Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BANGKOK1472
2006-03-09 10:06:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bangkok
Cable title:  

EAP DAS JOHN MEETS WITH THAKSIN'S BRAIN TRUST

Tags:  PREL PGOV TH TRT SNAP 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

091006Z Mar 06
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 001472 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV TH TRT SNAP
SUBJECT: EAP DAS JOHN MEETS WITH THAKSIN'S BRAIN TRUST


Classified By: AMBASSADOR RALPH L. BOYCE. REASON 1.4 (B,D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 001472

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV TH TRT SNAP
SUBJECT: EAP DAS JOHN MEETS WITH THAKSIN'S BRAIN TRUST


Classified By: AMBASSADOR RALPH L. BOYCE. REASON 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary. In a March 3 meeting with visiting EAP DAS
Eric John and the Ambassador, principal advisor to the Prime
Minister Pansak Vinyaratn brushed aside rumors that Thaksin
could yet resign, that the ruling Thai Rak Thai party could
have problems in the April 2 snap election, or that military
or royal intervention in the political crisis was likely.
Pansak instead outlined his own colorful analysis of the
situation, calling the current challenge to Thaksin the "last
hurrah of the old wealthy class." Thaksin and his party,
meanwhile, are preparing to expand their efforts to reform
the Thai political system to include more direct
participation following the April 2 vote. Pansak even hopes
to export this new "custom of democracy" to Burma and China.
End Summary.

THAKSIN STILL HOLDS ALL THE CARDS
--------------


2. (C) In a meeting with DAS John and the Ambassador on March
3, Pansak Vinyaratn--one of Thaksin's closest advisers and
strategists--brimmed with fatigued confidence. Replete with
profanity-laced riffs which are his trademark, Pansak
dismissed rumors that the PM may resign, or that Thaksin's
Thai Rak Thai party (TRT) would have technical difficulty
filling enough seats to form a new government following the
April 2 snap election. The Army remains "balanced" and a
military coup improbable. According to Pansak, the King has
signaled that he is not currently interested in intervening;
"why should he want to be a hero at the wrong time?" When
asked if Thaksin and TRT still hold all the cards in the
current crisis, Pansak responded "absolutely." That said,
the situation remains fluid and Pansak did not completely
rule out a scenario where Thaksin loses power. "Worst case?
I (get some) rest."

"THE LAST HURRAH OF THE OLD WEALTHY CLASS"
--------------


3. (C) The current political crisis is the "last hurrah of
the old wealthy class," according to Pansak. This cabal of
political and economic elite who have dominated modern Thai
society are "absolutely, deeply resentful" of Thaksin, who
Pansak suggests is a new type of businessman and politician.

Pansak said he told Thaksin, "all of these people who have
lost their role in society, who have lost their shirts
because of arrogance, want to come back (and defeat
Thaksin.)" This "unholy alliance" of big business, the
Democrat Party and "some people close to the palace" remain
feckless. They have no specific programs or platforms and
lack even the leadership to defeat Thaksin, according to
Pansak. They had to get media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul "out
of the grave" to lead their cause. They "keep losing at the
polls because they never follow through on their promises."
After decades of dominance under both military and civilian
rule they have been pushed aside by Thaksin, "someone who
actually does what he says he'll do."


4. (C) According to Pansak, these elite "dream that pre-97
(the era predating the current constitution, which was marked
by unstable political coalitions prone to party switching)
can come back...they are dreaming." Shifts in the regional
economy were also contributing to the waning influence of the
traditional elite. "Is it really possible to have the
commodity-peer-competitor mercantile group (from) the cold
war era now?" As an example, Pansak stated that a recent deal
with a major Chinese corporation to build and operate a
massive motorbike factory in Thailand was the first time that
such a deal had been completed without the participation of
one of the elite Thai mega-corporations as a middle man. The
Chinese had made the deal directly with local contractors and
suppliers. According to Pansak, "the Chinese dynamo affects
Thai politics" and the old elite don't even know it.


5. (C) Pansak also denounced the "arrogance" of the political
opposition. According to Pansak, the King's personal private
secretary Arsa Sarasin had called Democrat Party Chief

SIPDIS
Abhisit Vejjahiva to ask him if he would like to meet Thaksin
at the palace to discuss the current crisis. Abhisit
refused, saying that if the palace would like him to meet
with the PM, they would have to submit a list of subjects for
discussion first. (Comment. Abhisit told the press on
Thursday that he had been invited to meet with Thaksin at the
palace, but would only palaver with the PM if a neutral
witness was present. End Comment.)

