Font size:

An analytical piece from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s loyal supporter Jakraphob Penkhai, a fugitive from the Thai criminal system, was recently published on the New Mandala website. It alludes to an old social and political nemesis in Siam – the state within the state, or in other words, the real power behind the throne. In Turkey, the phenomenon is known as the “deep state.”

Unsurprisingly, the deep state has at its core an undemocratic hodgepodge of very powerful groups working together voluntarily or, in their view, sometimes out of necessity, to preserve their power and privileges. The coalition is either led or recreated from time to time by the military.

A reminder of the influence the military exerts in Thailand appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of the Thai-language newspaper, the Thai Post. The headline read, “Defense Department is Against Prying Away at the Constitution.”

The headline alludes to current parliamentarian moves to amend Thailand’s 2007 charter – under pressure from yellow and red, left and right political groups – ostensibly to produce a more democratic document. The problem, of course, is that just such a document was abrogated by the Thai military on Sept. 19, 2006, when it took over power from the democratically elected – but hardly democratic – Thaksin government.

Jakraphob’s New Mandala piece alluded to five elements and eight objectives – for an ominous total of 13 – that the state within the state in Thailand possesses or exists for. They include the typical anti-democratic tricks of the trade – control of state media, vote rigging, sowing discord among the opposition, a mind-control coalition involving the country’s academics, and other mechanisms including accusations of lese majeste and corruption.

In the interest of his own cause, however, Jakraphob does not refer to any of these tricks being used by his former boss Thaksin. Those evil coalitions were good enough for him while he was taking advantage of them, but are now “unacceptable” and need “exposure.”

This idea of a “deep state,” advanced by a champion of a former Thai prime minister, is pooh-poohed for several reasons, some of them quite lacking in genius. One is that the concept implies the existence of conspiracies in Thailand and gives credence to them with facts that apparently support Thaksin, the dark enemy of the current republic.

Thailand has taken a sharp turn around a dark corner over the last decade, beginning with the advent of the Thaksin administration, proceeding through an illusory democracy that was anything but, and landing everyone in the current embarrassing impasse. Nevertheless, statements that “everything is normal” are used more often than the word “sawasdee,” the Thai word for hello and goodbye.

For example, Prime Minnister Abhisit Vejjajiva has just said that relations between Thailand and Cambodia are normal, as he alluded to the dispute between the two neighbors regarding the ruins of the ancient Khao Phrea Vihear temple that sit on their shared border. As well, the Thai government has been trying to present Thailand’s tourism image as normal, in the face of such recent events as a British filmmaker fleeing back to the United Kingdom because he actually filmed Thai mafia ripping off British marines over false claims of them damaging his jet ski.

Lurking underneath Thailand’s continuous – and false – claims that “everything is all right” are literally thousands of bloodied bodies that have been picked up and removed from Thai streets, mosques, jail cells, home kitchens, back alleys, schools and temples, and other unspoken locations. Most become neglected, deep state-suppressed victims, attesting to the lack of justice in the country.

One example is the case of Somchai Neelapaijit, a lawyer defending Muslims charged with crimes of terrorism in Thailand’s south , who was kidnapped in 2004 and is reportedly dead. This incident was replicated recently in the northeast metropolitan city of Nakhonratchasima.

On Sept. 10, in front of many witnesses on the street outside the city’s large Big C shopping center – where during the Thaksin regime a local drug dealer was found riddled with bullets in the front seat of his pickup truck – a group of rough-looking thugs hopped out of a light green pickup truck and forced Anunwat Atthanaphon, a 45-year-old direct sales businessman who had been standing nearby, into the truck.

Along with him was taken Nares Yuwarat, formerly a reporter for the Korat-based office of the Matichon newspaper and a former member of the Nakhonratchasima Election Commission.

According to relatives and others who witnessed the alleged kidnapping, the thugs behaved just like uniformed officers sans uniform and were fully armed.

The local press has been outspoken in its indignation, saying that no such kidnappings should be taking place under the supposedly democratic Abhisit administration. Perhaps they have forgotten the April assassination attempt, again by uniformed officials out of uniform, allegedly military, against media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul.

Ten days after the Sept. 10 incident local police claimed they were working on it, but no firm evidence had been developed. It is said that at least one senior police officer was involved in the incident. In Thailand this is usually a death knell for evidence.

Despite government protestations to the contrary and empty reassurances that “things are normal” in Thailand, “normal” can still mean you might literally be kidnapped off the sidewalk in front of your friends, family and a thousand other witnesses and no one will ever see you again. No amount of reassurances will compensate for the facts.

--

(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)