In December 2010, in his exile home in Emirate Hills, a suburb of Dubai, former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sat down with American journalist Tom Plate for an exclusive series of five two-hour interviews that became the basis of the controversial book “Conversations with Thaksin” (Marshall Cavendish Singapore, 2011). In one of those conversations, Thaksin, whose sister Yingluck is the current embattled acting PM of Thailand, reflects ruefully on that 2006 coup that toppled his popularly elected government. Here is a brief video excerpt from that conversation. (c) Thomas Gordon Plate, 2011
Talking to Thaksin
5 February 2014
Thaksin Shinawatra remains one of Thailand’s most divisive figures, particularly in recent weeks in the lead-up to the snap election called by his sister Yingluck Shinawatra. One author who knows the former prime minister well is Tom Plate, who wrote the book ‘Conversations with Thaksin’ after several lengthy interviews in Dubai.
The interview from Prof Plate’s office at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles was conducted by Jim Middleton of NEWLINE, ABC Australia