Abhisit Vejjajiva
© WikiAbhisit Vejjajiva
Upon his appointment as Prime Minister in 2008, Abhisit's officially declared personal assets worth 51.8 million baht (nearly $2 million). This increased to 54.4 million upon leaving office. Given that Abhisit has never worked in the private sector, the vast majority of his wealth was either inherited or given to him.[76]

Since today is "judgement day" according to the minority protesters in Thailand who refuse to work with the current elected government and who also refuse to participate in the upcoming emergency elections being held because they took their balls and went home (quit the House seats they occupied (150 out of 500) because they couldn't get their way, I thought I would provide some history to the conflict in order to give readers here a little perspective.

The two main opposition leaders of this color revolution are former appointed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Suthep Thaugsuban. Abhisit is ready and waiting for the unpopular Democratic Party to take control after the coup while it seems Suthep's job is rallying the NED "protesters" and trying to provoke violence from the police. But, according to them, they serve the same interests in this effort.

Since Mr. Abhisit seems poised and ready to jump into power once again, let's take a little look at his background and how he came to be the next installed by illegal junta Prime Minster of Thailand. (pay attention Mr. Cartalucci. You asked for this)

Mr. Abhisit did his Oxford thesis on IMF structural reform plans and after Thaksin was able to payoff the IMF loan 4 years early, getting their greedy hands out of his country, Abhisit welcomed the the IMF back with open arms.
"Abhisit, who had done his Oxford thesis on IMF rescue programmes, now had to witness the IMF being called in to save the Thai economy." Financial Times 2009 interview at Davos
In 2010, Abhisit went to the Council on Foreign relations to give a talk after his government forces brutally murdered 90 protesters in Thailand's version of the Occupy Movement. This is what he had to say to the CFR about that little regrettable mishap:
"The events in April and May will have given you very disturbing images, leading, of course, to very regrettable losses of lives, but they also serve as a very powerful lesson that when you're trying to develop a democracy, there will be clashes of values, clashes of opinions, but the key thing, of course, is we have to find a way in which we can avoid violence and illegal means by which people want to attain their political ends or objectives.

... we continue to attract investment, encourage the private sector, through further deregulation and liberalization, as well as increased facilitation for investors and the business community.." CFR page from 2010
Hmmm... deregulation, financial liberalization, opening up the country to outside investors and the hot money speculators and basically handing over the nation to the investors and business community... that's Abhisit's pledge at the Council on Foreign Relations back in 2010 after slaughtering Occupy style protesters in the streets.

Need a little more history?

This undemocratic "movement" that I have called a color revolution in the classic sense (one reader from Thailand left a comment saying "NED - the acronym for fear - is currently "assisting and funding" Burmese dissidents in Bangkok. I drink with their boss some evenings at my cafe near Elephant Head bridge.") will ultimately see these two in positions of power if successful. So exploring a bit of their history is needed in order to understand what is really at stake in the country.

Former appointed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is a British citizen as well as a Thai citizen. He was raised and educated in Britain.

In Dec. of 2007, there was a Parliamentary election. After the 2006 military coup ousted the elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra the junta disbanded the House and took other steps to shut down democracy of any kind. So, in Dec. of 2007, there was a Parliamentary election to fill the vacancy in the democracy vacuum. Abhist's party, the Democratic Party, lost of course.

It was not long after the judiciary, the constitutional court, in the pockets of the monarchists and the country's elite families (kinda like our Supreme Court) decide to remove the elected Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej because he accepted a payment from a cooking show he appeared on. This was late 2008.

Thus Abhisit Vejjajiva's opportunity was conceived. He was put in power, unelected, when the constitutional court banned the most popular political party from government, allowing the second most popular, the Democratic Party, to win control by default. When that happened, Abhisit Vejjajiva backed into office in the wake of almost the entire political sphere of Thailand being expelled from the democratic process.

