Coup Protest at Cornell

I got this messege from one of the founders of the group. Also it can be found at link from Prachatai. The protest will be held on Thursday 30th November at Willard Straight Hall from 9.30 am-4.30 pm. Details are below.

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Cornell Students for Thai Democracy

Call for Democracy

Right now, it is a critical time in Thailand's democracy fight, please come out to show your support in this struggle.

Most people across the world know that the Thai people lost their democracy on Sep. 19, 2006. A group of persons under the name "Administrative Reform Council (ARC) under the Democratic System" staged the coup d’etat and removed power from the government elected under the constitution drafted by the people.

We, "Cornell Students for Thai Democracy", agree with the “19 September” and All the People’s Man Networks” that we do not accept the coup and the Thai junta government. Abolishing the constitution, harassing the media, and putting an end to the independent agencies are considered acts of abolishing the parliamentary democracy system. These acts are similar to those done by the previous coups and will bring about the same evil outcomes that happened in Thai society in the past.

Our group (consisting of some Thai and American Students at Cornell) would like to inform the Cornell Community, our friends, and faculty that we are opposed to the way of building democracy through guns and tanks. There is no such thing as building democracy through destroying democracy at the same time in the world. We also insist that we shall accept only the same democratic principle that has been used in all democratic countries across the world. The recent explanation of the Thai junta government about the democratic form under Thai style is unacceptable.

To show our standing point and share our political viewpoints among the Cornell community and others, we would like to invite all Cornellians and other people outside Cornell to attend our poster and speech protest that will be held in front of Willard Straight Hall on November 30, 2006 during 9:30am–4:30pm (please see detail in the protest agenda below).

The Protest Agenda

•Poster Show (9:30 am – 4:30 pm)

-History of Thailand’s Democracy

-Bloody May 1992

-Sep.19, 06 Coup

•Event Presentations (10:00 am – 4:00 pm)

-Bloody May 1992

-Sep.19, 06 Coup (Tanks and guns around Bangkok, etc.)

•Democracy Donation (9:00 am – 4:30 pm)

-We don’t need money, but Democracy!

Please donate your opinion against the coup and dictatorship here.

•Thailand’s Democracy Tree Show (9:00 am – 4:30 pm)

-See the unfertilized Thai democracy tree

It is too weak and small to hang yourself, but label your opinion.

•The Coup Leader Dummy (9:00 am – 4:30 pm)

-One hit on his head a day, give the dictators away!

So, please don’t miss it! Free hit to Free Thailand’s democracy!!

***The Group’s Declaration Speech (12:00 am – 1:00 pm)

-Is the coup the right answer?

-Nine myths about the Sep. 19, 06 Coup (All the People’s Man Network, 2006).

Prem gives Churchill a bad name

Following Anan Panyarachun's allegation that New Zealand/Australia are ignorant and not understanding of the tradition of the COUP in Thailand, we have a new gaffe made by another former Prime Minister, Prem Tinsulanonda . ( NOTICE : they both were PM during the military rule, neither were elected by Thai population)

Now Prem's reference to Winston Churchill has become a talk of the cyber town. He gave an analogy between Winston Churchill's rise to power and that of Gen. Surayut of Thailand.

From Thairath website it can be translated into

"every Thai citizen must have the duty of creating National conciliation, sacrificing for the national rather than personal interest and withholding the lowly, vulgar thoughts. Everyone must know of Mr.Winston Churchill who was the prime minister of England during the WW II just like Gen.Surayut is being a PM of Thailand as of now. They both have the same paths that they neither were elected by the people (MPs). Churchill was being invited to be a Prime Minister because the Queen saw that he had appropriate qualities. And Churchill also talked about the necessity of sacrificing for the country in his famous speech. Gen Suruyut of Thailand, in the same manner as Churchill, has accepted the post of PM not because he wants to but because he sacrifices himself to the country"

"the WW II occurred because of the power greed of less than 10 people. These 10 people engaged the world into war for many years because they wanted power. I really don’t understand why people are hungry for power (implied: because I don’t, albeit my 8 years of PMship)." Prem says.

Thai Coup Watch's COMMENTS : Had Gen. Prem known the history of England more he would not have said such statement. Why ?

1. Churchill was elected by the populace, he was a politician under the English parliamentary system.

2. With the concensus from the parliament. King George VI, not the Queen, asked Churchill to be a PM and to form an all party government.

