General Sonthi and the coup II

Perhaps now feeling that he went a little too far in asking his direct questions – or more likely reflecting elite criticism – Sanan Kachornprasart is reported at the Bangkok Post as backpedaling and simultaneously pedaling nonsense.

Sanan said he raised his question “with the sincere intention of wanting people throughout the country to know the answer [to who was behind the coup]. Since the the Sept 19 coup the country had been plagued with violence.” He said that “The people believed from the beginning that there were some other people behind the coup.”

Of course, The People have good reason to believe that.

Sanan said that “Thaksin and the red shirts believed Gen Sonthi received an order to stage the coup. This belief led a group of red shirts to lay siege to Gen Prem’s Si Sao Theves residence and the matter escalated to affect a high institution…”. Remarkably, Sanan then added:

Not only the people in general believed the high institution was involved in the coup, even some MPs of his party also held the same belief.

Then Sanan turned to a defense of the palace and Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanond. He stated that Prem “had nothing to do with the Sept 19, 2006 coup…”.

He went on to “answer” the three questions:

To the question who were behind the coup, the answer is nobody.

To the question whether it was Gen Prem who lead [sic.] Gen Sonthi and his team to have an audience with His Majesty the King after the coup and whether Gen Prem was aware there would be a coup, the answer is “no.”  Gen Prem knew nothing about the coup plot.

To the third question whether he met Gen Prem before the coup and whether after the coup Gen Prem asked him twice, via Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit (a former supreme commander), to speak out the truths concerning the coup….  Gen Prem really did that through Gen Mongkol,” Maj-Gen Sanan said.

Sonthi refuses to say – if there was no-one why keep a “secret” to the grave while declaring loyalty to the king? – Sanan reveals the source of his “knowledge” on the coup: “from his own intelligence.” He doesn’t tell us anything with this. I know because I was told…. Maybe he should have watched Prem, listened to the coup plotters themselves and even read Wikileaks.

By blathering like this, his claim “that the high institution and members of the elite were not involved in the Sept 19 coup” really sounds like I’d like people to believe this with no evidence and, indeed, counter to the available evidence.