(Last Updated 16 April 1:00 am)
Please treat this post as a Wiki type post. It will be updated and improved as time allows.
The Bangkok Post reports:
The Council for National Security (CNS) has allocated a 12-million-baht budget for a public relations campaign to counter deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's attempts to discredit the coup-makers, a source said yesterday.
The request for the money was submitted on Jan 24 and was approved by CNS chairman Sonthi Boonyaratkalin.
The budget has been divided into six portions of two million baht each to finance the campaigns operations covering a period of six months, the source said.
Chianchuang Kalayanamitr*, a younger brother of CNS deputy secretary-general Saprang Kalayanamitr, has been appointed head of the publicity team to make sure it turns out to be a successful campaign, the source said.
The campaign aims to pre-empt Mr Thaksin's attempts to sully the reputation of the coup-makers via his lawyer Noppadol Pattama, said the source.
The first month of the campaign in February was spent on explaining to the public the negative effects "Thaksinomics" has had on the country.
Seminars and discussions were held, essays and articles were written and published in the media to shed light on the mistakes of the previous government, such as the controversial privatisation of state enterprises - one of the signature policies of the Thaksin administration, said the source.
COMMENT: Given the information came from a Bangkok Post source and as Bangkok Post sources are reliable as a tuk tuk driver's claims of a Thai government gem sale, I thought it was prudent to see if there was any corroboration of the article's contents. Also, the article was thin on details and I wanted to see if there was more out there. It was then I discovered this article on Prachatai, a Thai language alternative news site, about the "information campaign". I should note for those whose can't read Thai the article has been written in conjunction with or based on information from the pro-Thaksin website, hi-thaksin.org, but this no longer seems an issue now given the CNS has admitted the documents are real.
Validity of Documents
Since first posting, there no longer seem to be any doubts as to the validity of the documents.
The Bangkok Post has a breaking news update:
Supreme Commander Boonsang Niempradit on Monday called on relevant agencies to investigate how an embarrassing document detailing a planned 12-million-baht covert public relations campaign against deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra got to the pro-Thaksin camp for public consumption.
The Bangkok Post newspaper and Thai websites have taken up the story, and military officers appeared embarrassed and told conflicting stories on Monday.
CNS spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, said he believed the confidential documents reprinted on the websites were counterfeit.
Meanwhile, Council for National Security deputy chief Chalit Phukphasuk said he was not certain if the document that was posted on the www.hi-thaksin.org website was real. However, he said he believed that there is no corruption in this case.
The document was then published and discussed on Thai websites. This brought weekend government warnings to Prachathai.com and MThai.com that they were violating national security.
More senior officers did not deny the validity of the documents detailing the covert plans. Gen Boonsang said that leaking confidential documents was against the law.
Later though, Col Sansern admitted that the documents were real as The Nation reports:
The cousin of a key junta figure was chosen to head a Bt12-million government public relations campaign because "he is a professional and experienced at PR," Council for National Security (CNS) spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday.
Chianchuang Kalayanamitr is a cousin of CNS deputy secretary-general Saprang. Sansern said the CNS could bargain with Chianchuang also because his was well-known to them. "We were able to reduce the budget from Bt25 million to Bt12 million because we could negotiate the hire," he said, after a CNS meeting yesterday.
COMMENT: I don’t think there is any doubt that the documents are real.
Who was the Leaker?
There is very little to go on, but the Bangkok Post reported that:
Maj-Gen Jirachai Detdamrong, head of the army's directorate of civil affairs who was recently transferred as deputy commander of the First Army Corps, denied he had leaked the information and the papers on the public relations strategies, saying he was not stupid enough to release a document that bore his own name.
Maj-Gen Jirachai was a classmate of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Class 10 of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School. However, he insisted the fact they were classmates did not necessarily mean he would always favour Mr Thaksin. He confirmed the PR strategy documents were genuine official papers.
Maj-Gen Jirachai said Mr Chianchuang was a professional in this field and thus he was a justified choice for the public relations job.
A source said Gen Saprang had already discussed the issue of the leaked papers with Maj-Gen Jirachai, who insisted on his innocence. Gen Saprang and CNS chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin were unavailable for comment yesterday.