3. How can Prem compare the leader from military coup to the English stateman during WW II like Churchil ? Does he want to justify the coup or to promote Suyayud who is known as Prem's puppet PM ?

4. Someone also suggested that this part of history is well-written in the King Bhumipol- translated book titled 'The Man Called Interprid". So it is quite likely that the head of Privy Council might never read this famed book by the King at all.

This will be another memorable quote made by Gen.Prem. Lately, he has made some analogies to 'Jockey, Horse and Owner' in explaining the role of the military, the government and the king. Another one is when he implicitly compared Thaksin to 'Hitler' . I wonder what more would come from this once-known-as-a very quiet PM.

P.S. I have just discovered that BangkokPundit already covered this very same issue. And it also appeared in the nation.

Further readings:

Winston Churchill - wikipedia
Blood toil tears and sweat - the famous quote of Churchill

Several new video are available on the web

Several videos from the anti-coup groups are released on youtube.

1. UNCLE Nuamtong's song ( By Vayupak group)

2. NOV 11 Protests at Sanamluang ( 3 clips By DCODE)

Click here for more details

Protest on Saturday Nov 11 2006

The protest by the anti-coup ally on Saturday Nov 11 at Sanam Luang had just finished peacefully. The participating groups were D-Code, TMC, Wayupak (Phoenix) , Pirabkao (White Dove) and various others.

This is the 2nd time of the protest that the D-Code group has involved with. The first one was on Nov.1 where fewer people gathered. Lesson learned from the first time, the second one was much better organized and attracted quite a lot of crowds given our limited resources/publicity. It bodes very well for other anti-coup coalitions to stage a protest in the future as people become less fearful of the martial law and the military thus be more courageous to express their voices.

We would like to recap the atmosphere of the event briefly by showing pictures. We believe there will be video, audio available on the web in a few days.




To read more story, click here.

URGENT: Uncle Nuamthong to be cremated Thursday at 4.00pm

The temple’s lack of proper facility and the possibility of political complication forced Uncle Nuamthong’s family to return to the original plan of having cremation ceremony for him on Thursday, scrapping the idea of keeping his body for 100 days before the cremation ceremony. Aunt Boonchu, his wife, cited these two reasons and told Thai Coup Watch that the cremation would take place at 4.00pm at Bua Kwan Temple on Ngarm Wongwan Road, Nonthaburi.

All of you are invited to attend this ceremony and pay respect to Uncle Nuamthong.

Update: Secretly, a military ninja pays respect to Uncle Nuamthong’s body

An unidentified military officer and his subordinates secretly paid respect to Uncle Nuamthong Praivan’s body in the afternoon of the last day of his funeraql’s Buddhist chanting ceremony. Sources confirmed that an unidentified high-ranking military officer, accompanied by 2-3 male and female staff soldiers, came to Uncle Nuamthong’s funeral pavilion in Bua Kwan Temple in Nonthaburi at about 2.00pm today. They had to ask the pavilion’s caretaker to open the door for them as no one was in the pavilion and it was supposed to be open only in the evening for the Buddhist chanting ceremony. They paid respect to his body and left immediately, the sources told Thai Coup Watch. This incident happened without the knowledge of Uncle Nuamthong’s family, a family member said.

To view more story click here.

19 Sep.org protest at Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel today

Open Letter to the World Community

There is no justice and opportunities under dictatorship.

Since General Surayud Chulanont is invited to give a speech entitled, “Justice for All - Thailand in Transition: Challenges and Opportunities” today;

We in the name of “19 September Network against the Coup d’etat” would like to use this very same forum to declare our stance to the international community, through the foreign journalists that:

1.The formation of this interim government and the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) is a direct consequence of the coup d’etat on 19 September 2006, by the dictatorial council that called themselves, “Council for Democratic Reforms under Constitutional Monarchy” (CDRM); which recently has changed its name to “Council of National Security” (CNS). The coup d’etat has destroyed the principle of democracy. Actions such as tearing the constitution, overthrowing the elected government, and declaring the Martial Laws to violate the rights and freedoms of the people, by this illegitimate government, reflects that it does not have the rights to claim that it is being represented by the people. Its attempt to open up to the people to participate in the political processes is simply the ritual to give legitimacy to them.

To view more story, click here

Who is behind the 'CAR BOMB' case?

After a successful coup, it seems like the Car Bomb case would become a halt. Actually it will surely be in oblivion like many other unsolved cases in this country.

