Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video may suggest, we are discussing strange things afoot in Thailand's Administrative State. I like that term. The first time I heard it that I recall, came from Steve Bannon back in the US, especially back in the first Trump Administration where he was talking about the Administrative State; I hesitate to use the term Deep State; I don't like the current connotations of that. The first time I ever heard that term, it referred to Turkey of all places, but actually I think Administrative State is the correct terminology here and it does have some for lack of a better terms of Leninistic undertones to it as well, and if you sort of research the term 'Administrative State' you will get some of some insight into what I am talking about here. 

With respect to Thailand, what I am talking about specifically is there seems to be a lot of machinations occurring now as a result of the moves if you will, that this current new acting Prime Minister as well as Interior Minister seems to be making with regard to the Interior Ministry, and I think it has broader overtones and undertones insofar as I think there is some sort of move here to - we have already seen undue influence from the World Economic Forum, hence the reason by the way for the thumbnail in this video. Mr. Shinawatra's daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who is currently the suspended Prime Minister and that is the only reason Mr. Phumtham, also in the thumbnail, and by the way I have the Communist hammer and sickle in there because, well quite frankly he has communist complexion if you will, and let's cite that real quick; I'm not just saying that apropos of nothing. First of all from Wikipedia, that is wikipedia.org, quoting directly: "Phumtham was a member of the Communist Party of Thailand from 1977 to 1978." Quoting further, this from france24.com, article titled: 'Big Comrade': Former Defense Chief takes reins as Thai PM. He fled to the jungle where communist guerrillas were plotting uprisings against the nation's military, and recently he has been questioned over his associations." So this is not apropos of nothing that I use that type of verbiage and that I make those connections. The point I am trying to make is I think there is some sort of move here to do something with regard to the apparatus in charge of dealing with the Administration, not only of Thailand’s provinces and things, but possibly the elections. And let me get into this. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Phumtham warns 'idle' officials. Now I discussed in a prior video where we were talking, actually the person that kind of brought this to my attention when reading about their comments, was Jatuporn Prompan who in the past has tended to have kind of let's call it populist inclinations and I think in the past has been someone misguided but he is clearly a nationalist, he cares a lot about as I am, and for those who are unaware, I think it's important, pertinent to maybe put out there my motivations for making these videos, which is look, I have been here 17 years. I consider myself an immigrant to Thailand; I became Thai. I love this place, I really do, and one of the things I fell in love with about it is it's a nation; it takes care of itself, it takes care of its own, it cares about its own sovereignty in a time where there seems to be this move against National Sovereignty throughout the world by these actors such as the World Economic Forum. And by the way, Communists in these weird internationalist positions are not unknown. As we have discussed, Tedros who currently heads up the WHO, he has pulled the same kind of stuff that we are going to get into here with regard to worldwide Public Health like trying to unilaterally claim that the Monkey Pox epidemic - we will put a headline up to just show that - but that the Monkey Pox epidemic was in and of itself a pandemic. I don't even know you could call it an epidemic; it was just an issue, and he tried to unilaterally call it a pandemic and that all kind of fell flat, but he's a Communist. I mean this isn't rhetoric, this isn't hyperbole. We are talking about real issues, and the World Economic Forum has all the traits of the old Comintern in many ways. Now other people have said, "hey, no, they really are sort of right-leaning totalitarians if you will", and I see their point with the public-private partnerships for its own sake, but I would just call it all totalitarian and it looks a lot to me like the old kind of Comintern style tactics and strategies, which I'll get into and we will cite that Mr. Phumtham's "strategic" thinking is why he is currently in the role that he's in, which by the way was elected by no one. He is not on the slate of possible people to be the Prime Minister per Parliamentary protocol. He is simply in there because the current Prime Minister is suspended pending a Constitutional Court ruling that was taken up 9 to 0 that it should be adjudicated and in a 7 to 2, they held that she should be suspended pending the adjudication. So again, this is all happening in this kind of limbo. 

