Revolution in Thailand!

[GrobbeeTrull]

It's all over the news now, but the reason that the coup happened, was because of rampant corruption in the government.

A preview of things to come, perhaps?

[Eomer]

Heh, this coupled with the bombing over the weekend has me a little worried about my buddy over there. Coincidentally, the Canadian killed had the last name of Daniel, which of course is the first name of my bud. Damn near had a heart attack skimming the article on it.

Not that I feel bad for him. A month or two in military detention is the least of what he deserves for the sins he's committed in that country. Fucker's made me all jealous and shit.

This also makes me glad I booked my flight to New Zealand, and not some banana republic. I just pray there'll be 1/10th the number of hot, easy girls as there reportedly is in Thailand (by that I mean the tourists/travelers there, not the locals).

[Zarcath]

boygirls you mean!

how does local law enforcement handle coup? do they just ignore all the tanks and shit or what?

[roosta]

between hungary and thailand i think people have finally woken up. "of the people, by the people and for the people" is catching on hopefully these 2 will start a steam roll.

himmer

[Eomer]

You've gotta love how polite coups are these days. Whether it's Nepal or Thailand, the world's militaries have obviously hired PR people. "Please pardon any inconvience this may cause" hah!

[Khorum]

Originally Posted by Eomer

You've gotta love how polite coups are these days. Whether it's Nepal or Thailand, the world's militaries have obviously hired PR people. "Please pardon any inconvience this may cause" hah!

30 years ago you had maybe 24 hours to round up your political opponents and arrange 'accidents' with them before the global indignation hits. A hundred years ago a coup would be MOOT before neighbors or world powers would even hear about it.

Nowadays your coup would be texted to everyone and their mother who may seem even mildly interested, the CNN crew would prolly be at the parliament building before your tanks get there and blogs about your uprising would already be posted before you even capture the radio station.

Obviously for any modern coup attempt to have a decent chance of success they'd have to plan and arrange for contemporary challenges to misdirection with modern tools like Blogs, PR crews and well-crafted prepared speeches.

It's basically like a presidential campaign. With tanks.

[Saediien]

Coups are not revolutions, and Thailand's Prime Minister was a bad guy, but I've got no reason to believe this wasn't arranged by the king and his old-school royalists supporters in the military to play they last card they had left to remove a leader who has consistently pissed them off. An uprising of the people against the powers that be, this wasn't.

[Faltigoth]

Indeed, certainly not a popular uprising. This was Thailand's king taking over from someone who is thought to be extremely corrupt and putting someone not corrupt in his place until they could reelect someone else next year.

Oh, and backing up that person with tanks in the streets.

I don't know much about Thailand, but from what I understand the king has little real power but a shitload of behind-the-scenes influence, and he is revered almost like a demigod by the people of the nation. And, also, that a little government housecleaning was necessary.

[Eomer]

The General who staged the coup has stated that he did not discuss the coup with the King beforehand, and was not directed by him to attempt. The King did however give his blessing after the fact, lending some legitimacy to the whole thing. But yeah, it certainly wasn't a rising up of the people.

As far as my comment about coups and PR, I was mostly kidding. But it is also nice to see that in the information age, the availability of instant news has in a lot of ways made it far more difficult for someone to stage a bloody coup in a semi-modern country. Yeah, if it's some hellhole in the middle of Africa no one's gonna know till it's too late, but in Thailand and Nepal (I think it was Nepal) the recent coups have been largely peaceful because they're well aware of what will happen if opinion turns against them.

[Castigator]

Originally Posted by Eomer

As far as my comment about coups and PR, I was mostly kidding. But it is also nice to see that in the information age, the availability of instant news has in a lot of ways made it far more difficult for someone to stage a bloody coup in a semi-modern country. Yeah, if it's some hellhole in the middle of Africa no one's gonna know till it's too late, but in Thailand and Nepal (I think it was Nepal) the recent coups have been largely peaceful because they're well aware of what will happen if opinion turns against them.

Well, having flown into Bangkok from my home in P.Penh on Wednesday evening, I can say that this is by far the most "peaceful" coup the world has probably ever seen (and totally different from Nepal, where I saw plenty of bricks flying, cars buring, etc...).

Soldiers stand.. or actually squat at every corner, getting lots of presents, yellow flowers (the color of the King), food, etc.. from the Thai people.

But there is this small sense of oppression there.. most defenitly. Websites (like www.19sep.org) and bogs (like www.thai-blogs.com) that were more critical of the coup have been shut down quickly enough.

I guess thonight when there's going to be the first anti-coup rally at Siam Square (see statement below), we'll see how serious the army's claim on democracy and fairness really is. I'll defenitly be there and snap some pictures

Statement from “19 September Network against Coup d’etat”

According to a group of persons under the name “Administrative Reform Council (ARC) under the Democratic System”, had staged the coup d’etat and remove the power from a government elected under the constitution that was drafted by the people. Abolishing the constitution, harassing the media, and putting an end to the independent agencies are regarded as acts of abolishing the parliamentary democracy system. This act will lead to the outcome like the previous coups that had happened in Thai society in the past.

We, “19 September Network against Coup d’etat”, are consisted of social activists, students, and regular citizens are opposed to the way of building democracy through the point of the guns. There is no such thing as building democracy through destroying democracy at the same time in the world.

