US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK3207

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 003207 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, USPACOM FOR FPA HUSO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PTER, TH, Southern Thailand 
SUBJECT: PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ON WHY THAILAND'S 
CEO PRIME MINISTER CARES ABOUT THE SOUTH 
 
REF: BANGKOK 3145 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce, Reason: 1.4 (d) 
 
 
1. (C) Summary:  In a recent meeting with the Ambassador, Dr. 
Gothom Ariya, who is a respected academic, human rights 
activist and member of the National Reconciliation Commission 
(NRC), expressed his views on the NRC's initial meeting, 
changes in the attitude of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra 
toward the thorny problem of violence in the South and 
questions of US involvement often repeated by those 
discussing the issue.  Dr. Gothom also discussed PM 
Thaksin,s management style and motivations, Thailand,s 
economic conditions and Thai attitudes towards a Free Trade 
Agreement with the United States.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) On April 20, the Ambassador and Poloffs met with Dr. 
Gothom Ariya, presently on the Engineering faculty at 
Chulalongkorn University, Secretary General of the regional 
NGO Forum Asia and a member of the recently established NRC. 
(See full biography in paragraph 8.)  The meeting -- intended 
to be an informal, free-ranging discussion -- took place just 
two days after the first full meeting of the NRC on April 18 
(Reftel). 
 
3. (C) Gothom stated that the NRC has a 9-12 month time frame 
to accomplish its mission.  He expects to be working 
full-time on the Commission's secretariat during this period. 
 NRC members will issue a final report with recommendations 
at the end of their work, but interim suggestions to the 
Thaksin administration for improving the situation in the 
troubled provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani will be 
made as necessary.  While NRC members, lead by Chairman Anand 
Panyarachun, a highly respected former prime minister, will 
be involved in initiating the process for recommendations, 
Gothom said one of the main goals of the Commission was to 
build "ownership" of solutions and the process to conflict 
resolution amongst "stakeholders", such as the police, 
military and Islamic councils.  He noted that the new Deputy 
Prime Minister and Minster of Interior, Police General 
Chidchai Vanasatidya appeared keen to take on recommendations 
from the NRC and implement them. 
 
PRIME MINISTER'S CHANGE OF HEART ON SOUTHERN POLICY 
 
4. (C)  Dr. Gothom admitted that the first meeting of the 
NRC, where PM Thaksin was present, was "a little rough."  The 
soft-spoken academic said that he felt at first like the NRC 
was still dealing with the "old mindset" of Thaksin.  He 
described Thaksin's approach to the South earlier in 2005, 
when the Prime Minister had proposed the designation of 
color-coded zones to distinguish villages cooperating with 
the RTG from those who supposedly did not, to a large truck 
going down an "8-lane highway," with the RTG pushing people 
to either side.  Gothom noted that the low point of that 
approach was when Thaksin used Thai expletives in reference 
to academics critical of this approach (including Gothom. See 
Ref B).  (Note: Shortly after the Thaksin's outburst, he met 
with a representative group of the academics, and later 
Anand, to announce the formation of the NRC.  For more on 
Thaksin's shift to a more conciliatory southern policy, see 
septel on Ambassador-Thaksin May 12 meeting.  End Note.)  As 
an example of how far the PM had come, Gothom pointed out the 
Thaksin's recent uncharacteristically cool-headed reaction to 
the April 3 Hat Yai airport bombing. 
 
THAKSIN: GOOD INTENTIONS, BUT PSYCHOLOGICALLY DRIVEN, RATHER 
THAN PRINCIPLED 
 
5. (C) Dr. Gothom said that Thaksin's intentions are good but 
his principles are questionable.  Admitting that he was 
indulging in some armchair psychology, Gothom spoke of his 
view that the PM has megalomaniacal tendencies while at the 
same time wanting the public to view him as their champion. 
This, Gothom believes, explains Thaksin's convincing 
commitment to his more populist programs as well as his 
vicious response to criticism - implied or direct.  Gothom 
thinks that Thaksin feels he is misunderstood and, despite 
his bragging about how great he is doing, also feels insecure 
about being unjustly criticized.   Gothom noted that even in 
the recent general election campaign, Thaksin seemed to have 
a compulsion to show he will help the disadvantaged, for 
example, when he talked repeatedly about his "war on 
poverty."  (Comment:  It was also good vote-getting rhetoric. 
 End Comment.)  In Gothom's view, Thaksin seems equally 
psychologically compelled to solve the problems in the deep 
South. 
 
