Thai Coup Topples PM Thaksin

In the BBC sitcom “Yes, Minister,” fictional politician Jim Hacker said once, “One day your out of your office, and the next day, you’re out of office.” Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has learned that the hard way. While on a visit to New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Thaksin was kicked out of office by his army. What is odd, a great many of the democratic forces as well as investors in the country approve.

Any time the military takes over a nation, it is a disaster. Military men and women have trained to perform certain functions, but not to run an entire nation. Inevitably, they prove this with their actions. One doesn’t want the military in charge any more than one wants corporations, unions or teen idol fan clubs in charge.

That said, in the real world, the military is often the only national institution with any trace of modernity and meritocracy. Often, the alternative to a military junta is chaos – this gets tricky when military minds can’t distinguish between genuine chaos and the natural messiness of civilian rule, and democracy in particular. Thailand has avoided military coups for 15 years, but it has a history of the military stepping in, 18 times since World War II.

In this instance, a few good things can be said for the officers who acted. First, they have promised to appoint a new Prime Minister within two weeks and then go back to their barracks. Second, they have promised new elections within a year. Third, not a shot was fired. The first two points suggest that the officers understand that they are guardians of the state, not its masters, and ultimately, the servants of the people. The latter point suggests a consensus within top military circles as well as within the civilian population that Mr. Thaksin had to go (or at least, he wasn't worth fighting for). The residents of Bangkok, a city of 10 million, could have halted the coup by flooding the streets to defend their government, but they clearly chose not to do so.

April’s election was annulled as undemocratic since the opposition boycotted it, so Mr. Thaksin was only a caretaker with little legitimacy to rule for long. He alleged that the military had plotted to kill him, and he got his fingers in the annual military reshuffle, which put many noses out of joint. And then there is the little matter of the Thaksin family’s sale of shares in Shin Corp., a telecommunications and satellite company, to Singapore's Temasak Holdings for $1.9 billion, tax-free; it struck many as plain wrong. At least, his exile will be luxurious, and in the meanwhile, the world must make certain that the military keeps its word on getting out of the governing business, again.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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