We wanted to state that

We do not accept the political power of the military in intervening with the democratic system, by saying that they have intervene to solve the social conflict, since we see that the political conflicts and freedom of expression under the constitution are normal in democracy. The role of the military is not to solve the political problem by coup d’etat. Such an act reflects the lack of political awareness and is regressive for the developments of democracy. Any political solving processes should happen within the scope of laws and constitution, under the international democracy standards.
We ask the military to return back to theirs divisions and bases; and stop their involvement in the coup d’etat process. And stop intervening the basic rights of the people; such as freedom to expressions and bring the political procedures back regular period before the coup d’etat (19 September 2006)


We would like to invite people that are against the coup d’etat to express their thoughts through:

Express through using black color as the symbol (wear black shirts, tie, or arm)
Turn on the front lights of your car during the day
Organize talks and discussions on democracy within the family, company, organizations, friends, and at schools/universities.
Meet and gather peacefully and openly on Friday 22 September 2006 at the water fountains, Siam Paragon (Please wear black) from 6.00 pm onward.


19 September Network against Coup d’etat

(Issued: 20 September 2006)

www.19sep.org

[Faltigoth]

Well shit Castigator, you definitely have a unique insight on to what's going down.

Be careful man, peaceful coup or not, a coup d'etat is still, after all, a coup d'etat.

[Castigator]

Yeah.. well it is really, really peaceful. And all the rage with both tourists and the Thai.

People are giving gifts and presents as well as loads of yellow flowers (colour of the King) to the soldiers. Taking pictures in front of the Tanks, etc... I've even got myself a snapshot with myself holding wednesdays Bangkok Post (with a big "Coup d'Etat" headling) next to a fully equipped soldier and the Democracy Monument in the background.

As someone mentioned above. The PR-guys of the Thai army must be first rate. Last I've heard they've actually ordered the soldiers to smile and be friendly all around. Infront of all the government buildings they seized, they've stationed young, unarmed female officers who look more like olive-clad stewardesses than military police.. and all the Thais I've talked to (which is only in Bangkok and therefore likely not very representative) seem to be convinced that this coup is about the best thing that happened to Thai democracy in years.

Even the 19sep guys at the demonstration (which went very peacefully, with journalists outnumbering the actual demonstrators by about 20 to 1) were eager to say that they don't want Premier Thaksin back no matter what, even though they think a Coup d'Etat is generally a bad thing.


For me it's actually more difficult to say if this is a good or bad thing the longer I stay in Bangkok.

On the one hand you have a throughly corrupt and selfish premier (who was elected by a huge majority. 57% for Thai Rak Thai if memory serves me right) who made a couple of very unwise and immoral (but ultimatly legal) business deals to cash in a few more billons for himself.

On the other hand you have the army guys taking over with (as it seems to be) all the right intentions and (so far) an overwhelming support from the population for their ultimatly unconstitutional Coup d'Etat.

It's a very intriquing paradox (for a democracy-believing westerner at least).

Who would you support?

[AngryGerbil]

Castigator:

I often reply to a thread and then don't come back here for a good 24 hours or more. I tend to remember which threads I was "involved" in. In order to start where I left off, I rapid-scroll through the thread until I see my Angus Beef avatar.

Whilst "rapid-scrolling"... your avatar fools me every time and makes me think it's mine.

I hate you.

That is all.

[Khorum]

Originally Posted by Castigator

On the one hand you have a throughly corrupt and selfish premier (who was elected by a huge majority. 57% for Thai Rak Thai if memory serves me right) who made a couple of very unwise and immoral (but ultimatly legal) business deals to cash in a few more billons for himself.

On the other hand you have the army guys taking over with (as it seems to be) all the right intentions and (so far) an overwhelming support from the population for their ultimatly unconstitutional Coup d'Etat.

It's a very intriquing paradox (for a democracy-believing westerner at least).

Who would you support?

I was chillin in the Phillipines in 1986 during their 'people-power' revolution that deposed Ferdinand Marcos. God that was 2 decades ago now >_<, but it was essentially the same thing, with unarmed nuns and students blockading tanks and troops until rebel troops were able to capture the parliament and presidential residence.

Marcos was so fucking detested by everyone that the army didn't bother shooting any civilians, which was unheard of during the cold war.

Unlike today's Thailand however, the US Marines evacuated Marcos, in a Blackhawk, a brutal dictator for 30 years, to exile and retirement in his palatial estate in Hawaii. The US then ignored countless demands for his extradition back to the Phillippines who was not only a extradition treaty signatory, but was host to two of the largest US bases outside of the mainland (Subic Bay and Clark Field).

Yep, United States ignored the pleas from a cold war ally and sheltered a documented mass murderer. When pressed, the US even opted to close the Subic Bay and Clark Field bases than surrender him (there were other reasons of course, among them a small case of volcanic activity lolz). Amongst many observers, not just the tin-foil hat types, this suggested Marcos may have had more on the CIA and US covert policies than even Noriega.

[Eomer]

Who would you support?

Tough to say. It's kind of ironic that the proponents of democracy see the coup as a "good" thing. Obviously in a stable, established democracy such an action would be unacceptable. I don't know enough about Thailand's history to really say, but it seems like they're democratic institutions are pretty weak and unstable, so perhaps in this case it's for the best. The problem is, it appears to be turning into a goddamn habit there (hasn't there been more than a dozen coups in the past 70 years?), and if people become used to coups being the only way to supposedly advance democracy, that in the end actually undermines it. Why wait till the next election to turf a shitty government when you can just call in the army to depose it?

Hopefully when the write up the constition again, they get it right.

I'm just glad my bud's alright, other than not being able to get his passport back from the government just yet (he was getting visas for Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos etc).