A Coup For The Rich

Giles Ji Ungpakorn's book A Coup For The Rich: Thailand's Political Crisis has been banned by the Thai police. In his introduction, Ji writes: "The coup of 2006 can only be understood as a "Coup for the Rich" against the interests of the poor." Thammasat University Bookstore, the only outlet where the book was on sale, has received a letter from the police to the effect that the book is being investigated for lèse-majesté (due to eight paragraphs in its first chapter) and must therefore be removed from sale.

Ungpakorn faced a previous lèse-majesté two years ago, after giving an interview to the Daily News (เดลินิวส์) newspaper on 3rd October 2006. He was quoted as saying: “นายกฯ ที่ได้รับการแต่งตั้ง เป็นนายกรัฐมนตรีทหาร ไม่ได้มาจากการเลือกตั้ง ถือว่าเป็นนายกรัฐมนตรีเถื่อน” ('the appointed prime minister is from the military rather than chosen by an election, thus he should be considered an illegal prime minister'), which was interpreted as a criticism of the King's power to appoint Surayud Chulanont as prime minister.