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Friends of the Monarchy
2010/04/20
Traditional Power Clique
Thailand's Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, in office since December 2008, is a member of the Democrat Party, which is in the Liberal International. Abhisit came to office as the result of a hard struggle for influence, after Thaksin Shinawatra, Prime Minister at the time, was contested by the traditional military, royal and business power cliques. Observers explain that Thaksin had not sufficiently taken into consideration the interests of the traditional power clique, known in Thailand as the "network monarchy". But because he used his term of office to carry out programs beneficial to the country's poverty stricken rural population, he was always re-elected. He was finally overthrown in September 2006. Complicated struggles for influence have followed and are still continuing. The forces that led the putsch in 2006, placed Abhisit and the Democrat Party in power, explains the Thailand expert, Mark Teufel, in a discussion with this journal. On the other hand, the protests against the putsch have developed into a powerful movement for democracy. In Western public opinion, the protesters are known as the "red shirts" because of their uniforms. They are anchored, to a growing extent, also in the urban lower social strata and are demanding immediate free and fair elections.
Insulting Royalty
According to the FDP,[1] its cooperation partner, the Democrat Party, represents above all Bangkok's traditional establishment. The country's largest daily news journal, Teufel explains, consistently portrays Prime Minister Abhisit "as a puppet" of Prem Tinsulanonda, the Privy Council President. The 90-year old Gen. Prem is seen by the majority of independent observers "as the brains behind the putsch in 2006."[2] Teufel considers that the Democrat Party is "fighting against an alteration of the status quo" it "wants the monarchy and the military to have comprehensive direct and indirect power." Teufel reports that upon taking power, the first thing done was to sharpen measures against insulting royalty. In Thailand, criticism of the king is punishable with up to 15 years in prison. The ministry in charge of reprimanding "insults to royalty" has now more than 600 employees and seeks this year "to train another 20,000 volunteers to scan the media, particularly the internet, for possible contents critical of the monarchy," says Teufel.
Planning Center
Several German organizations are cooperating with Thailand's government or with the Democrat Party. Among the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation's cooperation partners is the Thai cabinet secretariat, which functions, according to the CDU's foundation, "as the government's central coordination unit." Its cooperation with the CDU-affiliated organization is to reinforce its work "as a service agency and information provider as well as a planning center for the cabinet".[3] The Konrad Adenauer Foundation also recently organized a visit for Thai judges, among other things, to the German Judicial Academy in Wustrau. As Mark Teufel reports, the head of that Thai delegation Ackaratorn Chularat, had participated in a meeting of the generals, who are said to have planned the military coup back in 2006. But it is, above all, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation that is active in Bangkok in cooperation with the Democrat Party affiliated "Institute for Future Studies for Development". This cooperation is centered primarily on "activities for promoting economic freedom" [4] and primarily with the Democrat Party.
Political Strategies
In November 2009, for example, the German foundation organized with the Democrat Party a conference on the theme of popular participation in the democratic life of Thailand. The head of the Naumann Southeast and East Asian office made an exposé, providing examples of how the FDP seeks to engage the voters in its party's activities. Just prior to this exposé, a former member of the Federal Presidium of the German "Young Liberals" had carefully instructed the Democrat Party during a workshop in "political strategies and strategies for political youth organizations". A year earlier, just two days before he was to take office as Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Chairman of the Democrat Party, spoke at a conference of the Liberal International on the high significance of the opposition for the maintenance of democracy. During that conference, not only Thailand's current Foreign Minister, Kasit Piromya (Democrat Party) spoke, but also a certain Harald Klein, who, at the time, was the head of the Naumann Foundation's international policy division. Today, under Minister Dirk Niebel (FDP), he is a department director in the German Ministry of Development.[5]
Green Dot
Party and government policy appear to become entangled, when the German federal parliamentarian, Juergen Koppelin (FDP) received the former Thai Prime Minister, Chuan Leekpai (Democrat Party) in December 2009. Officially, Chuan was in Germany at the invitation of the German Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), to discuss the issue of garbage disposal (in Germany known as the Green Dot). Accordingly, the GTZ director was on hand while Koppelin and Chuan discussed "the current political situation in Thailand," which was not limited to the general situation, but also particularly the perspectives of the Democrat Party, enjoying the political support of Koppelin's party, the FDP and its foundation.[6] But the talks carried out by Wolfgang Gerhardt, Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, at the end of March in Bangkok were exclusively motivated by party politics.
Minister with Humor
The Thailand expert, Mark Teufel, knows for example that, September 30, 2008, one of Gerhardt's interlocutors, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, had made a disquieting contemplation during a seminar of the Thai Foreign Correspondents Club. Thinking out loud, he wondered if replacing the democratically elected parliament with a sort of representative assembly of the estates would not have a positive effect on Thailand. In his talks with Gerhardt, Korn recalled his advanced training at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's International Academy in Gummersbach. Even today, the foundation describes Korn as the "minister with humor". Besides Korn, Gerhardt met with several other leading political figures of the Democrat Party. The Foundation reports that "these talks were focused, above all, on Thailand's domestic situation."[7]
Snipers
At the time these talks were held, the demonstrations of Thailand's democracy movement were well underway and continue to this day. March 25, it was already known that the Democrat Party-led Abhisit government had transferred one-fifth of the nation's soldiers to the capital to take up positions against the demonstrators. Critics spoke of a "war waged against the country's own citizens."[8] The situation has dramatically escalated since. April 10, 25 people were killed, more than ten of them, the victims of snipers using special military ammunition. "On videos one could see that the victims were not violent, but demonstrating normally" reported Mark Teufel.[9] Nearly 900 were injured, some seriously. "Because there were sporadic shots fired from among the demonstrators and the commander of the troops was killed, under unclear circumstances, when a grenade exploded" explains Teufel, "the government is now calling it terrorism and setting up prison camps." Observers fear a further escalation of violence and massive attacks by the government's repressive forces, under the responsibility of the prime minister, who is the chairman of a party that still today enjoys the support of the FDP and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Further information on Friedrich Naumann Foundation can be found at: The Olympic Torch Relay Campaign, Operations against China, Neoliberal Networking and The Naumann Caucus.
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