Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggest, we are discussing good old OECD again. Anybody that follows my videos with any frequency knows that I am not the biggest fan of OECD. I don't think this is any good for Thailand; I think it can have all kinds of negative implications for Thailand. That said, I thought of making this video after reading an article that would seemingly not cause one to think of making a video like this but I think once you see my analysis, you'll see how I got here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Embassies to see weekend protests. Quoting directly: ”The “United Land Power to Protect Sovereignty” group, a nationalist coalition, announced plans to stage a protest outside the American and Malaysian embassies on Saturday to oppose “foreign interference in Thai sovereignty in its attempt to resolve the border conflict with Cambodia. Jatuporn Prompan, a leading member of the group, said on Monday the rally is to protest the involvement by US President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the country's handling of the Thai-Cambodian conflict.” So just point of reference. I actually went to some of these events that were put on in a similar fashion, not at the Embassy, but recently with regard to the last government here in Thailand and I made videos at the time. As I'll get to here in a moment, I understand the sentiment here, but I actually think if anything, there has been something of an understanding, I won't go so far as to say an accommodation, but I think that there is an understanding between Trump and Anutin on this. I may be reading too much between the lines and purely view this as my speculation, but when I was reading, I think from the Bangkok Post as well as other sources, when I was reading various accounts of when Anutin recently went down there to the ASEAN meeting - which didn't only deal with the border issue but other kind of broader ASEAN issues - there was some talk of Trump said something to Anutin about the trade rep. would circle back to him. Then there was also a phone call recently between Trump and Anutin where Trump, and again I'm not citing direct quotations here, but basically what my understanding of it was the gist of it was, Trump basically said okay we're sort of going to take a pause on all of this for a moment since the incident involving this exploded ordinance went off at the border in the last couple of days but he basically said, “hey, deal with this de-mining quickly so we can get back on track with regard to these trade disputes.” Not disputes but these trade talks.  

That said, the way I viewed that, I viewed that through sort of the prism of this old ally, they have each got their own interest, there are some local issues going on for Thailand especially, and basically it was kind of a hey figure it out”, but figure it out fast so we can all get on with it.” That seemed to be kind of the message I took away from it and I didn't take away - although I initially was concerned and I did videos at the time - that Trump was bringing this whole tariffs thing into this which I don't know how good an idea that was, whatever. That said, I don't even view them as all that really related, but I sort of brought it up at the time that I had concerns about that. In the aftermath of the ASEAN meeting and then the subsequent what I read about the subsequent communications between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister here in Thailand, I got more of the impression that everybody is just trying to work through this; they're giving Thailand an opportunity to try to work through this. Nobody is trying to be punitive to anybody. It's a difficult situation; we are all trying to get through it. That was the gist of it that I got. Now understand my biases. I may be a naturalized Thai, but I have an American background, so I could have my own preconceptions and things but honestly, my true objective opinion is there was some kind of meeting if you will or there has been communication between those two parties and the overall message was, we get it. You have your national interests. Go ahead and try to do what you can to secure that. Get your ducks in a row but let's do this quickly so we can smoothly get on down the road and get back to doing business which I think is what everybody wants to do; even here in Thailand there are parties that really want to do that.

But that said, Thailand is incredibly concerned about her sovereignty, and about her security as you would be if you'd have a bunch of ordinance lobbed over your border oh just last summer basically. So I get where everyone is at on this, but I'm really hopeful that we don't see any more of this media spin along the lines of the narrative that there's some kind of rift between American and Thailand because I just don't see it being there. If anything,  I've discussed the relationship between the United States and the Thais as being similar to that as between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, insofar as sometimes look Wyatt Earp just had to accept the fact that Doc Holliday did things the way he did, and Doc Holliday sometimes had to accept the fact that Wyatt Earp did things the way that he did and it just was the way it was. That was the impression I got from everything I read about the communications between the President and the Prime Minister here in Thailand. Now again, I may have my own biases and the prism that I look through to analyze that maybe somewhat skewed; judge for yourself. But that said, from where I sit, that's what it looks like to me. That said, quoting further, and this quote comes from Jatuporn himself, quote: “We believe that only a nation with dignity can negotiate with dignity. We must not fear tariff threats, because protecting our territory is the most important issue. We must also combat scammers. We can’t allow Thailand to become anyone's easy target ... to be bullied or pushed around.” Yeah, I couldn't agree more and I get all those sentiments. But again, I'm not so sure that the Americans are really where the, I hesitate to use the term ire but where the protest should be aimed at. If anything, I think we'd all be better off here in Thailand to just, at least at this point, put our faith in the Armed Forces here in Thailand that they are capable of handling something like this, and to the Commanders in the field, and basically just let them do their job; I think that would be the best thing for all of us at the moment. I don't know what protesting the Americans or anything, or for that matter it seems that Malaysia has kind of fallen into this as well, really it's going to accomplish in my opinion. Again I respect Jatuporn, but I don't always agree with him on things.

Now that being said, and the point of this video is if we are concerned about sovereignty, I think the bigger issue is OECD and again I think OECD should be an issue at the forefront going into this next election. I just don't see why this is being sort of sidelined because as I have discussed in other videos, and many times I've discussed Mr. Trump's own Executive Order pertaining to OECD in the United States where he flat out rejected it, citing the threat to National Sovereignty himself that it created extra territorial jurisdiction from which foreign powers could have an undue influence on American tax policy. I think similar could be said for OECD in the context of Thailand.

So the thing to take away from this video and what I'm hoping maybe folks see with regard to those folks who in my opinion have some misguided, if you will, criticism for the United States I don't think the US has acted particularly bad in all of this; I think they have tried to act as something of a mediator. Yeah, we all know President Trump and he seems to be out there trying to get a Nobel Peace prize, whatever, but that's kind of superfluous to this analysis. Overall I haven't seen where it has been too bad. Now that said, when the whole tariff thing got tied into this, I wasn't in love with that notion but having read what I've read, I think that there has been some kind of understanding reached between Anutin and Trump regarding getting this sorted, getting the border issue sorted, and then just getting on to getting back to business. That said, I could be wrong in that analysis; that could be inaccurate speculation on my part. That said, again the purpose of this video is me pointing out that I think the OECD is the biggest threat to Thailand’s sovereignty other than obvious physical threats that we already are aware of, again the border being one of them, and other places being a particular hotspot for that type of thing. Again I think OECD is something though to really concentrate on more, because although it's more subtle, I definitely think the influence of that particular organization could be far more pernicious and be far more of a threat to National Sovereignty here in Thailand than much of anything else that I was reading about in this article. That being said, all of this, how this plays out remains to be seen. We will certainly keeping you updated on the channel as the situation evolves.