U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN THE SOUTH 
 
6. (C) The discussion also addressed the sensitive topic of 
persistent rumors (and apparently wide belief by Muslims and 
other Thais) of U.S. involvement in the violence in the 
South.  The Ambassador emphasized that the U.S. has no 
intention of establishing a military presence in Southern 
Thailand as part of the Global War on Terror (a theory 
commonly advanced in the Thai press).  Dr. Gothom mentioned 
the case of three Thai Muslims who were arrested in June 2003 
and later charged under Sections 3 and 5 of the Penal Code of 
Thailand, "Offenses Against the External Security of the 
Kingdom, and Offenses Relating to Public Peace." Gothom 
expressed particular concern about Dr. Waemahadi Waedao, 
stating it was his (Gothom's) understanding, and an often 
repeated rumor, that Waedao's arrest and prosecution were 
based partly on information supplied by the U.S. government. 
(Note:  The verdict in Waedao's case and that of two 
co-defendants is scheduled to be read in the Bangkok Criminal 
Court on June 1.  The case was moved to Bangkok from 
Narathiwat province in 2004 at the request of the defendants' 
former attorney and missing Muslim lawyer, Somchai 
Neelapaijit.  End Note.) 
 
7. (C) Comment:  Gothom's psychologizing about Thaksin's 
motivations and his shift in policies toward the South are 
interesting.  But the Prime Minister, faced with escalating 
violence in the South that threatens to damage his other 
goals, is also simply facing up to the reality that he needs 
fresh ideas and wider support.  Gothom is an influential 
civil society leader whose hard work on the NRC and unending 
optimism is expected to provide the RTG with a wealth of such 
fresh ideas about problem solving and conflict resolution in 
the South and elsewhere.  In a May 10 op-ed piece in The 
Nation newspaper, for example, Gothom discussed ways to use 
bilingual education in the South to help integrate the local 
population more appropriately into Thai society.  Ideas like 
this, whether ultimately plausible or not, provide a welcome 
counterweight to the approaches of more parochial, 
security-oriented decision makers in Thai society.  End 
Comment. 
 
8. (U) Biography: Dr. Gothom Areeya (Gothom Ariya).  Born in 
Bangkok on September 14, 1943, Gothom completed his primary 
and secondary education at Assumption School.  He later spent 
9 years in France after receiving a scholarship from French 
Government in 1960.  He earned bachelor, masters and doctoral 
degrees in electrical engineering from the Universities of 
Toulouse and Paris.  He has been teaching at the Faculty of 
Engineering, Chulalongkorn University since his return from 
France. 
 
Gothom is widely recognized as one of Thailand's leading 
figures in human rights circles due to his extensive work in 
that field since the student-led October 14, 1973 uprising. 
Among the prominent non-governmental organizations with which 
he has been involved are the Union for Civil Liberty, the 
Religious Coordination Group for Society and the Association 
for Appropriate Technologies.  In politics, he has taken part 
in several nationwide movements, namely, the campaign against 
the military-led constitutional amendment in 1983, the 
Campaign for Popular Democracy Program in 1991 (in reaction 
to the February 23 coup) and the government-appointed 
Election Monitoring Committee or PollWatch in 1992. 
 
Professor Gothom is a Catholic who advocates peace, freedom, 
democracy and rights for the underprivileged.  He has served 
as Secretary General to the NGO Asian Forum for Human Rights 
and Development (Forum-Asia) since 2004 and was recently 
appointed to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), 
serving as a member, on the joint secretariat of the 
Commission, and as an advisor in the Prime Minister's Office 
overseeing the administration of the Commission. 
 
Gothom is married to Phonthip (Bunnak); they have a 19-year 
old daughter. 
BOYCE