| Written by Thingfish,
on 24-09-2006 15:55
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Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej gave his blessing to the country's new military junta on Friday.
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The Thai coup’s all but over, and the world has turned back to other things, wondering why they briefly bothered caring about political upheavals in the home of sin and spice.
But while nobody seems to have died this time, the events of the past few days beg the question whether Thailand ever wanted democracy in the first place.
Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was not well liked by Thailand’s chattering classes. And with good reason – the man was genuinely objectionable. But no matter how they gnashed and wailed, how much media they bought or celebrities they recruited, the man kept on winning elections.
So they decided not to play any more, and when a third election came around, they stayed home. And when Thaksin won again, they complained to the king, who sacked him. But that wasn’t enough. They wanted a whole change of government, not just leadership. So they got the courts to annul the election, and Thaksin got his job back on the unspoken condition that they could win the next one.
The Dummy's Guide to Coup d'Etats
But as the months passed and the election loomed, it was clear they weren’t about to win this one either.
So they enlisted the military, who happily dug out their dusty Dummy’s Guide to Coup d’Etats, and followed it to the letter: Wait till the leader’s out of town, roll in the tanks, close down TV stations and Web sites, announce martial law, slap restrictions on the press (not that they needed much anyway), arrest politicians, ban protests and tell everyone that it’s for their own good.
Styling themselves as the Administrative Reform Council, the incoming junta promised a return to civilian government within a fortnight, write a new constitution and hold democratic elections in a year. And to enforce their legitimacy, they made it clear they had the full support of the king.
But Thais shouldn’t need to wait a year for an election. There was one due next month. And if the country needed a new constitution, an election would be a logical place to debate it.
The point of democracy is that bad governments are removed at the ballot. If a bad government keeps winning, then the problem may just lie with the opposition. When you choose to boycott an election, you’d better live with the consequences. These are pretty elemental concepts, but they’re ideas that have eluded the Thai opposition.
monarchy or democracy
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The Administrative Reform Council appear on TV on Tuesday to announce their coup
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You really have to wonder if there’s something intrinsically dysfunctional in a system that enables military coups as often as Thailand does. A healthy society does not have 17 coups in 60 years.
And there’s a lot that’s wrong with Thai politics. For one thing, Thailand is a monarchy.
The plotters claimed to be acting on behalf of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and statements from the palace seem to back that up. That he evidently supported the coup shows how weak Thai democracy is. If Thailand needed proof that monarchy and democracy do not mix, that should be argument enough.
Royalty is by nature undemocratic. The contradiction between being born to power and earning it is obvious as the crown on a queen’s head.
I’m sure King Bhumibol is a lovely old bloke. He’s dedicated his life to his country and has provided balance and wisdom in times of national crisis. But the man is 79 years old. And like any old royal, it is conceivable that he’s out of touch with the world in which most of his subjects live.
A vote for king and cake
One reason Thais love King Bhumibol is that he keeps the daily dirt of Thai politics at a distant arm’s length. But as events this week proved, that dignified divide is an illusion. The king, after all, is the head of state in a constitutional monarchy, and as such, he has political power that he’s happy to wield when it suits him.
That would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that until this week, Thailand was a democracy.
If the king believes he should be head of state in a democratic Thailand, then he should stand for office. What makes Thailand unusual among monarchies is that if he ever did run, he’d win by a landslide.
The king doesn’t run in elections, because like most monarchs, he claims to be above politics. But if that’s the case, then what the hell’s he doing backing a military coup? It seems that like all of those born to power, King Bhumibol wants to have his cake and eat it.
The real reason monarchs shy away from elections is nothing to do with dignity and national interest, and everything to do with self interest. For one thing, no elected leader has ever stayed in office for 60 years. No matter how bad Bush, Blair, Putin or Chirac may be, none of them has a job for life.
Taking a longer view, the Thai, British, Japanese royal heads would all win elections if they were held tomorrow, but support for their offspring is less certain. Sooner or later, every royal family would be beaten at the ballot and the birthright to power would be finished.
The chickens come home to roost
There are times when the army is the only way to remedy a bad situation, but this wasn’t one of them.
Removing one corrupt prime minister won’t solve the problems of corruption, nepotism or poverty. The country has a terrorist problem and a lousy reputation for human rights, but it’s debatable who should be blamed for them: The army and police for carrying out the abuses, or Thaksin’s government, for encouraging them.
For all his nastiness, Thailand’s problems can’t be pinned on Thaksin alone. The country has a tradition of gun-barrel politics that years of democratic growth obviously haven’t eradicated.
Just as in the Philippines, Thai military adventurers have learned that there’s nothing to lose from armed power grabs. Even if your putsch fails, you just take early retirement and go into business. Or politics. Or both.
The Thai people may be given the chance to vote again next year, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting democracy back, they’re only getting it on loan. If the army is allowed to remove elected governments on a whim, that’s not democracy, it’s a sham.
If democracy in Thailand really is a failure, then the military should forget about democratic platitudes, return power to the king, and have done with it.
alternative Coup links
Bangkok Pundit has maintained a constant stream of updates and sharp commentary since the first coup rumours began.
2Bangkok.com is uploading coup photos and scans from local media.
Metroblogging Bangkok is a group blog with regular updates and many photos.
Petition Online has a petition against harming protestors. Seems ironic that anyone would expect the army to pay attention to an online petition just days after overthrowing an elected government.
Jotman has photographs, videos and comment from the small protests on Friday.
Mango Sauce takes a characteristically unique view of the coup.
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