COMMENT: You also have intra-CNS rivalries to consider. Was the leak an attack against Gen. Saprang or a leak in favour of Gen. Saprang showing those who dislike Thaksin that the CNS is serious about getting rid of “remnants of the Thaksin regime”?
The Documents
The Bangkok Post reports:
Three documents have been leaked to the media and posted on some websites. One is a written approval, signed by the CNS chairman on Feb 4, for hiring an information analysis and in-depth public relations team to work for the CNS for 12 million baht.
The second is a "highly confidential" letter signed on Jan 24 by Maj-Gen Jirachai requesting approval for hiring the team led by Mr Chianchuang. The last one is a document dated Feb 26, which details the strategies of the public relations team.
Most of what outline below is from the last document.
Objectives and Outcomes of the Propaganda Campaign
First, the overall objective of the campaign is to discredit and reduce the credibility of Thaksin and his lawyer by using a third party (they use the English term third party in brackets). This third party will the use media in the information campaign. Chianchuang Kalayanamitr* is the head of the campaign. The campaign will also try to bring human rights actions against Thaksin at the international level.
COMMENT: No specific mention of who this third party is. It reads like a Le Carre spy novel.
Second, one of the campaign objectives was to reduce the credibility of the "old power" (i.e Thaksin's government) and provide information on Thaksinomics to the public. A seminar was arranged on the 22 February and it was publicised in the Bangkok Post and Krungthep Turakit. This is what the Bangkok Post is referring to above.
COMMENT: I wonder, why the Post didn't mention their "involvement" in the information campaign? The news coverage doesn’t appear to be specifically engineered by the CNS, it is just a result of the seminars they arranged. So typical of these one-dimensional, one-sided, “academic” seminars in Thailand.
Third, stopping the privatisation of state enterprises is another objective. The idea of the objective is to show the damage that such privatisation will cause. The method of achieving this objective is to arrange a seminar and to coordinate with Dr. Wuthipong Preibjariyawat [a anti-Thaksin academic involved in the campaign against Thaksin] who is a National Legislative Assembly member. This will also involve with other NLA members Dr. Narong Chokvattana, Sophon Suphapong, Paisal Puetmongkol to bring the matter to the attention of the NLA so the NLA will approve it.
COMMENT: I understand what they mean here is to approve a draft of some bill or just a general decision. Chianchuang is perfect for this role, see below for more details.
The original topic of this post was going to be on how the CNS has openly taken a different economic philosophy from Thaksin. You have the anti-privatisation as well as elements of anti-globalisation and anti-capitalism which can be detected from Gen. Sonth’s public statements. I am not sure that all members of Surayud’s government share this view, particularly the new Finance Minister.
I don’t think the anti-privatisation issue was taken as an cynical ploy to gain support from the anti-Thaksin PAD and I see Gen. Saprang as behind this. His brother’s views are clear on this and the association with Prachai and such ilk gives an idea on their world view.
Fourth, one the objectives is to affect public opinion towards the "old power". The outcome is reported as the carrying of a protest sign in front of the Singaporean Embassy on 19 February which received widespread press coverage.
COMMENT: I kid you not. I am still trying to work out whether (1) the protesters were specifically engineered by the CNS propaganda campaign to protest in front of the Singaporean Embassy or (2) that a result of the anti-privatisation campaign is that it is resulting in people spontaneously protesting in front of the Singaporean Embassy. Obviously, (1) is disturbing. On the other hand, I wonder what kind of evidence the CNS has for them to think that their anti-privatisation campaign caused (2).
Courtesy of Prachatai, here is the alleged photo:
Fifth, use of radio, newspapers, TV, and the internet.
Use of radio: To achieve their objectives, they will, amongst other things, have a program on the Army's radio station and ask for time on private radio stations. 8am-9am initially on 126 stations and a further 36 stations in March. In contact with the Director of MCOT in regards to private radio stations
Use of newspapers: Making it easier for the people to understand and use cartoons. First, cartoon was published in Thai Rath on 27 January. There will be more cartoons later.
