Web War of Words

Council for National Security fumbles as Thaksin makes a comeback in cyberspace

There is only one thing they have in common: their eagerness to appear loyal to His Majesty the King. The surface is clear. But like every public relations drive, the devil hides in the details.

There are two opposing forces. In one corner are supporters of the Council for National Security (CNS), the fancy name the junta gave itself after toying with a number of labels that included the words "democracy" and "constitutional monarchy".

Packaging itself for public consumption has never been the junta's strong point. And in a time of political crisis - when faith and support for the CNS is on the downturn - the junta needs, perhaps more than ever, to find a spin machine that can hit back at its critics with finesse and sophistication.

But it won't be easy, because in the other corner stands the pro-Thaksin camp, waiting to bitch-slap every little thing the junta and the government puts out.

They came up with pictures of the ousted premier, his video clips, music videos and news links for other "useful" sites. They've also turned to blogs.

Tit for tat, a spitting contest - call it whatever you want - but the junta is losing out in this war being played out on the computer screens of the 10 million Internet users in the country.

And the more the government blocks the sites, the quicker new ones pop up - with the same damning message. What was once "thaksin.net" quickly became "thaksin.org". The pro-Thaksin camp works swiftly.

To be fair to the CNS, it would not be realistic to expect the junta to grasp the enormous challenges of the age of PR.

Thailand's top brass has always claimed to grasp information technology (IT), pointing to their sophisticated military system. But using IT in a vicious war of words is another matter entirely.

Generally, Thai official websites are pretty much geared towards promoting their activities instead of addressing critical issues. Many of these sites read like insurance policies - boring content, unabashed praise of themselves, and links to "other" sites (not all of them useful or even working).

So when the pro-Thaksin camp unleashed its wrath through the Internet via hosts in various corner of the world, the government was dumb struck as to what to do.

Prior to the Thaksin cyber boom, the former premier had to rely on traditional media, foreign newspapers and TV to attack the CNS and the government. Thaksin reportedly spent some US$300,000 (Bt9.8 million) to hire to Edelman to assist with his PR strategy.

CNN, the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Asahi Shimbun lined up to talk to the ousted premier. Readers of Time saw him transformed into a yoga-loving champion of human rights and free markets.

Still, his American handlers failed to produce the desirable outcome, as Thaksin's effort to discredit the junta was largely perceived - at least here - as an attack on Thailand.

And so he has put his global PR strategy on hold and turned to the Internet to get his message across. The man, it seems, does not want people to forget about him.

Perhaps the most popular pro-Thaksin site is the http://www.hi-thaksin.net.

It was launched in February and quickly gained attention. As of yesterday it has had about 1 million viewers. Compared to the government's websites, the pro-Thaksin site has an agenda that is much more clearly defined - and it grabs the attention not only of people on both sides of the fence, but the fence sitters too.

At a quick glance, what jumps out from the screen is a rather forlorn-looking Thaksin with a laptop in front of him and a pile of books to his side.

To his left the headline reads: "Moral support from abroad".

Scroll down a bit and a headline screams out: "Expose: Evidence to tie the CNS's hands to corruption" next to CNS chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin.

The next item has a weary-looking chairman of the Privy Council, Prem Tinsulanonda, next to a headline that reads: "Pebble in His Majesty's shoes".

Deputy chief of the CNS, General Saprang Kalayamanit is not spared. The site attacks the CNS's decision to grant his brother a Bt12-million budget for a PR war against the pro-Thaksin camp.

And so on Monday, ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom announced the ministry would take the lead in overhauling official websites rather then shutting down pro-Thaksin ones.

While it is not too late to pick up the pieces, it is still not clear as to what the ICT is planning to do. ICT officials may have a fine grasp of IT, but the PR war appears to be more about content and media strategy.

Sitthichai estimates the number of netizens in Thailand to be around 2 million with about 700,000 registered with Internet broadband. Of these, a few thousand are believed to be active netizens with a high degree of interest in national politics.

But while the number of those actively monitoring political developments through the Internet may be a fraction of the overall users, it appears to be high enough to get on the nerves of the government and the CNS.

Political Desk

The Nation