THAKSIN HASN'T WEAKENED DEMOCRACY
--------------


6. (C) While acknowledging the conventional wisdom that
Thaksin was the first politician to master the changes of the
1997 constitution in building his electoral juggernaught,
Pansak rejected the assertion that the PM has undercut the
independent institutions designed to check his office. Using
a colorful and unprintable metaphor to support his point,
Pansak explained that TRT was not about to undercut the
public perception that Thaksin is very strong. The facts,
however, belie this assertion, according to Pansak. Thaksin
has failed to push through several big-ticket programs, such
as public utility privatization.


7. (C) Indeed, the independent institutions formed under the
1997 constitution remain robust if not openly opposed to the
PM, according to Pansak. The head of the constitutional
court is the owner of former PM and Democrat Party senior
adviser Chuan Leekpai's rental house. Pansak also denied
that Thaksin had manipulated the consitutional court. (In
2001, the court, in a 8-7 vote, acquitted the PM of failing
to disclose assets in 1997. In 2006, the court, again in a
close vote, denied a request by a group of senators to
investigate his sale of Shin Corp.) "If Thaksin was so good,
do you think the court would have accepted either case? If
he's a dictator...(the vote to acquit) should be 14-0."


A NEW MODEL FOR THAI DEMOCRACY
--------------


8. (C) Thaksin, in fact, has strengthened democracy,
according to Pansak, and TRT will continue to consolidate
these gains after their certain victory in the April 2 vote.
"Everyone thinks that Thaksin came from the Thai elite,
meaning the system is not completely democratic yet...that's
not reality." Thaksin's power base "is the people." Quoting
another Thai intellectual, Pansak said, "It took the
communists forty years to try and divide Thai society, but
TRT took only five years to capture the hearts and minds of
the people."


9. (C) Pansak envisions a better balance between
representational democracy and direct, popular democracy. In
Pansak's analysis, the Thai elite who have dominated the
country for so long have focused too much on a form of
representative democracy that meets their needs and minimizes
the voices of the masses. The success of more direct
democracy will depend in large part on the ability of the
people to exercise their rights. The current crisis "shows
that the political elite are still fairly immature." Pansak,
who is currently involved in a project to develop a world
class public library system in Thailand, wants to build a
custom or culture of democracy in Thailand, "where people
exercise their rights." Example: "if you want to protest go
ahead, but then go ahead and participate in the election."
In the past, journalists were thrown in jail. "Now, we sue
them, because we believe in the custom of democracy."


10. (C) Pansak was less clear in explaining how he and TRT
intend to formalize this mix of democracy, but he appears to
support Thaksin's public intentions to reform the
constitution. "I have never accepted the (1997)
constitution...it's crap, not democracy...how can you write
in the amount of national spending that each province is
supposed to get? That's not even written in the newly
independent African states' constitutions."

BUT WHAT ROLE FOR THE MONARCHY?
--------------


11. (C) Absent from Pansak's "big-think" analysis was any
explicit mention of a role for the monarchy in a new Thai
democracy. However, Pansak did diverge from a discussion
about the political opposition with a cryptic sentence or two
that seemed to suggest a preference for a respected but
politically uninvolved monarch. "To revere the King in the
correct manner is to allow him to be in the palace with
happiness and his eunuchs only come out of the palace to go
to the supermarket. So always fund beautiful roads for
eunuchs to go back to the palace...the situation now is,
build beautiful roads for eunuchs to go back to the palace."


THAILAND'S NEW EXPORT...DEMOCRACY TO BURMA/CHINA?
-------------- --------------


12. (C) Pansak hopes to take his idea of a "custom of
democracy" on the road. "If we can finish this (current
crisis) I'll tell Thaksin to go to Rangoon and tell the
(military leadership),see? Democracy means you have
insurance...you can feel safe about giving up some powers.
After Rangoon, we go to Beijing...if successful, we can
export to your guys in Latin America...I should get a Nobel
Prize for this!"

COMMENT
--------------


13. (C) Pansak is one of Thaksin's closest advisers and the
source of much TRT strategy. His unmistakable confidence
that the PM will weather the current political storm could be
taken as further evidence that the conventional wisdom among
much of the Bangkok elite--that Thaksin's days are
numbered--remains wishful thinking and that TRT is prepared
to overcome any technical challenges in the April 2 vote. On
the other hand, it could simply represent misplaced TRT
hubris. Pansak's predictions (and humorous efforts to paint
Thaksin as a man of the people) aside, his analysis of the
structural battles between the old elite and the new rings
true. Either way, Pansak's colorful commentary, in addition
to being supremely entertaining, offered a persuasive
explication of what the Thaksin phenomena is all about and
why it may have yet to run its course.
BOYCE