Then meanwhile, we have this person as acting Prime Minister with Communist affiliations, who is now undertaking very, for lack of a better term, very Bolshevik style strategies and tactics to put people in key positions to possibly have an effect on the overall government and on the overall operation of the Administrative State here in Thailand, and my question is, "toward what end?" So going back here, again the article is titled: Phumtham warns ‘idle’ officials. And real quick before I get into all this, this is Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. We do have a paid news service. For folks who like an even deeper dive, and by the way this is going to be a pretty deep video, but I get into this stuff and how it pertains to expats practically in our paid news service, [email protected]; you can email us for information on how to get on the paid news service email list. Also and I am going to go ahead and say this now, my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok for folks that like breakfast anytime, American style breakfast, Pancake Palace. We have got bacon, we've got eggs, we've got pancakes as the name implies. We've got all kinds of American style breakfast; we've also got diner style food including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, best buffalo wings in my opinion in all of Bangkok, and we have also got things like pork chops and chilli bowls. So if you are interested in that kind of thing, go ahead and check us out at Pancake Palace: link is in the description below to get there. 

That said, quoting directly from this Bangkok Post article: "Interior Minister Phumtham Wechayachai warned idle Ministry Officials that they face the risk of being transferred, and that the reshuffle of positions within the Ministry could be finalized this month." My question is what's the big hurry? Why are we in this hurry to move all these people around? I discussed in another video, he moved another guy out that was set to mandatorily retire in October and that guy I believe was in charge of the administration, like he was in charge at the national level of administration of the Department of Provincial Administration which is basically administering all the provincial apparatus basically, and that guy was moved aside even though he was just set to have to retire come October. So all of this is being done in a very hurried manner and my question is why? Quoting further: "Mr. Phumtham's warning came on Tuesday as speculation of a reshuffle arose ahead of the transfer season.." - again, ahead of the transfer season - this is all happening before it normally would - quoting further: ".. in late September, which is the end of the government fiscal budget year." Again, at the normal time that this is done here. What's the rush? Quoting further: Quote: "Nobody is going to wait until September," - I love these sweeping declarations from a guy nobody elected, who is sitting in an interim position, and as I will get into, disregards what I would argue, formal rulings from institutions here regarding his own powers and prerogatives; just makes these sweeping declarations, "this is what we're going to do!" - Quoting further: "Mr. Phumtham, who also serves as acting Prime Minister, told reporters in reference to the repositioning of high-ranking officials within the Ministry. Quote: "I have ordered all departments to start working because I want to see everything operational by October 1 because there are so many issues at hand." Like what? What specifically needs to light a fire under everybody at a time when the Prime Minister's tenure itself is being adjudicated by the Constitutional Court and you are only there in an acting capacity as Prime Minister. Now okay, you are in as Interior Minister but what's the rush. There is a set schedule for doing this stuff. Why the rush? Is it because you are worried that possibly the Constitutional Court is going to adjudicate that, 'no she's no longer the Prime Minister' and we are going to be set for a new reshuffle at that point, and therefore you are not going to have the time nor the capability to make these changes. Is that the reason? And if so, what's so important that these changes need to be made? Quoting further: "Mr. Phumtham said he expects all the changes to be completed by mid-August at the latest." Again, why the rush? What is so important here? The whole country is sitting kind of in a state of transition at the moment – a limbo if you will - because we are waiting around for this adjudication. To my mind, The prudent thing to do for somebody who is in a temporary position, is to just hold down the fort, hold the line, maintain sort of the status quo, get through it, and we figure out what the next legitimate Government that has a mandate from the will of the people, through the constituencies that elected the Parliamentarians, let's see what that would result in. Not hey, let's rush around and change all this stuff while we have got a minute here. It smacks of the tactics of the World Economic Forum. This is the kind of stuff they do. The minute they have got, even if it's a tenuous little hold on things - look at the so-called "minority government" under Trudeau back over there in Canada - one of those World Economic Forum "young leaders" - by the way if people ask what's that got to do with Thailand? The currently suspended Prime Minister is known to have affiliations with the World Economic Forum. So is the former Prime Minister Srettha Taveesin. Since we have seen this Core Coalition Party come back into the foreground in Parliament, I've seen nothing but moves that are indicative of the World Economic Forum's influence, most notably the so-called "digital wallet" where the country had to go into a massive amount of debt to have all this digital money that can be tracked, traced, turned on and off, and they would they have total control over Thai's financial capabilities, and financial transaction capabilities, all of this, this is all indicative of World Economic Forum policy. And my question is who wanted that in the last election? And meanwhile, who are these people acting only in a temporary capacity trying to push this stuff through?

