AND THE PAD MARCHED ON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 004212 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TH SUBJECT: AND THE PAD MARCHED ON REF: A. BANGKOK 4211 ¶B. BANGKOK 4181 ¶1. (SBU) On July 14, as promised (reftel B),the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) returned to the streets to present their views of the current political situation in Thailand to the international community. Approximately 1,000 demonstrators marched on the Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, and UK Embassies and before rallying outside the U.S. Embassy to present an "open letter" to the U.S. The letter (text copied below) rejects caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as "the representative of Thailand and the Thai people" and apologizes that Thaksin sent a letter to President Bush, "bypassing the Ambassador." The rally was peaceful, and after the letter was delivered to poloff, the PAD marched on to nearby Lumpini park to continue the protest. ¶2. (U) Begin Text -------------- The People's Alliance for Democracy Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand 14 July 2006, To the President of the United States of America As representatives of the Thai people we have acquainted ourselves with the contents of the letter Police Lieutenant Colonel Thaksin Shinawatra, our caretaker prime minister, sent to you on June 23, 2006 and of your answer to it. We reaffirm the Thai people's determination to carry on the equal, sincere and mutually beneficial relations of friendship between our two countries that the kings of Thailand have forged with the presidents of the United States of America over centuries. We will safeguard this friendship for the sake of peace and happiness, human dignity and freedom, and we will not allow anyone to misuse it for their own purposes. This is why we must apologize to the United States government for the head of Thailand's caretaker government breaching protocol by bypassing your ambassador here, whom we are well aware has many friends in this country, is well informed and fully able to report truthfully, and performs his duties extremely well. We wish to express our shame that the head of our caretaker government wrote a letter seeking personal friendship over and above the friendship between our two countries, and in a way that makes our country look like a colony of yours. This is an affront to the United States, as a country that respects the freedom, independence and sovereignty of other countries. We hereby state categorically that the man who did this is no longer the representative of Thailand and the Thai people. He is the representative of a different system of government which is not the democratic system with His Majesty the King as Head of State that has long enjoyed friendship with the United States of America. Our country wants to develop the democratic system for the benefit and happiness of our people, which is the common objective of mankind. Unfortunately, our democratic system with His Majesty the King as Head of State is being challenged by a dictatorial, monopolistic system which considers the people only as indentured slaves. Its leader sees himself as the sole owner of the nation and has dared to have thousands of our compatriots killed summarily, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and human rights organization in your country are currently investigation. That system believes in the power of money over righteousness, decency, moral and ethical conducts, thus shamelessly trampling on the common values of all religions Since that system has appeared in Thailand, past democratic mechanisms have been undermined and destroyed almost entirely, parliamentary institutions have been used as hired hands, elections have been reduced to wholesale auctioning of the votes and rights of citizen, the legal system of the kingdom has been shattered, and the principles of good governance have been ignored and abused altogether. BANGKOK 00004212 002 OF 003 The April 2, 2006 election held under that system was one of the most dishonest ever held in the history of world democracy. Only one party stood for election and, through ruse and trickery, hired nominee parties to circumvent constitutional rules. Dishonest practices such as stuffing ballot boxes, discounting negative votes and spying on voters in voting booths were so widespread and extensive that people protested all over the land. Eventually, the Constitutional Court deemed the election unconstitutional and ordered the holding of a new election, which is something unprecedented in the history of our nation. It is most shameful for Thailand that the head of our caretaker government would boast to the president of a leading democratic country that this world-class electoral deception was his own victory and further claimed that he was prevented from forming a new government despite his victory by the losers. According to the Christian belief you hold, Mr. President, sinners who repent their sins can still reform themselves and be forgiven, but sinners who do not acknowledge that they have done wrong and furthermore boast that what they did was correct are a danger to themselves, to others, to the nation and to mankind. We believe that you, as a deeply religious man guided by the principles of fairness and morality, find this kind of individual and this kind of system abhorrent. At present the Thai people are endeavoring to retrieve the dignity of their county and are fighting to revive and return to our democratic system with His Majesty the King as Head of State. We are fighting for freedom and human dignity, for freedom of information and of political expression. We ask you to be confident that the friendship between our two countries will go on forever and will not be derailed by a tyrannical system or any errant individual. We are ashamed of the sweet words used in the manner a kid fooling a classmate about the war against terrorism and we are glad that your answer did not allude to this at all. Since time immemorial, our country has enjoyed happiness and peace internally and externally because the Thai people believe strongly in friendship and friendly cohabitation. We oppose the use of violence in every form and this is the true basis of security for our country and our region. But now that a tyrannical and dictatorial system under the guise of democracy has taken over Thailand during the past five years, violence has happened widely. In the southernmost provinces it has reached the stage of a civil war that threatens to spread northwards. Even worse than this is that the fostering of divisions with neighboring countries and the rest of the region has created tensions all over the Malay peninsula, which we believe is the most dangerous for regional peace. Insurgents in the South have proclaimed that as long as a tyrannical, monopolistic system continues to hold sway in Thailand there will be no peace. We are against violence, but we understand what it means to lose parents, relatives and whole families that are arbitrarily and cruelly hunted, abducted and murdered without recourse to the judicial process. We believe that this is what fuels the insurgency. We apologize to you that the head of our caretaker government does not think of the losses to our country, our people and our region at all and has the cheek to hide behind his war against insurgents. From what we know of the pride and dignity of the American people, we believe that no American leader, past, present or future, would ever behave like our caretaker prime minister. We hereby express our utmost regrets and shame over his conduct. According to our belief, whoever performs bad deeds sooner or later will be paid back in kind, and we know that, according to your belief, God punishes those who do evil to country, nation and people. BANGKOK 00004212 003 OF 003 Respectfully yours, The People's Alliance for Democracy ARVIZU