One of the reasons that toxic ultra-royalism was able to flourish in Thailand is that most of the established foreign correspondents who spent years in Bangkok were completely entranced by the fairytales of the Thai monarchy and enjoyed socialising with the royalist elite and so never made the effort to do their jobs properly. The brilliant work of Paul Handley starkly contrasts with the obsequious journalism of so many others.
Over the last few days we have seen a couple of unctuous articles by Denis Gray of the Associated Press, and now this deferential Straits Times article by Nirmal Ghosh who until recently was FCCT president. The article includes a photograph of Ghosh and other FCCT stalwarts sitting obediently on the floor at the feet of King Bhumibol during a special audience in 2008. Ghosh is clearly extremely proud to share the photograph and boast about his meeting with the king, and even makes this extraordinary statement: "it was easy for me, coming from an Asian society, to seamlessly feel respect and deference for him that comes naturally towards elders in Asian societies".
Even taking into account the fact that he works for the Straits Times, a state-controlled mouthpiece of the ruling elite in authoritarian Singapore, it is extraordinary that Nirmal Ghosh doesn't appear to realise that it is not the job of journalists to be deferential to kings and feel privileged to sit at their royal feet.