Western governments, shady NGOs they fund, their local collaborators and UN agencies such as UNESCO which they control constantly preach to the developing countries the absolute need for safeguarding Democracy and Human Rights (as defined by them), even at the cost of national disintegration and economic ruin.
Though there are clear indications that governments like the current Sri Lankan government has begun to understand the hidden motives behind these cynical preachings, rarely do we find time to compare their own records on these noble principles, both within their own borders and in other poor countries where they have got their tentacles upon.
The recent case of riots in Thailand provides a case study in relation to how Western governments, in this particular case led by Britain, use their media hegemony and diplomatic deceit to undermine these very same principles in the pursuit of influence in foreign countries.
This is the case with the Western relationship with the current undemocratic government of Thailand, headed by prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and the position of their media, the CNN and all wire services, in presenting the bloody crackdown on the popular protests to the world.
To understand the cynicism involved in the Western support to the current undemocratic regime in Thailand and their hiding of the Thai government’s crack down on protests, one needs to start with a brief overview of the political events in that country over the last several years.
Abhisit has been leader of the oldest political party in Thailand, the Democratic Party since 2005, failing to win power at any of the national elections held since then. The majority of Thai voters have decisively chosen someone else whenever they have been given an opportunity.
In 2006, the billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra of the Thai Rak Thai party won the elections for a third time in a row: Thaksin may have a few financial skeletons in the cupboard, but he is extremely popular among the rural folk in Thailand as the ‘poor man’s politician’. Abhisit was defeated decisively again in 2007.
Even though Abhisit failed to win democratic mandate, it seems that his father’s friends in the Thai army and his Eton buddies in Britain jointly hatched a cunning plan to secure him the prime ministership.
You see, Abhisit Vejjajiva is the British-born offspring of a Thai-Chinese politician who once served as Deputy Minister of Public Health in The National Peace Keeping Council government that seized power in a military coup in 1991. With his father’s background and his own, having been educated at Eton College and at Oxford University, this boy has many friends at high places.
How he was elevated to the position of prime minister by the Thai Army and a politicised Thai judiciary, and Western complicity in that move (by omission), is a story that is worth including in text books on the ‘political economy of the global Democracy and Human Rights scam orchestrated by the West’.
Abhisit is a ‘blow-in’ to Thai politics who could not win power by hook or by crook: while he lost every election contested, in June 2006 an 11-member panel headed by the Deputy Attorney-General also dissolved his party for bribing small opposition parties to boycott the election of 2 April 2006. In February 2007, in a case before the military-appointed Constitution Tribunal, witnesses testified that his party organised protests to disrupt the registration of candidates.
Abhisit met with political attaches from 20 countries and ‘explained’ the charges, and all was forgiven!
How Abhisit was raised to power was by preparing the grounds for a military take over through an anti-government protest movement called the ‘People’s Alliance for Democracy’ (PAD), the group which seized Government House and the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang Airports in December 2008. The PAD was led by several senior members of the Democrat Party.
At the height of the airport sieges, one of the PAD demands was that Abhisit be appointed Premier. The Constitutional Court duly obliged and banned the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP). The army coerced several members of the PPP to defect to the Democrat Party, allowing Abhisit to form a government and become Prime Minister. Kasit Piromya a leader of the PAD movement and its airport blockade won the foreign minister portfolio!
Abhisit still lost the National Assembly vote for prime minister, 163-298, to Somchai Wongsawat. However, on 2 December 2008, the Constitutional Court decided (strategically) to ban the three parties that formed the governing coalition, and dissolved the government. The Court also removed Somchai from office. Abhisit was elected prime minister on December 15 2008 during a special House voting session.
So much for the brand of Democracy the British, American, Canadian and Australian governments keeps on harping about. So much also for the ‘vigilance’ exercised by the Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and other sundry ‘protectors of human dignity’, who became (puzzlingly) deaf and blind during and after the whole process.
In March 2009, the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra publicly claimed that the Privy Council masterminded the 2006 military coup, and conspired with the military to ensure that Abhisit became Premier.
Abhisit’s ‘honeymoon’ however, lasted barely three months when in April, anti-government demonstrators took to the streets in Pattaya where an ASEAN summit was due to be held. The protesters vowed a ‘final stand’ unless the government resigned, and fought bloody street battles with troops, financed this time by the former prime minister Thakshin.
The troubles spread to Bangkok where the troops drove back rampaging protesters with warning shots from automatic weapons, wounding 113. The retreating demonstrators were attacked by Abhisit’s urban supporters, killing and wounding an unknown number. On April 12, Abhisit declared a state of emergency for Bangkok and surrounding areas due to heightened escalation of tension between the government and anti-government protesters. He also issued a decree that empowered the government to censor television broadcasts. On April 13, soldiers in full combat gear used tear gas and fired automatic weapons to clear protesters from near the Victory Monument in central Bangkok, injuring at least 70 e. Violent clashes continued while arrest warrants were issued for Thaksin and protest leaders. The government also blocked the satellite news station ‘D Station’ which was broadcasting the clashes.
Protest leaders voluntarily gave themselves in to police on 14 April 2009, ending the violence. In a televised address, Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that the state of emergency would remain in place even though the authorities had managed to end the anti-government protests. He called on those unhappy with the present political system to become engaged in public debate and help find solutions for the ongoing political conflicts.
Throughout the protests, the Western media referred to the protesters as ‘trouble makers’ and portrayed the always beaming Abhisit as the victim. Not a word about military brutality, use of excessive power, censorship or any other ‘uncivilised’ measures they routinely blackguard developing countries for.
Nor did Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or Reporters without Borders rattle their cans about international obligations of Thailand and the need for protecting Human Rights and media freedom.
Silly me (and you), they have to be choosy about these things: you can’t be tough on friends, can you?
Ajit Randeniya