Ultra-royalist ex-singer protests charter-change move
Royalist former singer Haruethai Muangboonsri led a small protest outside Parliament on Thursday morning against what she claims is a Jewish-led foreign conspiracy to bring down the Thai monarchy.
Haruethai and around 10 fellow members of the ultra-royalist group Thai Pakdee held up a sign that read “Stop Soros’s draft”.
The sign referred to a draft bill for a constitutional amendment to reform the monarchy that was written by human rights group iLaw, which has apparently received some funding from the Open Society Foundation, a philanthropic initiative of Jewish-American billionaire George Soros.
Last week, in a heated televised debate with a pro-democracy leader, Haruethai asked: “Who is iLaw? Why are they taking money from the American Jewish World Service? How can they take money from Jews?”
Right-wing groups such as Thai Pakdee have sought to discredit pro-democracy protests by claiming they are funded by Soros, the US government or other foreign actors, but have offered no credible evidence for their claims.
A petition to forward the iLaw draft to Parliament was backed by the signatures of more than 100,000 Thai citizens.
It has been tabled for debate along with six other charter-change motions during a special session of Parliament on November 17-18.