White House Goes Soft on Thailand's Junta During TPP Push

[marmar]

White House Goes Soft on Thailand's Junta During TPP Push

Friday, 20 November 2015 00:00
By Clara Herzberg, Truthout | Op-Ed


While the world watched Myanmar's historic vote in mid-November, another military dictatorship in Southeast Asia was busy putting off its own elections with a little help from Washington. For the past 18 months, Thailand has been suffering under the heavy thumb of junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the ex-general who overthrew democratically elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014. Instead of offering any serious pushback against military rule in Thailand, the Obama administration has instead sacrificed its commitment to democracy at the altar of the Trans-Pacific Partnership - that jumbled mess of corporate interests the president now wants to force through Congress.

In October, the new US ambassador to Bangkok "welcomed with open arms" the Thai junta's desire to join the TPP. Not that human rights or elected government ever had much to do with Obama's poster-child free trade agreement - the inclusion of Vietnam left no doubt on that front.

In his defense, Ambassador Glyn Davies stressed in that same Bangkok Post interview that US-Thai relations could not return to "normal" until Thailand had elected civilian leaders. To give an idea of just how important Thailand's road back to democracy is for the US, here is Davies in his own words: "... we hope you can get back to that soon because I want that relationship to be at 100%. But it won't stop me from working on the other 95% of the relationship in the meantime."

Since the coup, the US military partnership with Thailand has continued and Obama has deigned not to sanction the junta for its failure to combat human trafficking or its human rights abuses. Just how important is it for the administration, then, that people in Thailand reclaim the right to choose their own leaders? Five percent sounds about right. .................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33732-white-house-goes-soft-on-thailand-s-junta-during-tpp-push

[GeorgeGist]

1. TPP is the obituary.

Democracy is dead.