This is not in any way to concur with the closure of The Midnight
University Website, far from it, but rather to give a different
perspective to the coup to that presented in some of the western
media.
The King of Thailand who has spoken and acted in favour of democracy
was almost certainly aware that the coup was about to happen, and the
new interim prime minister is a general who has in the past spoken
out in favour of democracy and against military coups.
Thaksin, a couple of years ago, stated to the Thai public: Democracy
is like a Rolls Royce. The Thai people do not need a Rolls Royce.
Hitler was also democratically elected. Unfortunately, the military
coups against him failed.
Below is a posting to the Burma newsgroups from an American living
in Thailand.
Regards,
Eric
DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)
Contact: Roland Watson, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
THAILAND?S MIDDLE WAY
September 25, 2006
Please forward.
Last week, the Thai Military ousted caretaker Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra. As a longstanding and strong critic of Thaksin,
Dictator Watch is pleased to see him go. It was imperative that his
destruction of Thai democracy and his splitting of Thai society come
to an end. He had organized violence against the People?s Alliance
for Democracy (for their planned demonstration last Wednesday)
as a prelude to declaring a state of emergency and subsequently
banning public dissent and also purging the armed forces of its last
professional officers. Thaksin was about to complete his long-term
plan to become the absolute ruler of Thailand.
Had the military not acted, the only possibility to remove him
from power would have been a large-scale popular mobilization.
But given the level of control that he was about to achieve and
his predilection for violence, it is certain that this would have
been violently suppressed. The people of Thailand would have found
themselves in a similar situation to the repressed population in
Burma. Than Shwe and the SPDC are not only Thaksin?s allies and
business partners, they are also his role models.
The Armed Forces had a choice. They could have allowed themselves
to be purged, while pro-democracy demonstrators were killed.
Alternatively, they could have assassinated Thaksin. (They have this
power, although as police behavior has since confirmed, the bomb
plot that supposedly existed against him was obviously a fraud,
orchestrated by his supporters.)
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist. While it seems counterintuitive,
the coup to remove Thaksin was a middle way solution, since it
enabled political change without violence. The most important
immediate responsibility of the Council for Democratic Reform under
Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) is to keep things this way: to guard
against violence organized by Thaksin?s cronies.
CDRM has also pledged, and has already taken the first steps, to
reinstall democratic government. They must fulfill this pledge or
their popular support will end and the PAD will be undoubtedly be
reformed.
Many foreign governments and other organizations denounced the coup.
They either did this to be politically correct, to protect perceived
economic interests, or because they did not fully understand the
situation inside the country. For the last, simplistic comments from
many analysts revealed their ignorance of what was about to happen
last Wednesday.
Further, Thaksin was never democratically elected. This implies
that the rule of law has been upheld, and in Thailand it was not.
The Thai Constitution and its system of checks and balances first
failed when he was found innocent in the assets concealment case.
There should have been massive demonstrations or other strong steps
at that time, rather than waiting five years. He should never have
had the opportunity to drag Thailand to the bottom of the cesspool of
political corruption. Everything he did was anathema to democracy.
CDRM has also announced that it will be a year before new elections.
The reason for the lengthy period is that the Thaksin regime and the
Thai Rak Thai party must be comprehensively eradicated, such that
they can never return. This will take time. Thaksin and his gang have
done so much wrong that dozens of investigations, regarding both
human rights abuses and financial corruption, need to be opened, and
result in charges being filed and court convictions. The Thaksin
family should be stripped of its illegal wealth, with Thaksin himself
personally found guilty of numerous charges.
Ultimately, the real problem is not the Constitution. Thailand is
a formative democracy, and the people of the country are still
learning their obligations under the system. You do not cast a vote,
particularly a vote for which you have been paid, and then ignore
everything else that happens and hope for the best. No constitution
can withstand a man like Thaksin, if the people allow it.
