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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Nation: The Plot Against PPP and Surayud's Confirmation (Bangkok Post)

PPP exposes the junta's propaganda warfare

The Nation

The two documents, claimed by the People Power Party as aiming at its destruction, are actually the junta's action plan to disseminate information during the leadup to the December 23 general election.

The party released the documents on Wednesday via the Website, HiThaksin.net.


The documents comprise two parts - the classified report prepared by the Army Operations Department in its capacity as an ad hoc unit in the Council for National Security and the attached work schedule for information dissemination.


The action plan has been put into action since September 14 when Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratglin was the junta chief. He resigned his office on September 30 to join the interim government.


The plan for information dissemination has two major goals - foster national unity and discredit the opposition forces against the junta and the interim government.


On the discredit of the opposition forces, the junta plans to achieve five targets:


1. Prevent the middle class from leaning toward the opposition.


2. Expose the flaws of populist policies to grassroots people.


3. Deter and discourage grassroots people from rallying in Bangkok.


4. Circumvent opposition activities.


5. Deter civil servants from supporting the opposition.


For information dissemination between September and the general election, the junta will strive for the following five objectives:


1. Inform the middle class about the facts relating to various political parties and their activities.


2. Point out the similarities between policies of disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party and those of People Power Party.


3. Encourage grassroots people to see the harms if ousted politicians were to return to power.


4. Warn about the repeat of corruption and illegitimacy should the People Power Party were to grab power.


5. Build up the public sentiment to oppose the return of the ousted leaders via the People Power Party.


In discrediting the People Power Party, the junta has assigned all military units under its jurisdiction and military controlled media outlets, including Channel 5.


Update: Surayud confirms Samak documents


Bangkok Post


Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Wednesday classified documents uncovered by People Power party (PPP) leader Samak Sundaravej outlining a military plot to prevent his party from winning the December general election are authentic.

Gen Surayud said the documents were details of a report detailing the one-year achievements of the Council for National Security (CNS).

The prime minister added that the documents contain no information that proves the CNS planned to use violence to destroy the PPP or the old power clique.

He also said that it is the job of the CNS to investigate the matter and explain the truth to the public.

Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratkalin also said he would rather leave it to the army to explain about documents - even though he was army chief and head of the CNS from its inception until last Sept 28.

Mr Samak said on Tuesday he had obtained two classified documents "of a state agency" containing plans to prevent him and his party from winning the Dec 23 election and rising to power. He said the documents were reports prepared by a high ranking military officer to a state agency. He did not name the agency but implied it was the Council for National Security (CNS),

Gen Sonthi said he had not seen the original documents. He said he will ask the army to handle the documents and leave it to explain to the public.

Asked whether he will order an investigation into this matter, the deputy prime minister said the army issues a lot of orders as a matter of course, in its work concerning national security.

Army chief-of-staff Gen Montri Chompoochan denied knowing anything about the documents, saying soldiers do not interfere in politics.

Somchai Juengprasert, an election commissioner for investigation, said he will ask for copies of the documents from Mr Samak for examination.


There seems to be an obvious discrepancy concerning what the documents reveal and Surayud and Sonthi's defense of them.

These generals want to wash their hands of this scandal, yet one is Interior Minister and the other Deputy PM for National security. Regardless if these documents were produced during the last days of Sonthi's tenure as junta chief, he is responsible for its actions. And Surayud is culpable considering he has taken responsibility for making sure the next election is free and fair as the Interior Minister. His, "well, we didn't plan on using violence to squash PPP" excuse just doesn't cut it.

And General Montri comes off as a fool and liar with his denial.


Here is the document via Hi-Thaksin.net

Here is Bangkok Pundit on the story.

Prachatai on the story. By the way, I think something is wrong with the Thai version of Prachatai, because I am unable to load it. I don't know if it is a technical problem or it has been cut off. I got this link off the Google cache.

3 comments:

sooksiam said...

Fonzi, my love, I have seen the document on Hi-Thaksin.net. Even so, how do you know that the document has not been falsified by the PPP, also known as the Thai Rak Thai volume 2? There is no proof that this piece of paper was fabricated by the Junta or the CNS. Even I could have manufactured this document and published it on the internet. It is near the up-coming election and every party seems to using various strategies to gain support from the public. In the case of Samak, he might be playing the role of a victim, like his square-faced master, so as to gain sympathy from the people.

Of course, there might be some truth about the story that the CNS will do anything to sabotage the PPP during the next election, but the document which “this schmuck” claimed, could be entirely different from the one that the CNS made and distributed; and the CNS’s document is not at all secret.

The propaganda war from both parties has officially begun. Let’s enjoy it, shall we?

Doug Scott said...

sooksiam dearest, you obviously did not read the news before you posted your comments. In summary, the documents are real and not falsified. Samak 'the schmuck' for better or worst is actually a victim.

Del said...

It is hard for me to imagine Samak 'the schmuck' being a victim. It is even harder for me to imagine PPP, with Samak the Thaksin nominee as leader, and with main party goal as "to pardon Thaksin Shinawatra" if they win power as a party needing discrediting, considering Samak is doing all the discrediting. But who knows . . . there must lots of 'Thai schmucks' out there that still wait for the Thaksin handouts considering Thaksin the fugitive will be 'adviser'.

Surely Samak's claim that CNS is out to 'assassinate him' was just The Pig mouthing to get headlines.