That said, on another note, I think it's worth pointing out, what's the point of the Interior Ministry? What is its function? and why might it be so important that these changes be made so quickly? Quoting from another article in Thai PBS World, that is world.thaipbs.or.th, Phue Thai vs. Bhumjaithai: Why political titans are at war over the Interior Ministry. Quoting directly: "The Interior Ministry serves as the cornerstone of Thailand's administration," - again, that word Administration, again, Administrative State. I think it is worth keeping that in the back of your mind - quoting further: "..overseeing provincial governors, district chiefs and local administrative organizations nationwide." It is also worth pointing out, that Phue Thai could have operated with a much more secure margin within the coalition within Parliament, by keeping Bhumjaithai but they insisted on the Interior Ministry position, which this person is now in, and is currently now trying to make all these quick, fast moves during the interim while we are waiting for the Constitutional Court's ruling on the suspension of the Prime Minister who by the way was suspended on allegations of selling out Thailand's sovereignty to a foreign potentate. And, there is a phone call which I have gone over this at length in other videos, where if she didn't intend to do it, it calls into question her competency, and if she did, it calls into question a lot more. But again, all of this is just sort of adding up to, "whose interest is this being done in?” Because I asked sincerely, I don't see where the people of Thailand's interest, or anything in Thailand's interest really in terms of the Sovereign Nation of Thailand, like to what end is this all being done for? That said, quoting further. So again, this is background on the function of the Interior Ministry. Quoting further: "It has long been perceived to wield significant influence over voters and electoral dynamics" - electoral dynamics - "even though the authority to hold elections has passed to the Election Commission (EC). However, the EC still requires assistance from the Interior Ministry." I read that again: "however the EC still requires assistance from the Interior Ministry which controls a Country-Wide network of local administrative officials." So this is why the Interior Ministry is important pertaining to elections.

Now let's go over here. I talked about this in another video and it's indicative of one, Mr. Phumtham's dismissiveness regarding certain of the institutions within Thailand that act as checks and balances regarding the formal powers of different actors within the government. But also now in the light of this, I've seen this in a different context, his comments regarding a recent ruling from the Council of State. A recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham says he can dissolve House." - says he can dissolve house. Now let's be clear again here who he is. He is in an acting capacity for the currently suspended Prime Minister who is currently suspended pending adjudication of a conversation with the Strong Man in Cambodia in which she is alleged - although she has corroborated that the conversation exists - in that conversation, she apparently was saying that the Field Commander of our military here in Thailand is an "opponent" and saying stuff along the lines of, "oh we'll give you what you want with regard to the border Hun Sen", and then there was the whole issue of, "hey let's open the border at this time", and he said "no, I want to open it now." It just seemed like she was just giving way to everything. I have done the videos on that. I have sort of analogized it to the issue of appeasement in past contexts in a western context; it is very disturbing and concerning. Again we have to wait for a final adjudication from the Constitutional Court regarding that, but while we are waiting an adjudication, this acting Prime Minister, who again is not on the slate in the Parliament to be Prime Minister itself - there's a slate of people who can do that per the current Constitution and the Parliamentary protocols - there are five people it is my understanding from I believe four parties, who could, another one of them by the way would come from Phue Thai itself, the Core Coalition Party which begs the question to me, why not just have this woman step aside, let your third choice come up and become Prime Minister? Is there another reason for that? Is it because due to the fact that she's merely suspended, this guy can act in an acting capacity and you want him there to invoke and to basically implement these "strategies", which we will get to these "strategies" more here in a minute. That said, quoting directly: "Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai dismissed the Council of State's opinion about the acting Prime Minister's power to dissolve the House of Representatives as just one of many legal views." Well as I have discussed in other videos, it is that institution's function to rule on the powers and limitations of the Office of the Prime Minister, which people brought up the fact, well who do they answer to? They answer to the Office of the Prime Minister, but it is somewhat analogous to I would argue White House Council, but it has more of a formal function insofar as it's there to delineate the limitations of the Prime Ministership. And in this case, they weren't necessarily saying the Prime Minister itself or the function of the Prime Minister, or the Office of the Prime Minister cannot dissolve the House, they are saying an acting Prime Minister cannot dissolve the House. And I have to say, I would tend to agree with that because an acting Prime Minister who is not on the slate of people that were put forward; when the voters went to the polls, to vote for their Members of Parliament, there was a slate that went out that said these are the people that we may put up for Prime Minister. This person's name was not on that list, or any of those lists for any of those parties and this person is the one in the position of acting Prime Minister. The