Now, keep in mind, this is the person who Tony Cartalucci is fighting diligently to put back into power in a similar fashion via an unelected appointment following a military coup, violent or otherwise.
"It is a threat that must be met, if possible with as little intervention as possible from the military, but with full commitment if necessary." Tony "Color Revolution" Cartalucci
But don't hold it against the former Prime Minister, apparently it's a family tradition for Abhisit. His father was similarly installed in a position of power after the military coup of 1991. Then he installed his father at the head of the largest agricultural conglomerate after he took over as Prime Minister.
"Abhisit's father, Athasit (อรรถสิทธิ์) Vejjajiva, is a former president of Mahidol University and a member of the Royal Institute of Thailand.[32] After the National Peace Keeping Council seized power in a military coup in 1991, the military junta appointed Abhisit's father Deputy Minister of Public Health.[33][34] When Abhisit became Prime Minister, Athasit was appointed director of Charoen Pokphand Foods, Thailand's largest agribusiness firm and part of the Charoen Pokphand Group.[35]
Abhisit's attention to Big Business didn't end with getting his father the cushy job at Pokphand Foods. Like Obama in DC, Abhisit tended to hand out high ranking government positions to CEOs and company execs like it was going out of style:
Abhisit was formally endorsed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej as Prime Minister on 17 December 2008. Key appointments in Abhisit's government included PAD leader Kasit Piromya as Foreign Minister, construction tycoon Chaovarat Chanweerakul as Interior Minister, and investment banker and former Abhisit classmate Korn Chatikavanij as Finance Minister.[66] Massage parlor tycoon Pornthiva Nakasai was appointed Deputy Commerce Minister.
Subsequently, all those Big Business types ran the economy straight into the ground, like they've done here. Debt rules the world, doesn't it? It at least enslaves nations and you're not doing your job for the big banks as a world leader unless you understand as much (which might be why Thaksin was so hated after he paid back the IMF loans he inherited 4 years early and took out no others)
Abhisit's government saw unemployment increase by 63 percent.[67] Thailand's government budget went into deficit for the first time since 2003. By 2010, the government's debt had bloomed and reached -4.8% of GDP, the largest budget deficit since the government of Chuan Leekpai.[68]
The people who had been enjoying low unemployment and relatively high pay rates for the region (it's debatable how high they were) started to get understandably miffed with all the "CHANGE" they were seeing under Afhisit's Rule of the CEOs. So, they started having protests against his rule.

Bad move.

In 2010 an extended protest took place in downtown Bangkok. People were tired of the neo-liberal austerity measures being implemented on them by then current unelected government.

It was much like our Occupy Movement that took place here not that long ago.

The government forces quelled it a little differently than Obama did though. They killed 90 of them in a 6 week period while few here in the alternative news world paid much attention. Both Abhisit Vejjajiva and Suthep Thaugsuban were implicated in the decision making process that resulted in those deaths.
"Messrs. Abhisit and Suthep were in charge of a special command unit that ordered the security forces to quell the protesters, leading to the deaths and injuries, the attorney general's office said in a statement.

"We have evidence that showed that Mr. Abhisit and Mr. Suthep ordered security forces to disperse the protesters and authorized the use of weapon and live ammunition," said spokesman Nanthasak Poonsuk of the attorney general's office." Wall Street Journal
In 2011, Mr. Abhisit's Democrat Party was defeated in elections in 2011 by Ms. Yingluck. It's not hard to understand why. The military coup of 2006 robbed the people of their chosen representative and then in 2008, when the people spoke again electing Samak Sundaravej, once again, the country's elites and privileged class had him evicted from office as well.

Today Mr. Abhisit and Mr. Suthep stand poised and ready for some more politics as usual in Thailand. The ruling party has made one concession after the other in order to stem the coming storm. They have set up new elections for this coming Feb. in order to give them a chance to put their issues to the people and have them decide, and the opposition has refused just like the opposition in Syria refused just like the opposition in Libya refused just like the opposition in the latest coup in Egypt refused to put the matter to the people.

The current Prime Minister has even gone so far as to offer to resign as long as there is a legitimate election held within 30 days or so to replace her.

The opposition supported by the likes of Tony Cartalucci, has refused. They instead demand an unelected body of technocrats appointed by the elites, laughingly called "the people's council", be given full power to rule the nation.

This is absurd but it is the whole point of the neo-liberal war on democracy that we see all over the globe.

Someone should ask how Mr. Abhisit became a millionaire having never worked in the private sector. Should be an interesting story to say the least.