BP has previously blogged about the Finland Declaration (where PAD leader Sondhi L alleged that Thaksin visited Finland with some academics and proposed a 5 stage plan to overthrow the monarchy) which has been pushed by the anti-Thaksin PAD (see also here and here), but now PAD leader Sondhi L outlined a new theory in ASTV Manager on January 28. Prachatai has partially translated what Sondhi said.

Sondhi Limthongkul

Sondhi Limthongkul. Pic: AP.

Excerpts are below:

Sondhi Limthongkul has revealed a plan by American capitalists to rule Thailand in a bid to exploit natural resources, including oil, in the Asia Pacific region, exposing Nitirat and Prachatai as receiving money from American corporate-backed funders in a conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy.

Sondhi said in an ASTV programme on 27 Jan that the movement against the throne headed by Nitirat was proof of what he had said since 2005 and 2008, and this was connected to the US attempt to exert its influence to reoccupy Asia Pacific.

‘Don’t think that the US is our friend, because that country only cares about its interests and doesn’t want anyone to get in its way. Even His Majesty the King who promotes the Sufficiency Economy has been accused of being an obstacle of their reforms. Currently, the US has started to lose interest in the Middle East because its oil has been running out, and Europe is facing severe economic problems. So it has turned to Asia Pacific where a middle class is emerging and there are oil reserves in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea,’ he said.

While China is expanding its influence over ASEAN countries, including Burma in particular, the US has had almost all ASEAN countries as its allies, but at this point there remains only Thailand which the US still cannot capture completely in terms of either economics and policy in order to block China.

Nowadays Thais are dominated by three western ideas: 1) elected government, no matter how free and fair the elections are; 2) human rights, depending on which side the US chooses to support; and 3) transparency, again applied in a way which serves US interests only, he said.

He said that both the Democrat and Republican Parties were under the influence of capitalists: financial capitalists for the former and oil capitalists for the latter, which were equally bad. And at the end of the day, they serve each others’ interests.

In a strategic plan for the US to conquer the world, American corporate-backed organizations including, for example, George Soros’ Open Society and the US Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) have propagated a ‘universal discourse’, providing support for democracy in countries where there are subversive movements. Other organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have the duty to support and publicize their cause, claiming human rights abuses in China and so on [BP: Claiming human rights abuses in China??].

‘This sounds beautiful, but all of these are tools of the West to interfere in other countries,’ he said

Several American organizations are behind Thai NGOs. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), for example, which is dominated by financial, energy, arms, food, and pharmaceutical capitalists, and which ‘has published an article stating that the Thai King is an obstacle to political reform’, is funding Thai NGOs and certain members of Nitirat.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has also given ‘nearly one million US dollars’ to Thai NGOs, particularly Prachatai, ‘whose Director has been prosecuted for lèse majesté,’ which has received ‘US$500,000 to train local leaders to understand the roles of Members of Parliament who are essentially red shirts.’

Although Prachatai has denied that the funding has no bearing on its news coverage, he said that he did not believe that, because ‘this website has always encroached upon and insulted the institution all along.’

‘This money has come to those people including leftists, NGOs, academics, Prachatai and underground groups to undermine the monarchy. These people claim freedoms, offend the monarchy and make subversive calls to abolish Article 112. This has been supported by farangs. The money is to support vicious capitalists, the Pheu Thai Party and the government, to amend the Constitution, to destroy its checks and balances, to seize power from the courts and the military, to buy politicians and academics, and to promote globalized capitalism and worldly values,’ he said

With the ASTV article is a chart in Thai (BP has translated parts into English)

Untitled

or click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/60433209@N00/6842734117/sizes/o/in/photostream/ for the full-sized image (the yellow “sector for protecting the country” is of course what the PAD supports – which is “Monarchy” and “Nationalism” and with the other parts of the graph out to overthrow the monarchy).

BP: Unsurprisingly, 5 of the 12 bibliographical links cited by Sondhi were for Land Destroyer. Land Destroyer writes about global politics including Thailand. LD is frequently concerned about world government being pushed by the globalists/Trilateral Commission/Bilderberg Group – it was the globalists who were behind 9/11. You can read the links here to see whether you think LD makes a persuasive case or not:

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/confirmed-thailands-pro-democracy.html

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/corporate-funded-peoples-movement.html

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/flash-back-thailands-thaksin-and-us-fta.html

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-today-thailand-tomorrow_12.html

BP:  On the substance of what Sondhi states, the US government and CIA are part of the conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy? Really? Perhaps, Sondhi L should have a read of a certain book written by Paul Handley, in particular pages 123-126, where historically they were doing the opposite of what Sondhi L states they are doing. Sondhi’s argument rests on the hypothesis that freedom of speech and those who promote it want to overthrow the monarchy and that Thailand should reject these “worldly values”.

Sondhi specifically singles out Human Rights Watch which he states is a “tool of the west in interfering in various countries” (เครื่องมือของตะวันตกในการมาแทรกแซงประเทศต่างๆ). Does the US government really have control over Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and is able to use them as a tools of the west to rid countries of their unique institutions? Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been very critical of US governments, for example, over Gitmo, and such violations of human rights are the same issues for which they has been critical of previous Thai governments.

Sondhi outlines various associations, but he doesn’t provide evidence to back up his accusations. If merely being prosecuted for lese majeste is evidence of being part of the conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy (as he outlines for Chiranuch of Prachatai), hasn’t he also been prosecuted for lese majeste?

The whole US is part of the conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy seems to be the new PAD position as it is now a reoccurring theme at ASTV Manager. Is this the issue that will be pushed in 2012 by the PAD to mobilize people?

btw, wonder what Sondhi L makes of the visit by Gen. Petraeus, the current CIA director, to Thailand….