Let me remind you that a car bomb is an incident that a group of Thai soldiers had plotted to kill ex-PM Thaksin Shinnawatra by using a Daewoo sedan filled with dotonation materials just a few weeks before the real coup occurred.

It began when police had caught Lt Thawatchai Klinchana one of the team members at scene. It led to the charges of other suspects who happened to be subordinates of Gen.Pullop Pinmanee and other very high-ranking Army officers. The investigation was almost done. The suspects are about to be charged and prosecuted under the rule of Thai law.

Shortly after the investigation, the Army staged a coup. Many observers of Thai politics believe that one hidden reasons of the coup is to protect some 'very' higher-ranking Army officers from being convicted by the police.

After the coup and the rules of Thai JUNTA, the CAR BOMB case will surely rest in the dusty file of Thai police. Again justice is being delayed in Thailand.

I found this vdo footage featuring Maj Gen.Kattiya Sawatdipol (Sae Dang). In his defensive argument against the car bomb case, he offered his thesis that the then-government staged a fake car bomb to imply that 'some very influential persons' had been involved in the planned killing of Thaksin'.

In min 2.10 of the video, Sae Dang mentioned the names of the plotters such as Gen.Surayuth Chulanonda and Gen.Prem Tinsulanon. Surprisingly, these people were later to have been involved in the military coup to topple Thaksin in one way or another.

MCOT: The best arbiter of truth that has ever come out of the idiot box?

Attention, media of the world! If you think that press freedom was the first victim to be killed in the wake of Thailand’s so-called bloodless coup in the prime-time hours of September 19, you had better take a closer look at its second victim - the listed, state-run Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT).

Politically-motivated, radical sharp policy u-turn is taking place at the organization which has always been second to no one when it comes to the role of the government’s mouthpiece. The junta and current military-installed government, which late last month had epiphany that they were in the middle of PR stagnation, are now in an all-out effort to re-engineer the state’s propaganda apparatus – particularly the MCOT’s Channel 9 television station. It is preceded by the agency’s modernization under the leadership of its former executive director Mingkwan Saengsuwan, one of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s PR saviors, some four years ago. Since then, Channel 9 has been known as Modernine TV. It was this TV station that ran Thaksin’s state-of-emergency audio broadcast from New York during his final hour in power. Minutes after airing it, the station was under heavy military control.

With the respected veteran newspaperman Pongsak Payakavichien as interim executive director, the channel’s work slogan will be changed from “Towards Wisdom Society” to “Towards Right Wisdom Society”. In the coming weeks, some most popular news-talk and edutainment programs which have put the channel at the forefront of Thailand’s television history in the making are expected to be purged. The old faces of “media headmasters” who proved to be arch-enemies of the deposed government have been invited by the architects of the military-installed government’s PR and media strategy to snatch the prime-time slots. In tandem with the PR Department-run Channel 11, the channel ran a live broadcast of the government’s platform address at the National Legislative Assembly on Friday. Last week, Channel 9 also had a program, entitled “Government’s Policy Critique”. Ironically enough, it featured all-star critics of the Thaksin administration from every circle.

For the government, this battle will be more interesting when the new schedule comes out, when MCOT employees wear black in protest on Tuesday, and when analysts expect another new low for the MCOT stock. This is just a curtain-raiser. Let’s see.

Update: Uncle Nuamthong’s body to be kept for 100 Days after his death

The body of Uncle Nuamthong Praivan will be kept for 100 days at Bua Kwan Temple in Nonthaburi, a source who spoke to his wife said in an e-mail circulating in an anti-coup mailing group. After the seventh night of Buddhist chanting ceremony at the temple, the merit-making ceremony will take place on Thursday at 10.30am, his wife Bunchu told our source. Then, Uncle Nuamthong’s body will be temporarily laid at the temple’s cemetery. His family will conduct the cremation ritual for him on the 100th day after his death. At first, the plan was to cremate his body on Thursday at 5.00pm but his wife changed her mind because she could not simply endure the thought of losing him forever. “It would be too painful for me to cremate his body now,” she told the source.

On the fifth day of his funeral on Monday, less than 30 people attended the Buddhist chanting ceremony, a sharp contrast to the scenes from the previous days of funeral in which over 200 people had come to attend the funeral each day. National Human Rights Commissioner Jaran Ditapichai, Friends of the 1997 Constitution, and Democratic Union of Thailand will co-host the funeral on Tuesday.