A Tale of Two Protests: Ukraine and Thailand - Part III

Image: The US backs mobs in Kiev, Ukraine attacking police with clubs, sticks, and baseball bats – while it calls protesters in Bangkok, Thailand “anti-democratic militants” even as the US-backed regime there carries out nightly, and now daily terror attacks against them. 

January 20, 2014 (ATN) - When last looking at these two protests, one in Eastern Europe’s Ukraine, and another in Southeast Asia’s Thailand, it was concluded that:

It is more than mere fascist ideology that attracts the West to Svoboda in Ukraine and the regime of Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand – it is each group’s willingness to make vast economic, social, and political concessions to the corporate-financier interests of the West in exchange for political power built upon foreign-funding, favorable news coverage in the Western press, and “appearances” by figures like John McCain to lend them legitimacy and drive they themselves lack. The forces opposed to them may not be perfect, but by comparison, and for the sake of both Ukraine and Thailand’s future and the many otherwise unprotected minorities that reside there, they are the best alternatives.

Since then, in Ukraine, protests have stalled with a violent clash this week the result of what the Western media is calling “frustration.” Ukrainian police once again responded with restraint. 

Image: “Occupy Bangkok” began a week ago on January 13, 2014, when hundreds of thousands of protesters assembled at over 7 major rallying sites across the city which have been permanently occupied ever since. Throughout the week the regime has used terrorism in an attempt to discourage participation and as a pretext to enact “emergency law.” 

In Thailand, the US-backed, unelected dictator Thaksin Shinawatra and his nepotist-appointed proxy regime have turned to a campaign of terror to fend off growing dissent in the streets of Bangkok. Protesters began their “Occupy Bangkok” campaign exactly one week ago, Monday January 13, 2014 – and have been attacked daily/nightly by gunfire and grenades. There have been scores of injuries and one death.

Just one day before the first deadly grenade attack, the regime’s “red shirt” enforcers announced they were stockpiling weapons in Bangkok and preparing for terror campaigns aimed at protesters – shedding any possible doubt as to who is behind the terror campaign. Additionally, the regime is seeking to impose emergency law across the city, using its own terror campaign as a pretext. Emergency law would make ongoing protests, and any gathering for that matter, illegal and open the door to more overt and extreme measures.

Image:  US Senator John McCain reaches new depths in an already truly disgraceful career - associating with literal Nazis to support them in their goal of guiding Ukraine, its wealth, and its people into the arms of Wall Street and London. McCain’s support for sedition worldwide for similar purposes has seen him visit other nations such as Egypt in his capacity as chairman of the IRI. While the US openly backs Ukrainian mobs, it simultaneously condemns Thai protesters opposing dictator Thaksin Shianwatra and his proxy regime. The common denominators behind this hypocrisy are Western financial and geopolitical interests.  

Surely one might expect the West to have changed its stances on both protests – condemning ongoing Ukrainian demonstrations that have lost focus, are clashing with police out of “frustration,” and have been exposed as racists, bigots, and literal Neo-Nazis - while condemning the regime in Thailand for openly using terrorism against peaceful protesters.

However, the West has instead only further hardened its stance on both. It still adamantly backs pro-EU protesters in Kiev, while it has increasingly and more openly condemned ongoing protests in Thailand and lending support instead to the embattled regime. The Washington Post’s editorial board serves as a telling barometer regarding both protests and the West’s stance on both.

In its piece on Ukraine titled, “Ukraine’s move toward Russia will only hurt the country,” it argued:

Western diplomats should continue to support the Ukrainian opposition and warn Mr. Yanu­kovych against repression while counseling the protesters to seek the government’s ouster by democratic means. There’s still a chance that Mr. Yanukovych could be pressured into calling a  parliamentary election. Though he may try to rig the presidential vote in his favor, concerted Western pressure could still bring about a fair competition. 

Mr. Putin’s bid for Ukraine is a zero-sum game borrowed from another century. The West should have a strategy that looks past thuggish Russian and Ukrainian rulers and invests in Ukraine’s future — which can be found in Kiev’s streets.

In direct contrast, the same editorial board would declare in its piece, “Thailand’s anti-democracy protests should provoke a harsh rebuke from the U.S.,” that:

Popular demonstrations against democracy are becoming an unfortunate trend in developing countries where elections have challenged long-established elites. The latest case is Thailand, where thousands of people took to the streets Monday to demand that the country’s freely chosen government step down, that an unelected council take its place and that elections scheduled for next month be canceled. The protesters’ strategy appears to be to disrupt Bangkok to the point at which the government will feel compelled to resign or be removed by the military. 

Similar tactics have succeeded in bringing down two previous governments led by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his supporters since 2006, while a third was forced out by a dubious court decision. This time, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin’s sister, is standing firm, as she should. But she could use more support from the United States in rejecting an undemocratic outcome to the crisis.

The Washington Post would go on to refer to the protesters as “street mobs” and ” anti-democracy militants,” despite the regime being the only one deploying armed violence throughout the conflict. US Congressman Michael Turner (R-OH) would cite the editorial in a letter to US President Barack Obama imploring him to condemn the protesters and lend public support to the embattled regime.

It has been covered many times before, as well as reported in the New York Times, that the claim of Thailand’s regime being “freely chosen” is a lie, and that it is openly run by accused mass murderer, convicted criminal and fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra, both by the ruling party’s own admission and Thaksin’s himself. Thaksin was neither on the ballot in the last election, nor even in the country – and most certainly wasn’t and still isn’t eligible to run for office, let alone dictate policy – yet this is precisely what he is doing and plans to continue doing if and when sham elections are held as planned on February 2, 2014.

As the two protests continue in both Ukraine and Thailand, the hypocrisy of the West will only grow more acute and pronounced. The common denominator of this hypocrisy – with the West backing Neo-Nazi hooligans in the streets of Kiev while backing an illegitimate proxy regime run by a convicted criminal, wielding terrorism against its own population – is the willing capitulation to Western interests made by both Ukrainian opposition parties and Thaksin Shianwatra.

Also see:

A Tale of Two Protests: Ukraine and Thailand – Part I
A Tale of Two Protests: Ukraine and Thailand – Part II