But it soon emerged that Thaksin’s apparent sympathy for rural protest was entirely tactical. His real agenda—just like that of previous governments—was to suppress rural protests and the organizations behind them. Once the resolution of the assets case made him and the government more secure, this background agenda emerged to the fore. In late 2001, while still maintaining an appearance of friendly negotiation with the Assembly, the government instructed the foreign ministry to “negotiate” with foreign sponsors of Thai NGOs to withdraw funding, specifically naming some NGOs which helped the Assembly. The Assembly. The ministry refused to cooperate (and probably later leaked details of this approach to the press) (TN, 9 May 2003). Shortly after, in early 2002, twenty leading Thai NGO workers and forty-four foreign assistants were found to be under investigation by the Anti Money Laundering Office (AMLO), which was empowered to fight organized crime.