COMMENT: Again, was this a specific CNS engineered cartoon which Thai Rath published? Or they somehow claiming it as a success without stating how? If so, can they claim as “successes” every Manager cartoon lambasting Thaksin?
Use of TV: 11 corruption scandals will be brought to the public's attention. A TV program will be produced "Corruption of the Thaksin Regime" and have 11 episodes. Still in the negotiation process.
Use of Internet: Post messages on various websites.
COMMENT: SVL, did they not renew your contract?
Foreign Media: In the process of negotiating with Saatchi and Saatchi in a public relations campaign.
COMMENT: 12 million baht on its own won’t buy you much so what on earth are they talking about.
Bringing charges against Thaksin on a world stage: One reason is that it might lead to reconciliation in the South. Establish a committee of relatives for victims or relatives of Kru Se Mosque, Tak Bai Incident, and also those were executed to bring charges against Thaksin in a foreign court. In contact with a German lawyer.
COMMENT: Hmm. Kru Se mosque. I wonder how they will prosecute Thaksin on this one. The facts are not in dispute. The Deputy PM ordered the army not to storm the mosque. The army commander (Gen. Panlop) disobeyed the order stormed the mosque and killing all. Gen. Panlop doesn’t deny this, he wrote a book explaining why he did it. And how is Thaksin responsible? Guilt by association.
Sixth, Human rights abuses: In contact with Dr. Kraisak and his team.
COMMENT: Argh, good old Kraisak, who was one of the first (see comment at 12:43pm) coup supporters to go on the record.
Seventh, 80th Anniversary of HM the King: The plan is to let the people see the real image of the CNS and that they are soldiers for HM the King. They will do this by producing signs and books. A special song will be written.
COMMENT: I don’t think any comment is necessary.
*I am waiting for the outrage over nepotism since Gen.Saprang's younger brother is in effect responsible for the money. Now, I thought the coup was to get rid of such things after the "evil Thaksin regime" gave their cronies key positions.
Chianchuang is also facing a criminal trial on conspiracy charges over TPI (yes, that TPI) and this starts in 2 months. Dr Chianchuang is associated with the Thai Labour Campaign who like their anti-FTA friends always engage in rational debate (not!) as can be seen from this title of this article:
Protesters against Privatization under the Slogan:
'Selling Water & Electricity Means Killing Thai People'
Then we come to Dr Chianchuang:
In a document reporting the progress of the amendment of 1999 bankruptcy act; Dr. Chianchuang Kalayanamitr, a member of the Anti-Sell Out Law Committee, explained of one of the economic reform laws, ‘On 6 February 2003, 136,000 signatures were collected calling for the act to be amended (popular draft) and to be loaded as our urgent agenda.
Argh, you now know why he was involved with Prachai and TPI. These evil banks and foreigners have the audacity to demand their money back once it is lent out.
**I find it interesting that the stated reason was "national security" as opposed to lese majeste. Both Prachathai and MThai have threads were the contents of the documents are published. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
National Security is something that threaten the whole nation or important national asset/secret. This should be more like "CNS position security reason".
In my opinion, this look like the general want to turn Thailand to another Burma, and eventually neo-Nazi German. But, hell, even then they aint doing a good job at that.
Did I fall asleep and miss something? Where is that great turn-around reform that CNS promised when the coup happened?
I am glad you picked up on this. I wrote briefly about it on my blog.
You did a better job, of course.
The thing that I thought was interesting was that the CNS is actually buying intellectuals and journalists to spew their propaganda. and they actually admit to it, with Saprang's brother writing the checks.
Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the absurdity.
You could make things clearer just by stating the obvious in the headlines, i.e. Nepotism. The main point wasn't at all obvious from the article which read "Leak...." but what leaked was "nepotism" namely that they were doing the same thing they were demonising Thaksin over. Another thing you have bring out IMHO is how some of the politicians seem to be playing the public, who aren't always that well informed even when info is public and there is some semblance of transparency, but a very messy transparency, to say the least, like Dr. Chianchung and the Thai Labour Campaign thingy which I don't understand at all, you need to use Wikipedia's software (Wikimedia) and create some running history, so people can grasp the big picture (developing history) of what's going on.