Thai and Pinoy similarities

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/25/2006



Just a week into the Thai military takeover the seemingly seamless coup is revealing weak spots. Testing the waters, groups of protesters wade into the streets to demonstrate against the coup; and contradictions in the junta’s political propaganda are being noticed, although domestic media has been effectively muted if not co-opted even earlier. Still, Western media particularly CNN has been projecting it as “welcomed” by the Thais which to me confirms the thesis in my last column – this is a Western sanctioned move in cahoots with the Thai elite and civil society.

Don’t take the official Western governments’ line about “disappointment” and the coup’s its damage to democracy, we’ve heard before in many Western-backed coups against legitimately elected government. The Gloria-Angie Reyes coup against President Estrada was ostensibly lamented by the State department but the U.S. corporatocratic interests’ hands were all over it, led by what became Gloria’s Board of Economic Advisers. In 2002 the U.S. officially distanced itself from the coup against Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez but swiftly recognized the power-grabber Pedro Carmona.

Do the Thai’s really welcome the military coup there? What is certain is that the rural areas where Thaksin gets overwhelming support the best the military junta can get is a grudging resignation, and that’s not support or “welcome”; if the junta reverses Thaksin’s democratized health and credit policies this may turn to opposition quickly. I wonder if the anti-Thaksin urban civil society is happy too or just in a wait-and-see attitude of many urban Thais will turn to anti-junta sentiment if the suppression of the freedom to expression and assembly is kept over an extended period of time.

The contradictions and ironies in the claims of the coup plotters are as funny as those during the Edsa Dos civilian-Church-Big Business-military/police coup against Estrada here. The Thai junta claims to aim to “restore democracy” but they suspend all basic rights and freedom such as expression and assembly; they say they desire national unity but they are arresting leaders of one party and alienating its leader Thaksin. They charge Thaksin with corruption as if it were a new phenomenon in Thailand, but that issue is the same raised in all previous elections and coups the past four decades.

It so similar to what Edsa Dos and Gloria said and did: they claimed overwhelmingly elected Estrada was threatening democracy but when their time came to react to protests of Edsa Tres they sent APC’s (Armoured Personnel Carriers) to the only radio-TV station, DZEC reporting the protest every hour to stop it; they not only violently beat up and tear-gassed the Edsa Tres protesters at Malacañang but mowed them down with machineguns killing close to two dozens who has not been given justice up to this day. The dictatorial repression, as we all know now, has intensified since then.

Corruption issues are being raised against Thaksin just as they were raised against Estrada who both have very lucrative independent sources of income outside of government and political commerce. The SAL (statement of assets and liabilities) is being raised against Thaksin just as it was against Estrada, but in Thaksin’s case there was no falsification or perjury of any sort while Estrada’s was not afforded the normal opportunity to update his declaration. In Thaksin’s controversial sale of his telecom company no one has claimed any violation of law, avoidance maybe but not evasion.

There has been no charge that Thaksin stole from government coffers as in Estrada’s case where the plunder charges are linked to alleged jueteng funds which is not government money, while the tobacco excise tax issue leads more to Chavit than anyone else. Thaksin ran his government as he would his companies, the impatient executive style that did not put a premium on niceties and consensus building (if at all possible in a parliamentary system) to get things done – that did rub off wrongly on many in government; but the rural folks and the poor liked that as it delivered fast on their needs.

I am defending Thaksin because I am defending the principle of Vox Populi, the democratic vote, and exposing the lies and obfuscations that are the standard propaganda ploys used by special interest and small but powerful vested interest groups and the un-elected and un-electable elitist “civil society” groups in international and local political-economies conspiring with military putsch-ists to subvert a leader the popular will has entrusted their welfare to. After the coup, the powerful and conspiratorial minority groups can now command the resources of the state for themselves rather than for the people.

There is another matter that I have taken note of but have not completed understanding yet. This is the role of former military turned prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda who had trained in the U.S. military schools too and known for his anti-communist campaigns. During his time as appointed prime minister had dissolved parliament too and was forced to resign due to political unrest. Is this an FVR version of Thailand, the retired “statesman” maneuvering in the shadows for the vested interest groups?

Thailand and the Philippines have often been likened to twins sisters, with almost the same size and population and political history in the Asean (which used to be Seato). They have much to learn from each other.

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