Council of State has said an acting Prime Minister cannot dissolve the House and then this is what the response to that was quote: “Mr. Phumtham, who is currently serving as the acting Prime minister, said the COSs opinion” (that's the Council of State's) opinion, given by its secretary-general, does not constitute a formal stance." How is it not a formal stance? They are the institution who is designated with issuing these types of opinions regarding the functions and limitations of the Office. How is that not a formal stance? Quoting further: "And is being treated as one of several legal views being considered after Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended from duty, pending a Court ruling." Well is one of those several legal views, just whatever you think? Which by the way is classically indicative of World Economic Forum thinking, just whatever we want to do, we will just do it if we have the power. It's also classic Bolshevik, Marxist, Communist thinking - just do it and move along - it's really, really concerning.

That said, getting to another article, quoting directly, the article is from Nation Thailand, that is nationthailand.com, the article is titled: Thaksin appoints trusted aide to shield daughter from armed forces. So this article is for background, okay? I think it's worth noting how this person got put into the position they were in prior to now being the acting PM, and I think it sheds light on why, okay? And I have to ask the question, has all this been to one degree or another pre-planned? Is this an attempt to subvert the Constitutional functions that currently are in place in Thailand, in order to gain some outcome that is not constitutionally prescribed. I really am asking that question, because it is starting to look like it. Because this is a person in an acting capacity disregarding the opinion of the institution that makes rulings regarding what one can do in the acting capacity of that Office, and just says, "oh, that's just one opinion". Then meanwhile, we have this person over in the Interior Ministry role who is making all kinds of transfers immediately before we would otherwise see these things done anyway. And moving people that have mandatory retirement a matter of a couple of months before they are set to retire anyway. Why? To what end? And that all must be looked at through the prism of it's within the Ministry that would administer elections, and then this person says, "well I can dissolve the House" and I'm not going to listen to the Council of State telling me that an acting PM can't do that. That's just one opinion. I'm not saying he's saying he's not going to listen, but he is saying, "well that's just one opinion, it's not a formal stance", whatever that means. I don't know how it's not a formal stance when the institution that is designated with rendering opinions regarding the functions of that Office is saying something, the Secretary-general of that institution says something and you just say, "well that's just your opinion", how is it not a formal stance? That said, let's quote, again Nation Thailand, nationthailand.com. This is an older article; this is to provide some background here. Again, article is titled: Thaksin appoints trusted aide to shield daughter from armed forces. You can get into all of this, it's kind of written from the standpoint of there is some kind of, "oh he's going to protect her from that". As we'll get into, it looks to me like it was more, "no because she couldn't handle the portfolio." Also it is my understanding he was supposed to only be in there in this sort of technocratic capacity, and he is not supposed to influence policy or anything. But that said, let's dive in. Quoting directly: "Phue Thai patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra has entrusted his long-time ally" - which that's an interesting one, long-time ally, and again bearing in mind, we will put this stuff on screen. I did another video on this where Paetongtarn met with an envoy from the World Economic Forum in the Purple Room at one point. I'm starting to wonder if during his absence from Thailand, not only was he sitting on his perch in Phnom Penh making things worse for us here in Bangkok in 2010, but he also didn't make friends with people from the World Economic Forum out there, and then he's got this ally who has known Communist connections which that's a weird, strange bedfellow situation. I thought this guy was supposed to be Mr. Big Businessman tycoon stuff. That said, quoting further: "Phumtham Wechayachai, to play the role of guardian angel for his daughter, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Earlier speculation that Paetongtarn would concurrently hold the post of Defense Minister was apparently a decoy." Now first of all, I hate all of this where it's all of this, "oh we are shadow boxing, we are going to do this and then we will do that," because it is trying to trick everybody, most notably the electorate, who just wants to get a Government in there that is at least somewhat responsive to their wants and needs and isn't going to be in there doing everything to the benefit of just a few people, which is kind of what ends up happening in communist regimes and totalitarian regimes in general. That said, quoting further: "With Thaksin well aware his daughter is too inexperienced," - too inexperienced to be Defense Minister but yeah let's make her Prime Minister so she can run the whole country. I think that's really telling because the way that that article was initially spun, if you read it, it's like oh she needs to worry about the armed forces. No her own dad knew that she is not really competent enough for that job to begin with, which I think was born out at the very least in her phone call with Hun Sen. Quoting further: "Phumtham's experience as a Political and Military strategist dates back to the 1970s." - I want to read that again: "Phumtham's experience as a Political and Military strategist dates back to the 1970s, when he joined the Communist Party of Thailand and was known as Comrade Yai." Big Comrade.

