From Volume 7, Issue 37 of EIR Online, Published Sept. 9, 2008
Asia News Digest

Embattled Thai PM Tries Judo vs. Soros's Fascist Mob

Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has decided to call a national referendum, posing the simple question: Should I remain in power? He announced on national radio Sept. 4 that he would allow the fascist mob, which had occupied Government House (including the PM's office) for ten days at that point, to just stay put, essentially out of harm's way. This move follows the failure of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD—the George Soros-linked mob run by media mogul Sonthi Limthongkul and his middle-class Baby-Boomer followers) to pull in the trade union movement to his royalist coup. As a result, Sonthi stands exposed as a petty nazi with no real support. No one doubts Samak would easily win such a referendum.

Samak also indicated he would lift the State of Emergency which he had declared on Sept. 2 after a bloody clash between the Soros mob and pro-government demonstrators. Samak noted sarcastically about his Emergency declaration: "No one has complied with it." This is a reference to the virtual insurrection by the Army, whose Commander in Chief, Gen. Anupong Paojinda, responded to the Emergency order by deploying a few hundred unarmed soldiers to the streets, but openly defying Samak's orders: "Our main task is to avoid any clash between two groups with different opinions," he said, adding that the army's "enforcement" of the State of Emergency would be based on the "principle of democracy" and rely on negotiation and not force. In effect, he is using the troops to protect the mob. His repeated refrain that there would be no military coup may or may not be true, but there is only one way to remove the mob, which is to use force, or to force the resignation of Samak and his government. The latter appears to be the Army's position. Gen. Anupong is taking orders from the King's Privy Council rather than the government.

But the population is not ready for yet another military junta, and support for the "revered King" (as it is always written in the foreign press, trying to justify the British royal influence over Thailand through the monarchy) is wearing thin.

In a royalist move to discredit the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag, a former ambassador to the U.S. and an advisor to the Privy Council, whom Samak brought in to appease the royalists, resigned after only two months on the job, but this is a transparent move, and is unlikely to have any impact.

Soros's Role in Thai Coup Attempt: Save the Drugs

Sept. 2 (EIRNS)—The mob laying siege to Bangkok today is a classic example of the George Soros-financed "Rose" and "Orange" revolutions across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, even if the color in Thailand is Royal Yellow. Soros infamously launched the 1997 speculative assault on Thailand in a fit of rage that Thailand and its neighbors were bringing Myanmar into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Soros, the financier and leader of the world's movement to legalize drugs, was furious that Myanmar had wiped out the opium trade, forging peace agreements with the ethnic drug armies and unifying the country for the first time since independence from Britain. He was even more furious with ASEAN for befriending Myanmar and rejecting his anti-Myanmar hysteria.

The Soros-linked mobs on the streets today demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, as in 2006 against the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are but a repeat of Soros's economic destruction of Thailand in 1997, in which Soros personally stole billions of dollars from the country. It is also no coincidence that Thaksin's "war on drugs" in 2003 was a major target of the global Soros-funded human rights mafia, building towards the 2006 coup, nor that Samak has discussed reviving the war on drugs this year.

Brits Caught Lying Again in Myanmar

Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—In yet another official refutation of the British campaign to justify a military invasion of Myanmar after the Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country in May, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its official report on the medical aspects of the disaster, praising the Myanmar government's response. "We discovered to our surprise, because of such bad PR, that there was large-scale mobilization by government around the country," the report said.

The Brits, with French backing—but notably without any support from the U.S.—threatened to invade on "humanitarian" grounds, because Myanmar was allegedly refusing to care for its people. The truth was that Myanmar refused to allow the British military into the country under the guise of delivering aid. The U.S. military accepted that reasonable position, and agreed to turn over U.S. aid to the government for delivery, putting lives ahead of politics. The Brits gave them nothing.

The WHO report was based on a survey of 3,000 families in the hardest-hit regions of the delta, the hardest-hit region. They issued the report to the troika that is jointly overseeing recovery aid to the country: ASEAN, the UN, and the Myanmar government.

Korea's Development Bank Nibbles at Lehman Poisoned Bait, Again

Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—The rumor on Wall Street a few weeks ago was that the Korean Development Bank (KDB) was to purchase a large share of Wall Street loser Lehman Brothers at a premium over its stock price. That news caused Lehman's stock (and other financial stocks) to shoot up in price. Suckers are always welcome. That rumor died, however, when the Korean government publicly noticed that Lehman was "insolvent."

KDB governor Min Euoo-sung, who was formerly the head of Lehman's operations in Korea, revived the rumor this week, saying that KDB was trying to establish a consortium with private banks for the acquisition. But even The Economist of London admitted that "KDBs potential allies in South Korea have expressed little interest in the deal, fearing huge additional write-downs when Lehman reports its third-quarter earnings this month. Their enthusiasm will be further dampened by news that Lehman held a stake in Ospraie Management, a New York-based investment firm. Ospraie has been forced to close down its biggest hedge fund, which managed $2.8 billion at the start of August, because of a bad bet on commodities."

This Lehman strong-arm tactic to drag a few billion dollars out of South Korea requires a re-examination of Korea's supposed "September Crisis," a threatened run on the Korean currency, the won, when and if foreign investors cash in on government bonds worth $6.7 billion, maturing in September, instead of reinvesting the money in Korea. This is about the same amount KDB is being told to pump into the dying Lehman. It sounds like old-fashioned colonial looting in modern garb.

China's Two-Track Approach Widens Economic Gap

Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—The long-term Chinese policy of a "two-track" approach for the urban and rural populations, is the basis for the ever-widening economic gap between the two sectors, concluded leading Chinese economists and politicians at a conference of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing today. Vice Prime Minister Hui Liangyu told the conference that the "imbalance in rural-urban development is worsening and taking on many forms," and that now, this two-track approach has become the largest obstacle hindering balanced development in China. Government political advisor Jia Qinglin said, "It is a historic task to balance urban and rural development and promote the integration of the urban and rural economies."

Over 250 million Chinese peasants do not have access to safe drinking water, nearly 100 towns have no roads, and there are 2 million rural people without electricity. The income ratio between urban and rural areas has grown from 2.6/1 in the late 1990s, to 3.3/1 in 2007. With 80% of China's population living in rural areas, many peasants have little or no access to any social security system, including health insurance and other benefits. The old assumption that living on the land is cheaper is no longer true anywhere in China.

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