Korn: more lies about his and Abhisit's "invitation to speak at the UK Parliament" | Asia Provocateur

Korn: more lies about his and Abhisit's "invitation to speak at the UK Parliament" | Asia Provocateur

Andrew Spooner, 9 December 2012

Yesterday I blogged about Korn's grandiose Facebook claims that Abhisit and he had been invited by the UK Parliament to speak there during a reception hosted by the Thai Children's Trust.

As stated yesterday after checking both the Thai Children's Trust and Parliament website I could find no mention of either Korn or Abhisit's attendance or invitation.

Korn has recent form on bizarre statements and claims with tasteless, oddball comparisons of the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra to "Hitler".

Korn's team have now reacted to my claims and published a photo of Korn's invitation to attend a reception at Parliament. The event is hosted by Roger Godsiff, the Labour Party MP who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Thailand.

Very obviously this invitation is not from the Parliament nor is it one to speak. It is a simple reception invitation from an MP acting as a host. Receptions like this are being hosted several times a day in the UK Parliament with a huge range of people being invited.

So let's reiterate: an invitation to a reception at Parliament is absolutely not an invitation from the UK Parliament to speak and to claim that it is is completely absurd. In fact, over the last two months I've personally been invited to two similar receptions and at no time did I make the ludicrous claim I'd been invited to speak at the Parliament.

 Korn also claimed Abhisit was invited by the parliament to speak. I will ask the Parliament press office tomorrow if the Parliament has invited either Korn or Abhisit to speak. I will also inform Roger Godsiff MP that Korn deliberately misrepresented his invitation to Thais and claimed it was a parliamentary invite to speak when it was just a basic invitation to a reception.

Korn compares Thai government to Hitler: has he lost his mind? | Asia Provocateur

Korn compares Thai government to Hitler: has he lost his mind? | Asia Provocateur

Asia Provocateur, 25 November 2012

About 18months ago I interviewed Thailand's then Finance Minister, Democrat Party Deputy Leader Korn Chatikavanij - my interviews with him can be found here and here.

On the two occasions that I met Korn I found him to be erudite, articulate and willing to engage on a number of subjects and policy details.

A dual-British/Thai national, the UK-born Korn attended Winchester College and later studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. Urbane, well-educated and with a cosmopolitan air, it's hard not to be impressed by Korn, not least because at roughly 6ft 4inches tall, he has quite an imposing physical presence as well. While I disagreed with him on a number of subjects I found him personally charming and certainly likeable.

So, his comments on his Facebook page today (see screen grab in Thai just below) come as a complete shock.

In a rambling monologue Korn complains about the government's handling of this weekend's Pitak Siam protests. Utilising that tried and tested logical fallacy - the false equivalence  - he states that the government used the police to assault the protesters and that the Red Shirts abandoned their own principles by supporting such actions.

Of course the simple facts that Pitak Siam's publicly stated aims were to destroy democracy and create conditions for a military coup are oddly missing from Korn's narrative. Also the fact that the Pitak Siam protesters drove a large truck directly into police lines and attacked them with sticks and other weapons. Then there's the tiny inconvenient detail that the present ruling government party, Pheu Thai, has an overwhelming parliamentary majority, something his party has not achieved in its 66years of existence. Absent too is that when the government he served in were faced with Red Shirt protesters in 2010 they sent Army snipers onto the streets and shot nurses and school children.

But it was the final part of Korn's rambling comment that raises questions about his mental state.

Using an arcane Adolf Hitler quote (is it only me who finds it odd Korn could quote Hitler so readily?) Korn states that

"The Red Shirt government thinks and behaves like this [like Hitler] - therefore they will end up the same as/not different from Hitler."

To make this bizarre claim is straight out of the nuttiest Thai extremist handbook. The Second World War killed almost 70million people, unleashing unspeakable horrors and crimes on the world. Hitler committed the worst of these crimes, including the terrible slaughter of 6million Jewish men, women and children and 12million Soviet civilians.

It is an utter obscenity for Korn to make a comparison between firing a dozen or so tear gas grenades at violent protesters and Hitler's genocidal slaughter of millions. He should not only be widely ridiculed for making this comparison but condemned as well.

I am quite right to question his sanity in such circumstances and can only hope he sees the error of his ways and offers an immediate retraction and apology.