Bye Bye Military Junta - back where we started? no more coup

Thai junta call it quits, vows no more coups - Bangkok Post

BANGKOK: -- The military council which ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 putsch disbanded itself on Tuesday and promised there would be no more coups as a Thaksin-backed coalition prepared to take office.

The Council for National Security (CNS), widely derided for presiding over an inept government, also called on politicians to stay out of military affairs, suggesting it feared vengeful Thaksin supporters in office.
"Everybody in the CNS, especially the army commander-in-chief, insist there will be no more coups," CNS spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told reporters.

"In a political transition into a full democracy, which is a sensitive period for all sides, the military should not be involved in politics and politicians should not interfere with the military," he said. "Therefore, we need a politically neutral person to be defence minister," Sunsern said a month after elections in which the openly pro-Thaksin People Power Party fell just short of an overall majority.

That call followed newspaper reports that Samak Sundaravej, the firebrand PPP leader determined to become prime minister, would also become defence minister. But the military is in a weak position after the elections proved Thaksin's abiding popularity in the countryside where the majority of Thais live, despite CNS attempts to eradicate his influence.

The PPP campaigned on Thaksin's populist platform and told people a vote for the party was a vote for Thaksin. The former prime minister was ousted months after street protests began against him in Bangkok and faces corruption charges when he returns from exile.

Political analysts saw the results of the December 23 election as a vote against the coup and criticism of the military is becoming ever more trenchant.

"The generals have proved unfit in their handling of post-coup Thailand," Chulalongkorn University political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak wrote in Tuesday's Bangkok Post. "Policy directions have been murky, leadership incompetent, overall administration inept. The generals have made themselves obsolete by botching their latest putsch," he said. The generals accused Thaksin of presiding over rampant corruption and of disrespect toward revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej -- charges he denies -- but an anti-graft panel they appointed has come up with only one case against him.

They also failed to eradicate his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party despite its court-ordered dissolution for electoral fraud and the banning of Thaksin and 110 senior party members from politics for five years.

Thai Rak Thai members simply took over the almost defunct PPP, which is expected to take office at the head of a coalition government and occupy the most powerful ministries some time next month.

--Reuters 2008-02-22

Military junta holds its last meeting

BANGKOK: -- The Council for National Security (CNS) spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd announced the end of the role of the CNS Tuesday, a few hours after the House of Representatives convened its first meeting.

Col Sansern told reporters the CNS members will not hold any press conferences from now on but they will still meet as leaders of the armed forces to coordinate their work. The weekly meeting of the CNS on Tuesday was the final one, as the 2007 constitution stated that its role is over when a new government is formed.

Col Sansern said the CNS members discussed qualifications for a new defence minister and all agreed that the person should be a military figure and should not be a member of any political party.

He also said the CNS will not interfere in the selection of potential candidates.

--Bangkok Post 2008-02-22

Quo Vadis

The past predicts the future. A new semi democratic government will rise and the instant that its policies threaten the ruling class......we will get to start all over again. Given the King's advancing age and the confusion that will follow, I can understand why the Thai military has always been so supportive of their counterparts in Burma.

Democracy - I think it was Churchill who said something like "it's a poor form of Government but the best we have available".

After the disaster of the Military Government and it's lack of success at prosecuting Taksin or persuading his followers to vote elsewhere and more importantly the dire economic management and bad PR for Thailand - I think that it will be a long time before we see another military coup.

Much depends on the new Government. Their priorities are many but getting the economy going again my be difficult but devaluing the baht is desirable and attracting more inward investment. They have to write a new constitution - to have one made under a military junta must be unacceptable. Will the challenge the military and revise the huge amounts allocated for them to spend on arms to defend the country? - toys for boys really.

Above all this a prime target must be to try and ease the divide between the agricultural Thais and Urban Thais which grows ever larger.

It should be an interesting time.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

of course there won't be any more coups..until the next one.

[Marsilius]

"Above all this a prime target must be to try and ease the divide between the agricultural Thais and Urban Thais which grows ever larger" [from wowpow's post, above.]

Well, yes - if it were a truly benevolent government that would be the case...

But it is actually in the interests of any self-interested government run by cronies of Thaksin to (a) do just enough to improve the lot of the rural poor to retain their support, but (b) to maintain that wide gulf between the rural masses of the North East and the urban elites for as long as they can - that way, by polarising Thai politics, they can remain in power almost indefinitely (or until the military chiefs step in again!)

Politicians should not interfere in the Military. Most laughable statment of the year award?

Khun Thaksin will be the Commander in chief again one day!