Action leader Suthep Thaugsuban has been in talks with military coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha since 2010, the year of the red-shirt riots, about strategies to end the influence of former Prime Minister Thaksin. He says he regularly chats with Prayuth and his team via the Line app.
Suthep revealed this Saturday evening during a fund raising dinner of the People's Democratic Reform Committee, the movement that has been campaigning against the Yingluck government for six months. He said he had spent all these years discussing with Prayuth how to end the so-called "Thaksin regime", jointly reform the country, fight corruption and combat the "colour-coded" politics that keep Thais divided. “Before martial law was declared, Prayuth told me, “Khun Suthep and your supporters are exhausted. It is now the task of the army to take over.”'
About a hundred supporters sat down for dinner, which had the theme 'Have dinner with kamnan Suthep'. Suthep explained the motives behind the military coup, but the main aim was to raise money for the PDRC demonstrators who were injured during the rallies. The dinners will be held every Saturday at the Pacific Club.
The PDRC has also set up a foundation that will work for national reforms and make proposals to the junta. 'From now on we will function as a non-governmental organization that conducts research. We have no affiliation with any political party," Suthep said. He said he has no ambition to return to politics.
Suthep said the PDRC has spent 1,4 billion baht in recent months. Of this, 400 million baht was coughed up by the families and acquaintances of protest leaders and 1 billion baht came from cash donations from supporters.
The newspaper concludes from Suthep's revelation that General Prayuth actively conspired to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck, including the period she was defense minister.
(Source: Bangkok Post, June 23, 2014)
More news in: Poll Suan Dusit: Junta gets a big pass
Serving Suthep is, in my opinion, unbothered by the first lie. Easy to say when you know that Mr. Prayuth Chan Ocha will never confirm this. Chatting via the Line app, is that talking? Don't believe it..
Morning Jerry,
Haha, had to think about the first line.
There are other important names making the headlines at the moment that S. doesn't include, so he has to shout again to start the discussions in which his name will be mentioned again.
LOUISE
Only the last 4 years? The Thaksin family clan has been a plague on this land for over 10 years.
I am sure Phrayuth has communicated more with Yingluck than with Suthep over the last 4 years.
And: a good leader listens to everyone and then draws up his own plan. See his actions and decisions. The end is near for corruption and cronyism of any color…..
Dear Paul,
I'm just looking at what's happening right now. The junta has offered battle on all fronts against the lawlessness that reigns in this country. In addition to transferring corrupt police chiefs, efforts are being made to track down illegal gambling activities, illegal logging, freezing bank accounts of suspects (and the banks that participate in it) in all kinds of dirty business, more control over prisoners who are still doing their business in prison illegal workers, checking money flows to and from abroad to finance illegal activities, sending military personnel to conflict areas (such as the mine in Loei). In addition, measures have been taken to help the rice farmers, but not with the purchase of rice. And I am almost certain that one of the spearheads of the reform measures is the systematic fight against corruption and also changing processes such as the tendering of works and cash payments. Only then will elections be held to prevent the 'democratically elected' politicians from immediately misusing their mandate to reopen the door to corruption. Thailand has been told by a number of foreigners that the current situation is no longer acceptable.
Suthep ??? himself once fired for corruption in selling land to the rich from Phuket….. Something completely different is going on here. Only the 'main players' know the details. The rest is stupid speculation. I read in one of the comments ' end of corruption near ” ……. it will no longer be as easy to detect as before; but over?
e
Suthep has admitted before he started the big demonstrations in Bangkok that he wanted to make amends for the country and thus started anti-corruption protests.
His goal has been achieved , the government is gone and that is always a gain for the country .
Suthep has done his thing and I think it's good that he is no longer involved in politics from now on. Also his statement during that dinner, true or false, does not serve the country.
The military should be given a chance to start a big cleanup. They've already got off to a pretty good start…so wait for those elections.
In Thailand, politics is different from our Western thinking about democracy. let those things coexist.
Danny
Suthep is finally off the streets and no longer plays a role, let it stay that way.
If you see for what trifles dissenters are arrested, then Suthep should have been arrested immediately if these statements are incorrect. After all, they imply that Prayuth has conspired against the legitimate government, they promote political antagonism, and they imply that Prayuth is not above the political parties as he claims. Measured by the standards of expression used by the junta, each in itself is sufficient for an arrest warrant. You can call Suthep a shouting horn, but no matter how you look at it, he is considerably more influential than a random student who is arrested for political statements. If the hefty and flawless Prayuth does not perform here, then the mask has also fallen definitively in the public arena. There is no impartiality, there is no equal treatment, and there is no coup of desperation over politics. There is a politically motivated takeover of power with anti-democratic means with the aim of redistributing interests. Within the elite.
