28-02-20 01:58:00,
“Long Live Democracy!” cried “student” protesters at Thailand’s Thammasat University as local and Western media organizations reported “hundreds” gathered to decry the disbanding of Thai political party, Future Forward.
However, the Western media’s eager support for the small mob complete with quotes of support from the US Embassy in Bangkok should be the first clue that it has little to do with actual democracy or Thailand’s best interests and more to do with bolstering Western proxies in Thailand and boosting waning Western influence in Thailand, and across wider Asia vis-a-vis China.
The recent ruling by Thailand’s Constitutional Court regarding Future Forward and its dissolution is indeed not an attack on “democracy” but rather the confronting of an overtly corrupt party led by an equally corrupt billionaire, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.
Thanathorn has in the past openly received the support of the US and other Western embassies amid his multiplying and increasingly overt legal transgressions. His Future Forward political party is comprised of members drawn from US and European-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
In his latest legal transgression – Thanathorn “loaned” his own party millions of dollars. Of course, Future Forward has no means or intention of ever paying back this “loan,” meaning that it was instead in all actuality a donation – one made in direct and complete violation of Thai election laws.
The BBC would note in its article, “Future Forward: Thai pro-democracy party dissolved over loan,” that:
The constitutional court ruled a loan of around $6m (£4.6m) to Future Forward from Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit was a donation, and therefore illegal.
The BBC would – however – attempt to present the party’s dissolution as a setback for “democracy,” claiming that the party had garnered “more than six million votes.” Of course the BBC conveniently omits that it came in distant third, with its political allies from Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party (PTP) led by exiled and likewise corrupt billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra coming in second and Thailand’s Palang Pracharat Party coming in first regarding popular vote.
Thus Future Forward not only represents a minority (16%) of Thai voters – it represents the interests of a corrupt billionaire who openly violated Thai laws in his bid to seize political power.