Memoir Vasit Dejkunjorn (Bangkok: Heaven Lake Press, 2006)
Vasit Dejkunjorn, once the Chief of the Royal Court Police for the Thai royal family, originally wrote this book for a Thai audience that craved details about the hidden lifestyle of the royals. While there are some diehard foreign observers of Thailand's royals, it seems a little odd that such a book should be translated into English. So, why? It seems that its publication coincides with the immense and expensive celebration of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's diamond anniversary in 2006.
Some effort has gone into making the book accessible in English. It is edited by the prolific fiction writer Christopher Moore, usually associated with a shelf full of books for Westerners who want to read stories about "farang" heroes and Bangkok's seedy girlie bars. Even so, the book is unevenly edited, poorly written and haphazardly structured.
Vasit's book begins in about 1967, more than 20 years into the current reign, and covers a critical period, when the monarchy was being re-established as a force in Thailand's politics. Vasit lovingly details much trivia about the royal family, emphasising the official picture of a gentle, patient, hard-working monarch who apparently is brilliant at everything he turns his hand and mind to. Vasit's loyalty and infatuation means that the King is portrayed as magical and god-like (pp. 33, 52).
The 2006 anniversary has seen Bangkok covered in pictures of the King, television and radio full of syrupy tributes, the city awash in yellow (the King's colour) officials were ordered to wear the colour every day in June - and public places display tributes to the King. And, because foreign royals showed up, local newspapers devoted considerable space to convincing readers that monarchies still matter.
This is not old-fashioned propaganda. Rather it is a current incarnation of a careful manufacture of a modern image that began in the 1960s (with considerable US support) and has been transformed by advertising methodologies promoting an image that brand gurus would instantly recognise....