Bangkok Post demands end to appointed Senate, condemns dissolving of opposition parties, never mentions why either were necessary.
July 23, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) - The Bangkok Post penned its own "thoughts" on recent protests carried out by so-called "student protesters" - demanding the government "heed" their demands.
The op-ed titled, "Protests must be heeded," claims:
The Bangkok Post deliberately omits the fact that the "regime-sponsored 2017 charter" was in fact approved by a public referendum.
It also completely omits any mention of why the new charter needed to include an appointed "250-strong Senate" that is able to intervene in the Lower House by naming the prime minister.
Appointed Senate Hinders Opposition Run by Fugitive Billionaire
The charter and the appointed Senate were necessary to serve as a check and balance against an opposition guilty of serial abuses - egregious abuses never once mentioned by Bangkok Post and others across the Western media and their partners in Thailand.
The government ousted from power in the 2014 coup - the Bangkok Post never mentions - was openly run by fugitive billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. Despite hiding abroad to escape multiple jail sentences, arrest warrants, and pending criminal trials - he and his Pheu Thai Party (PTP) openly ran in 2011 elections with the campaign slogan "Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Does."
PTP's senior leadership regularly travels abroad to meet with Thaksin Shinawatra, and Thaksin himself regularly uses tools like Skype to run Pheu Thai remotely.
Even the New York Times in its 2013 article, "In Thailand, Power Comes With Help From Skype," would admit (emphasis added):
This is never mentioned by the Bangkok Post or other supporters of current protests when discussing the 2014 coup - who instead omit why it was necessary and why mechanisms like an appointed Senate are needed to ensure a fugitive is never able to run - and most certainly ruin - the nation ever again.
Bangkok Post Skips Mention of Opposition Corruption
The Bangkok Post also complains about the dissolution of opposition parties - meaning Future Forward - though never mentions them directly, claiming (emphasis added):
This is why the party was dissolved. This is never mentioned by the Bangkok Post editorial board who instead dishonestly insinuates Future Forward's dissolution was "unfair" and somehow politically-motivated.
Thanathorn and his Future Forward Party and its renamed successor Move Forward are also obvious nominees of Thaksin Shinawatra - with their party office literally next door to Thaksin's Pheu Thai Party headquarters and the fact that Pheu Thai literally nominated Thanathorn as their candidate for prime minister following the 2019 elections.
Bangkok Post Demands Criminals Be Given the Country
The Bangkok Post claims that "chaos" looms if an opposition openly led by and serving a fugitive hiding abroad isn't given impunity and power.
Indeed, chaos does loom. The opposition - falsely claiming they are "peaceful" and led by "students" is nothing more than a rebrand of Thaksin Shinawatra's violent "red shirt" mobs. They are using the threat of street violence as leverage to seize power where they otherwise failed in elections and in the courts.
Real democracy exists within the rule of law. Voting and protests outside the rule of law is nothing more than mob rule - a form of dictatorship. Thus the Bangkok Post's editorial board - while hiding behind notions like "democracy" are covering up the true nature of Thailand's current political conflict and obliquely defending dictatorship - not opposing it.
It is easy to make a military coup look "bad" if the Bangkok Post never mentions the horrific abuses that prompted the military to act in the first place. It is also easy to make an appointed Senate look "bad" if the Bangkok Post never mentions the billionaire fugitive and his political machine it serves as a check and balance against.
It is impossible to make any of this look "bad" if this essential context is mentioned - which is why the Bangkok Post and others never do.
July 23, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) - The Bangkok Post penned its own "thoughts" on recent protests carried out by so-called "student protesters" - demanding the government "heed" their demands.
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| Image: An appointed Senate is one of several checks and balances necessary to respond to the still deep and corrosive influence of billionaire fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra and his political nominees. |
If the Prayut Chan-o-cha government wants to ease simmering political tension, in which political groups are starting to challenge the administration, it has no choice other than to kickstart a process of amending the constitution.The Bangkok Post specifically complains about the appointed Senate:
It's known that the regime-sponsored 2017 charter significantly lacks democratic elements, including the allowance for the 250-strong Senate to intervene in the lower House by naming the prime minister.
