Recent BooksSeptember/October 2019 241ousted him in what Rudd calls a “cynical
coup.” Their struggle propelled Australia
toward the kind o poisonous politics that
is aÍicting so many democracies today.
Besides Gillard and “the faceless men o
the [Labor Party] factions,” Rudd blames
his ouster on the Rupert Murdoch–owned
media, which opposed his progressive
policies, and on mining interests who he
believes colluded with Gillard and her
allies to prevent the imposition o a new
tax. The book also details Rudd’s many
accomplishments on issues such as
Australia’s response to the 2008 ¿nancial
crisis, climate change, indigenous aairs,
infrastructure, same-sex relationships,
and health care. Unusually for a political
memoir, the book is unguardedly
emotional. This, together with Rudd’s
elephantine memory, brings the reader as
close to the daily texture o life in politics
as it is possible for an outsider to get.Africa
Nicolas van de Walle
Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics:
How the Internet Era Is Transforming
Politics in Kenya
BY NANJALA NYABOLA. Zed Books,
2018, 216 pp.T
his survey o the growing role o
social media in Kenyan society
and politics does not oer a
straightforward answer to the implicit
question in its subtitle. Nonetheless, it
develops some keen insights into the
eects o the Internet in Kenya. With
more than seven million o its citizensMachiavellian ¿gure o our time” will
have achieved a remarkable feat.
In Plain Sight: Impunity and Human
Rights in Thailand
BY TYRELL HABERKORN. University
o Wisconsin Press, 2018, 376 pp.
This deeply researched history focuses
not so much on the human rights viola-
tions that have occurred in Thailand
during its frequent episodes o military
rule but on the mechanisms by which the
perpetrators have avoided accountability.
These have included legalizing the
arbitrary detention o purported “enemies
o the nation,” “hooligans,” and persons
considered a “danger to society”; author-
izing summary executions when neces-
sary to “defend the nation”; giving the
police the discretion to do anything they
want in the name o eliminating commu-
nism; holding blameless any person acting
in the line o duty; dismissing cases as
falling outside the jurisdiction o the
courts or for insucient evidence; and
declaring amnesties. The legal techniques
have varied, but their purpose has stayed
the same: to protect the monarchistic elite
and its agents. Haberkorn argues that
repression is all the more eective when
the authorities openly twist the law to
protect the perpetrators. The more blatant
the impunity, the stronger the message
that victims have no hope o redress.
The PM Years
BY KEVIN RUDD. Pan Macmillan
Australia, 2018, 672 pp.
In this hefty second volume o his autobi-
ography, the two-time Australian prime
minister settles scores with Julia Gillard, a
fellow Labor Party politician who in 2010