VZCZCXRO8956
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBK #4212/01 1951033
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141033Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0168
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

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