Thaksin’s chief biographers, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, have documented his dubious practices.5 He was accused of withholding state advertising from newspapers that reported critically on him and pressuring news organizations to punish journalists who did the same. He trampled on individual rights in a campaign against drug traffickers that involved literally thousands of extrajudicial killings by Thaksin’s forces—not a minor violation of the rule of law.