Under the democratic governments of the last 10 years there was certainly no equal treatment. The country has descended to a questionable level in ten years (economic, corruption, human trafficking, quality of public administration, level of graduates at every level of education, traffic safety, law enforcement), in my humble opinion only because the elites (the old elite and the new red elite) wished to enrich themselves at the expense of the common good. Even when tendering major infrastructure projects, the potential for corruption was more central than the interests of the country. It is therefore no surprise that the political parties in the coalition governments of the past 10 years mainly wanted a ministerial post at a ministry where a lot of money was preferably spent: infrastructure, transport, agriculture, trade. No party is really interested in the ministries of employment, tourism (only money comes in there), finance and sport. This is the situation Thailand was in before the coup. So far the junta has shown decisiveness and spared no one. That cannot be said of any democratic government in the last 10 years.
That has to do with the common sense of Phrayuth. Suthep is a shouting horn and is no longer relevant at the moment. Don't make Suthep more important than he is.
You completely ignore the measures that are currently being taken to seriously tackle corruption within Thailand for the first time.
The more you remove the corruption, the less both “Elites” will turn out to be interested in politics in the future. (there isn't much left to do then)
I will continue to view the current situation with a critical eye. But crocodile tears are crying over the old "democratic" system, which has led Thailand completely to the abyss in the last ten years, is not the solution in my opinion.
is it not rather the corruption linked to the “Thaksin state apparatus” that is being tackled?
Illegal workers, the illegal state lottery, the illegal casinos, the taxi, minivan and moped taxi mafia, the drug cartels, the illegal construction in nature reserves, the illegal logging, the illegal poaching of wild animals, the illegal possession of weapons, the laundering of drug money, criminal monks are all phenomena, problems that belong to all democratic governments.
If Suthep talked a lot with Prayuth what's wrong with that? Or do you think Yingluck didn't do that with Prayuth? Yingluck even allowed him to buy as many presents (military equipment) as possible, if he was just a little sweet to her.
You may be a different thinker in Thailand, but you will not be arrested either. So the gut feelings are not too bad in this beautiful country.
Danny
In July 2013, some hard-core yellow shirt friends informed me about the plans for the impending uprising and demonstrations in the fall, according to them: planned by the same people responsible for the 2006 coup…should there be sand?
One of many articles about Prayuth's involvement in the 2006 coup and the 2010 events:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thailand-coup-detat-profile-of-general-prayuth-chanocha-9421094.html
I see here the piece submitted by jan van velthoven
this gentleman has a nice view on the state of affairs
and can warm his hands , his utterances are close to the fire .
Who are we to say what should happen in this country.
In my, albeit very modest, opinion, two things can be said:
– A military coup does not serve (and that applies to all coups in the history of all countries where they have taken place) to build a democracy. Well to make some dark individuals more powerful (richer).
– The tricks of “the” Takhsin klan are also inexcusable. They remind me of 'autobhanen', Volkswagen, and 'labour power free'. Give those who have nothing something and they will follow you.
Thailand still has a long and difficult road ahead of it to become a true democracy.
However, the population does have the right to acquire it. They deserve that.
There is also a task for us expats, namely to reverse the systems that are beneficial to us and not the disadvantage to the poor population.
There are different TYPES of coups. The Thai variant is not the most far-reaching.
See: http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Coup_D'et%C3%A1t
What a pity, completely missed last Saturday. How I wish I had been there.
Not so much for Suthep, but for those 100 supporters who financed the money for his action. And who felt embarrassed when Yingluck's government continued to sit and even had the chance to call new elections.
But that was not the intention to let the population speak out.
Then Suthep's party would lose out to Yingluck's party.
I had long understood that Suthep must have been financed by generous donors.
According to an article in this Blog last January, Suthep's blockade cost him 10 million Bath a day. Calculated over three months, this comes close to 1,4 billion Bath.
That's how little it cost to kill Thailand's economy.
“Don't get too crazy Suth” Phraya had said. “Oh Phray leave that to me, just teasing that Shinawatra clique.” That Phraya finally intervened was completely according to plan.
Now he can be celebrated as a savior in the throes of the Thai economy
And oh well, the Thai economy will pick up again, one good season and in a year people will have already forgotten about it.
I am a big newspaper reader and this morning I went through the Fabeltjeskrant. My eye fell on a tantalizing article discussing the failure of nearly all democracies. Democracies are unable to solve problems quickly because a democracy demands that everyone has a say in order to broaden public support. That takes too much time! The following examples were mentioned: the Netherlands, the United States and South Africa. It was even noted that democracy is the one true cause of all wrongs!
Dictatorships, on the other hand, can solve problems quickly, as they are not bound by rules, law enforcement or consultation with those involved, let alone the population as a whole. Dissenting opinions can be ignored or, even better, suppressed. Dictatorships are also quite capable of promoting the economy. As shining examples of what dictatorships can achieve were mentioned: Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Franco (Spain is now a democracy and an economic mess!) and more recently, a country in Southeast Asia. All these leaders promised a glorious future if you follow them unconditionally. His conclusion: a paternal, enlightened dictatorship with an emphasis on national unity is the best form of government. All other forms of government only lead to chaos and conflict.
Also read:
http://www.humanemergencemiddleeast.org/different-values-different-democracy-alan-tonkin.php,
about different value systems (on a country level) and the different types of democracy that go with them.
There is not 1 type of democracy worldwide just as there is not 1 type of coup.