Thailand's torment

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THE Land of Smiles has little to smile about these days. Although Thailand's main international and domestic airports are fully operational after a week-long siege by anti-government demonstrators, news that the country's monarch is gravely ill has come as a shock to his 65 million subjects.
Thais had been hoping that King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 81 on December 05, would use his birthday address to issue a call for unity after the People's Alliance for Democracy ended its airport occupation. The king's illness also led to the cancellation of Monday's special parliamentary session to choose a successor to Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who was convicted of vote fraud this week and banned from politics for five years.
Even if the king had issued a call for unity, it is doubtful the crisis would have ended. It may be tempting to side with the stand taken by PAD's urban elites against a nepotistic government manipulated from behind the scenes by the disgraced and now exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but the reality is far more complex.
Put simply, there is nothing democratic about PAD's policies or tactics. Aware that under the one man, one vote system another election would see the return of Thaksin's supporters, PAD favours a parliament that is 70 per cent appointed - effectively annulling the say of the rural majority. Thaksin can be faulted for his disastrous handling of the Muslim insurgency in the south of the country, his extra-judicial war on drugs and his populist economic policies, but his government was democratically elected and would probably have returned to power had not the military ousted it in 2006. The People Power Party, which came to office after martial law was lifted in December last year, also won the most votes in general elections. But that never satisfied PAD, which saw the PPP prime minister Samak Sundaravej as a Thaksin clone. When Mr Samak was dismissed by the courts on the flimsy premise of taking part in a cookery show on television, his successor, Mr Somchai, carried the same opprobrium. It is highly unlikely that when PPP members regroup under the name of a new party, they will choose another prime minister in Thaksin's likeness. That's democracy.
PAD's hardcore leaders seem determined to stop at nothing to get their way, even provoking another military coup. But PAD may have overplayed its card with its eight-day occupation of Bangkok's airports, which left hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded and did massive damage to the country's economy. PAD's anti-democratic agenda has been exposed. But what about the king and the military? Although the king claims to be above politics, he has intervened in the past, and not always on the side of democracy. The faith Thais place in their monarch to step in and sort out their recurring political crises is misplaced. In a true democracy, power must reside in the ballot box, no matter how unpalatable the outcome may be for the political and economic elite. As for the military, it has shown admirable restraint in recent months. It should also let democracy run its course.
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