Thailand: Democracy moans in pain

After Thailand's army declared martial law at dawn on Tuesday (May 20), military officials said "This is not a coup. People don't need to panic". A curfew was imposed; but nobody bothered. Tourists and pedestrians were posing with the soldiers for photos. The soldiers toting guns were seen patrolling in the streets. The government with the caretaker prime minister was in place. No protests. No blood. No sounds of guns. Observers around the world were scratching their heads to find an appropriate term for this silent and watery coup. Some were terming it as a "Half-coup", while Human Rights Watch called it a "de facto coup". Some commentators were saying it was a "toothless coup". The coup looked like coup, but it was not a coup. As I was stirring my tea with a few pellets of sugar-free sweetener I felt tempted to call it a "Sugar-free coup".
On Friday (May 23), however, after about 24 hours, the Thai army bared the fangs of their coup. He perhaps took time to test waters. The army announced that their declaration of martial law on Tuesday (May 20) was in fact a coup. The now-deposed prime minister and about 150 other government officials were ordered to report to a military facility to give in. Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government and declared himself as the 29th prime minister.
The military action was a surprising move after six months of deadly clashes in a protracted battle to overthrow the elected government of Thailand. At least 28 people have been killed, and hundreds more were injured in the political turbulence. And there could not be a better time, situation or circumstances than the last week in Thailand for an ambitious military man to look around if there was any vacancy in the civilian corridors.
This is Thailand's 12th military coup since 1932 - its last was in 2006 - making it the country with by far the most military coups. Martial law and Thailand have now become two synonymous names as was once Pakistan. Bangladesh was also an also-ran in the race.
Thailand with a robust economy, decent democratic institutions, and no ethnic or religious divergences doesn't really look like the sort of a place to have so much political turmoil. What is going on in Thailand? Why did it have so many coups? Why are its politics so messed up?
Two weeks back on May 07, there was another coup staged in Thailand. It was a judicial coup delivered by the country's Constitutional Court. Its judges ruled that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had to step down as she had abused her office. After 1000 days in power Yingluck immediately obeyed the court's order and left her premiership. Her offence: 'Back in 2011 she decided to remove Thailand's Head of National Security, in favour of a relative'. Was it an abuse of the highest office that merited expulsion of a Prime Minister? Well, it is a legal judgment.
It is an open secret that the court was on the side of a royalist establishment bent on purging politics of the Shinawatra family members who unwittingly invite ire and envy of their foes as the family is traditionally rich in wealth and hugely popular to the Thai electorate. A business-tycoon-turned-politician, Thaksin Shinawatra, now in self-imposed exile in Dubai, was the 23rd prime minister of Thailand who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Thaksin Shinawatra championed the long-neglected rural communities, and challenged the political establishment. He also reportedly grabbed lots of pecuniary and political power for himself and stifled media freedom.
So popular is the Shinawatra family in Thailand, especially in the rural parts, that Thaksin Shinawatra's young sister Yingluck Shinawatra was elected as 28th prime minister of the country three years ago in a landslide victory. For Mr. Thaksin's supporters, who wear red shirts, Thaksin bettered the lives of the poorest, and challenged Thailand's privileged elites in the bureaucracy, the army, the judiciary and the palace corridors of an ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Supporters of Shinawatra clan believe both the recent street protests and the Court's activism are the work of an establishment that cannot accept the results of the ballot box.
A Shinawatra always had won in the past and will possibly win in the future in a general election in Thailand as they had enough electoral support to keep winning them. Those who cannot stand a Shinawatra, did not and will not ask for a new election. Now that it would be impossible to defeat any member of the Shinawatra family in any future election, antagonists, who wear yellow shirts, led by a canny politician named Suthep Thaugsuban demand outright departure of Shinawatra folks from the scene of Thai politics. They claim the Shinawatra gained power by stealing and giving money to the poor and awarding government positions to friends and relatives.
While staging protests on the streets Thaugsuban Suthep knew that the military was sympathetic to his cause, that in times of turmoil the military becomes a lot more likely to intervene, and that if there were a coup he would get the non-democratic and the unelected elite he wanted.
The political fight in Thailand is between democracy and the rule by the elite. It's a fight between people who want majority democratic rule versus people who think that majority rule, though democratic, has led to a bad government in Thailand.
Red-shirts and yellow-shirts in Thailand are both powerful, both on the streets and in the royal or political corridors. The red-shirts are not free of corruption either, though no substantial charges on corruption have yet been placed or proved against their leaders.
Yes, Thaksin Shinawatra is a troublesome figure. But the yellow-shirts are so unpopular that they are incapable of winning a free and fair election.
Red-shirts want election while yellow-shirts demand selection and the king is sick and old. Who is left?
Then who should rule to make the future better for Thai people? The cherry-picked elite few, as suggested by the yellow-shirts? Reverting back to the rule by the king? A military dictator?
So far the coup has been bloodless, and that's good.
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