The Bangkok Post deliberately omits the fact that the "regime-sponsored 2017 charter" was in fact approved by a public referendum.
It also completely omits any mention of why the new charter needed to include an appointed "250-strong Senate" that is able to intervene in the Lower House by naming the prime minister.
Appointed Senate Hinders Opposition Run by Fugitive Billionaire
The charter and the appointed Senate were necessary to serve as a check and balance against an opposition guilty of serial abuses - egregious abuses never once mentioned by Bangkok Post and others across the Western media and their partners in Thailand.
The government ousted from power in the 2014 coup - the Bangkok Post never mentions - was openly run by fugitive billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. Despite hiding abroad to escape multiple jail sentences, arrest warrants, and pending criminal trials - he and his Pheu Thai Party (PTP) openly ran in 2011 elections with the campaign slogan "Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Does."
PTP's senior leadership regularly travels abroad to meet with Thaksin Shinawatra, and Thaksin himself regularly uses tools like Skype to run Pheu Thai remotely.
Even the New York Times in its 2013 article, "In Thailand, Power Comes With Help From Skype," would admit (emphasis added):
For the past year and a half, by the party’s own admission, the most important political decisions in this country of 65 million people have been made from abroad, by a former prime minister who has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape corruption charges.No nation in the world would tolerate a fugitive hiding abroad yet running in elections and running the country by proxy. Why should Thailand?
The country’s most famous fugitive, Thaksin Shinawatra, circles the globe in his private jet, chatting with ministers over his dozen cellphones, texting over various social media platforms and reading government documents e-mailed to him from civil servants, party officials say.
It might be described as rule by Skype.
This is never mentioned by the Bangkok Post or other supporters of current protests when discussing the 2014 coup - who instead omit why it was necessary and why mechanisms like an appointed Senate are needed to ensure a fugitive is never able to run - and most certainly ruin - the nation ever again.
Bangkok Post Skips Mention of Opposition Corruption
The Bangkok Post also complains about the dissolution of opposition parties - meaning Future Forward - though never mentions them directly, claiming (emphasis added):
Gen Prayut and the government must face the fact that it cannot drag its feet in amending the charter, thus maintaining a sad situation that saw opposition parties crushed time and again in dubious circumstances. Such unfairness has fuelled public anger and frustrations, so much so that many people, particularly sympathisers of the dissolved parties, have lost faith in the system. The current situation is putting the country at risk of chaos.Dubious circumstances? Billonaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit - leader of the now dissolved Future Forward Party - openly admitted he donated over 100 million Thai Baht to his own party in direct and open violation of Thailand's clearly stated election laws prohibiting such donations.
This is why the party was dissolved. This is never mentioned by the Bangkok Post editorial board who instead dishonestly insinuates Future Forward's dissolution was "unfair" and somehow politically-motivated.
Thanathorn and his Future Forward Party and its renamed successor Move Forward are also obvious nominees of Thaksin Shinawatra - with their party office literally next door to Thaksin's Pheu Thai Party headquarters and the fact that Pheu Thai literally nominated Thanathorn as their candidate for prime minister following the 2019 elections.
Bangkok Post Demands Criminals Be Given the Country
The Bangkok Post claims that "chaos" looms if an opposition openly led by and serving a fugitive hiding abroad isn't given impunity and power.
Indeed, chaos does loom. The opposition - falsely claiming they are "peaceful" and led by "students" is nothing more than a rebrand of Thaksin Shinawatra's violent "red shirt" mobs. They are using the threat of street violence as leverage to seize power where they otherwise failed in elections and in the courts.
Real democracy exists within the rule of law. Voting and protests outside the rule of law is nothing more than mob rule - a form of dictatorship. Thus the Bangkok Post's editorial board - while hiding behind notions like "democracy" are covering up the true nature of Thailand's current political conflict and obliquely defending dictatorship - not opposing it.
It is easy to make a military coup look "bad" if the Bangkok Post never mentions the horrific abuses that prompted the military to act in the first place. It is also easy to make an appointed Senate look "bad" if the Bangkok Post never mentions the billionaire fugitive and his political machine it serves as a check and balance against.
It is impossible to make any of this look "bad" if this essential context is mentioned - which is why the Bangkok Post and others never do.
