Coup in Thailand

Thailand is presently under martial law as the military is attempting a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thailand is a weird country. It comes across as the most relaxed nation you'll ever imagine. It is a beautiful place with the most mellow people imaginable. The Buddhist culture of the nation is a sharp contrast to the uptightness of the Christian nations. However, underneath this placid exterior are a lot of problems. The country is very long. While central Thailand is dominated by the Thai people, the north has many hill peoples with their own customs and questionable loyalty to Bangkok. An even greater problem is the far south where Muslim insurgents are trying to break away. Of course, many western analysts are completely misunderstanding that situation. Where many analysts see this as another place where radical Islam is on the rise, the reality is that this is a nationalist movement. The power of the Thai government in these far away places is tenuous and few social services go to the southern provinces. They have little power and feel no connection to Bangkok. True, some people are turning to radical Islam as a solution to their problems but either letting these provinces go to Malaysia or actually doing something to bring these people into the nation would probably be enough to counter these problems.

In any case, a recent bombing in southern Thailand may have been the last straw for the military. Unhappy with both Thaksin's personal corruption and his inability to deal with the insurgents, the military has tried to take over, with the end result still in some doubt, though the fact that they claim the King is on their side probably will make the difference. The military is probably backed with the people of Bangkok--while Thaksin is popular in rural areas, with the increasingly cosmopolitan and powerful urbanites of Thailand, he is an anathema.

While coups are bad, I have pretty strong doubts that this situation will undermine Thailand's rocky road to democracy. They have been on that path for many years now and it sounds like the Thai military is less interested in total control of the nation than getting rid of Thaksin. It is hard to tell with these things of course and the military revoking the Thai constitution is hardly a good sign. But between international and domestic pressure on the Thai military, I hope that the nation and region will remain stable and relatively democratic.

More from Asia Times which suggests internal issues in the military as the major reason for the coup.