So let me get this straight. He was brought in for his strategic thinking and he gained his strategic thinking when he was with the Communists as a guerrilla - as I pointed out in the prior article from France 24 - as a guerrilla operating against the interests here, I mean he was a guerrilla, okay? And now we are seeing these types of strategic plays within the Administrative State of the Interior Ministry, which has the authority to help administer elections here in Thailand and this same person in his capacity is acting PM, is disregarding the Council of State's opinion that he doesn't have the authority to dissolve the House and thereby call new elections. This person who, and I quote, "his experience as a Political and Military strategist dates back to the 70s when he joined the Communist Party of Thailand and was known as Comrade Yai". That person who again and I quote France 24, "fled to the jungle where communist guerrillas were plotting uprisings against the nation's military and recently has been questioned over his Associations". That person. Quoting further: "While Phumtham's official role as Defense Minister is crucial," which by the way it's my understanding we still won't have a Defense Minister right now, - quoting further: "..his core duty is to help the inexperienced PM run the country, run the economy." So on top of that, we brought in a Communist, a clearly failed economic ideology, I mean say whatever you will about the rest of it, we know the USSR didn't work, and then the Chinese under Deng Xiaoping - what was that where they opened the window and some flies would come in - they even had to bring in capitalism, because Communism didn't work. So that guy is going to be on the team to look over the economy. And meanwhile going back to this, quoting again, "help the inexperienced PM run the economy". So she can't run the economy either; she can't run the Defense Ministry, but let's put her in charge of the whole country as Prime Minister, which again we have seen how this bore out. The proof is now in the pudding. She got on the phone with a bordering sovereign country and it was a disaster, let's just call it that, okay? And again, this is his ally. I thought he was a businessman, that's how he's always been touted, a businessman. But his ally is this again, "communist military strategist dates back to the 1970s when he joined the Communist Party of Thailand and was known as Comrade Yai." That's the ally of this great businessman? Quoting further: "As a result, Phumtham will get help in overseeing the military from Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Nattapon Nakphanit of the United Thai Nation Party. But since Nattapon is not a Phue Thai member, Thaksin cannot trust the general 100%." Loyalty to this Party thing over country, and this whole obsession with Party loyalty, it sounds an awful lot, an awful lot, like this stuff seen in Russia from what, 1917 to 1991. This is creepy, this is very creepy stuff. It's being done in a very subversive manner; it's being done in such a way that it is subtle. Outsiders who don't know the inner workings of Thailand, if a change is to happen like the Constitutional Court says, hey, and I'm not saying it's foregone conclusion, it's on them to adjudicate that, but if they were to say, "hey, her conduct was not appropriate, she is going to be dismissed in her role as Prime Minister", what happens if he dissolves the House - even though he doesn't particularly have the power to do that per the Council of State's own opinion - I mean what happens there? Is there going to be some big move here being made, or could we just have them pick the next Phue Thai guy, or have Parliament get back together and pick another person that is not some acting person that has prior Communist party leanings, and was a strategist and a guerrilla for them. If you can't tell, I have serious concerns about all of this.

That said, it remains to be seen how all this is going to play out, so we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.