Sondhi Limthongkul has revealed a plan by American capitalists to rule Thailand in a bid to exploit natural resources, including oil, in the Asia Pacific region, exposing Nitirat and Prachatai as receiving money from American corporate-backed funders in a conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy.

Sondhi said in an ASTV programme on 27 Jan that the movement against the throne headed by Nitirat was proof of what he had said since 2005 and 2008, and this was connected to the US attempt to exert its influence to reoccupy Asia Pacific.

‘Don’t think that the US is our friend, because that country only cares about its interests and doesn’t want anyone to get in its way.  Even His Majesty the King who promotes the Sufficiency Economy has been accused of being an obstacle of their reforms.  Currently, the US has started to lose interest in the Middle East because its oil has been running out, and Europe is facing severe economic problems.  So it has turned to Asia Pacific where a middle class is emerging and there are oil reserves in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea,’ he said. 

While China is expanding its influence over ASEAN countries, including Burma in particular, the US has had almost all ASEAN countries as its allies, but at this point there remains only Thailand which the US still cannot capture completely in terms of either economics and policy in order to block China.

Nowadays Thais are dominated by three western ideas: 1) elected government, no matter how free and fair the elections are; 2) human rights, depending on which side the US chooses to support; and 3) transparency, again applied in a way which serves US interests only, he said.

He said that both the Democrat and Republican Parties were under the influence of capitalists: financial capitalists for the former and oil capitalists for the latter, which were equally bad.  And at the end of the day, they serve each others’ interests.

In a strategic plan for the US to conquer the world, American corporate-backed organizations including, for example, George Soros’ Open Society and the US Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) have propagated a ‘universal discourse’, providing support for democracy in countries where there are subversive movements.  Other organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have the duty to support and publicize their cause, claiming human rights abuses in China and so on.

‘This sounds beautiful, but all of these are tools of the West to interfere in other countries,’ he said

Several American organizations are behind Thai NGOs.  The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), for example, which is dominated by financial, energy, arms, food, and pharmaceutical capitalists, and which ‘has published an article stating that the Thai King is an obstacle to political reform’, is funding Thai NGOs and certain members of Nitirat.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has also given ‘nearly one million US dollars’ to Thai NGOs, particularly Prachatai, ‘whose Director has been prosecuted for lèse majesté,’ which has received ‘US$500,000 to train local leaders to understand the roles of Members of Parliament who are essentially red shirts.’   

Although Prachatai has denied that the funding has no bearing on its news coverage, he said that he did not believe that, because ‘this website has always encroached upon and insulted the institution all along.’       

‘This money has come to those people including leftists, NGOs, academics, Prachatai and underground groups to undermine the monarchy.  These people claim freedoms, offend the monarchy and make subversive calls to abolish Article 112.  This has been supported by farangs.  The money is to support vicious capitalists, the Pheu Thai Party and the government, to amend the Constitution, to destroy its checks and balances, to seize power from the courts and the military, to buy politicians and academics, and to promote globalized capitalism and worldly values,’ he said.

Sondhi’s bibliographical links:
       http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
       http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/confirmed-thailands-pro-democracy.html
       http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/asia/Thailand
       http://www.us-asean.org/us-thai-fta/ITC.pdf
       http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/corporate-funded-peoples-movement.html
       http://thanong.tripod.com/03072001.htm
        http://www.cfr.org/thailand/conversation-thaksin-shinawatra-prime-minister-thailand-rush-transcript-federal-news-service-inc/p11482
       http://www.usasean.org/Aboutus/members.asp
       http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/flash-back-thailands-thaksin-and-us-fta.html
       http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-today-thailand-tomorrow_12.html
       http://www.thailandwto.org/Doc/Pub/PubCur/Current5_FTA_ThaiUs.pdf
       http://ttmp.trf.or.th/ttmp_may-aug45_1.doc