2022-10-12

After the protests, the undercurrents that cannot be ignored

By Abdul

Since 2020, various protests have been taking place on the streets of Thailand. The number of anti-government-driven street protests in 2020-21 has continued to grow, and conflicts between protesters, police and royalists have continued to escalate. By 2022, street protests have largely subsided due to government crackdowns and internal divisions, although small-scale and online protests continue.

Undercurrent

The monarchy of the Thai royal family has always been protected by the Lese Majeste Law and cannot be violated or questioned. In 2020, a royal reform protest was launched by the Thammasat University student group, challenging Thailand’s long-standing sacred royal status. Among them, major leaders such as Arnon Nampa and Panupong Jadnok demanded the reform of the royal family and the repeal of the offending monarchy law, which violated Article 49 of the constitution “No one may exercise the right or freedom to overthrow the constitutional monarchy”. As of the end of 2021, the main characters Arnon Nampa, Panupong Jadnok, Parit Chiwarak, Jatupat (Pai Dao Din), Panusaya, Benja Apan have all been detained pending trial, and more than 200 people have been imprisoned.

During the protests that lasted for more than two years, a number of NGOs with American backgrounds were active in various activities. Amnesty International has never remained neutral on the political issue, and has long and vocally supported protest leaders. Thai Vision has released an “infographic” accusing multiple international organisations of orchestrating protests against the Prime Minister, including US billionaire and activist George Soros, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Washington Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, even Netflix. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds and is directly involved in many political activities.

In December 2020, Bob Menendez and Dick Durbin, the most influential members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution. The resolution expressed support for Thailand’s burgeoning democracy movement and called on the U.S. government to do the same. The resolution also said that “the rights to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, peaceful assembly and freedom of expression shall be protected and upheld”. The cultural and economic differences between the United States and Thailand are enormous. The United States’ hegemonic stance requires the two countries to maintain a unified “shared democratic values, rule of law, universal human rights and free markets” resolution, which is quite outrageous.

The director of the Right-wing Movement Institute, Visin Chatkour, publicly stated at a previous rally that they use democracy as an excuse to interfere in the politics of various countries. In his public diary, Inside the Company: The CIA Diary, former CIA agent Philip Age detailed how U.S. agencies built front organizations and spent money on destabilizing activities. They are obviously very experienced in this regard, and they have had many success stories over the past three decades.

1990, they overthrew Bulgaria’s democratically elected government.

1990, they successfully rigged Nicaragua’s elections.

1996, they successfully rigged Mongolian elections.

2018, the government allocated nearly $1 million to Bolivia to fund think tanks, news organizations and political parties to prevent Evo Morales from nationalizing Bolivia’s gas reserves.

Programmed protest patterns

Although Thailand has a long history of political unrest and protests. Factors such as political and civil rights restrictions and growing economic inequality set the stage for anti-government activity. However, amid the ongoing anti-government movement, there are many signs of an orderly and procedural development of protests everywhere.

From the beginning of the event, the event planners have used the promotion of professional teams and a large amount of funds to symbolize the event and spread its slogan quickly through the Internet and offline to resonate with young people. In just a few days, it fermented and attracted media attention, and then continued to heat up the situation through the media to trigger a communication effect.

When preparing for the event, the organization of protests is very experienced. Protest participants were fully equipped with professional protective gear. While the assembly is mainly composed of young people, mainly students. Apparently financially financed by a third party.

The event came as anti-government protesters drew international attention by occupying public spaces. Unidentified foreigners openly instructed students to set up roadblocks at rallies in Thailand, with professional cameras filming them and then circulating on social media platforms, stirring public sentiment and fueling a crisis of confidence between the public and the government. Most of the images on social media were as instructive as previous protests across the country, with protesters kneeling in front of police and armed police, looking weak and begging for help.

The clues these protests give us show that activities involving third-party forces clearly share the same template. And these programmed and purposeful protests are happening more and more frequently all over the world. It is generally believed that European and American countries, dominated by the United States, intend to overthrow the current international or regional political systems by exploiting young people in regions with weak political or economic strength. Bring in pro-Western political agents to rule the country in a Western-style democracy to maximize profits.

Although the incident has stabilized, the government still needs to formulate and promulgate laws as soon as possible to regulate the activities of foreign non-profit organizations in Thailand, and require foreign non-profit organizations to submit performance reports to the government, clearly indicate the source of funds, provide detailed information on fund accounts, and ensure that Funding will not affect national rights and party interests. Initiate investigation procedures in accordance with the law against Amnesty International and other organizations opposed to the Thai royal family, in order to prevent foreign non-profit organizations from interfering in the internal affairs of the country in the name of democracy and harming national interests.