I asked my wife about this. She’s of the belief that a lot of the Muslims in the south are essentially illegal immigrants that came in on boats from Malaysia. They speak the same dialect as Southern Thais so they can just blend in. (note: she’s not an expert in any sense, other than she’s seen the region change over the past 40 years… I don’t know if this is true or even a common belief)
She might be right. I’ve held that theory for a while but at the same time I’ve always been a bit “iffy” about it because of how easy it is to rationalize blame for outsiders.
Testy
I am in Bangkok right now in an internet cafe looking out onto busy Silom Road. Everything I see and hear is EXACTLY like every other day on this street. Absolutely nothing has changed. One Thai friend I asked about the coup didn’t even know it had happened.
When I look at the TVs in shops and restaurants they are showing the usual talent shows and daytime dramas.
I asked someone “Where are the tanks? Where are the soldiers?” I wanted to take some pictures. She didn’t know where I could find any.
Coups are a pretty normal thing in Thailand. There have been about 18 since World War Two, but there seems to be a risk of a coup breaking out at any given moment. (I am exaggerating, but a Coup d’Etat does seem to be an normal form of government change here!).
I am going to go try to find the soldiers with yellow flowers on their rifles that I have heard about. Imagine being in the middle of a coup and not finding any good photos! Geeeez!
It sounds like a VERY low-key coup. Good luck finding the soldiers/tanks. I very much wish I was there to help find them. 
Testy
I’d check near Government House or the Democracy Memorial. I sort of know how to find the Democracy Memorial if I’m driving (there’s a decent blues bar there) but don’t really know Government House. I think it’s somewhere north of the Royal palace.
Hasn’t that struck anyone as a bit, well, odd? I mean how/why does the populace find this an ok form of government change? One would think that a stable government is a desirable thing and yet they change 18 times in 60 or so years? Something is not working right over there.
It’s been hundreds of years since they’ve invaded anyone, been invaded or had any major internal conflicts. Their economy is (relatively) strong and I’d bet that the the baht continues strong in the long run. It’s been 15 years since the last coup. Maybe it’s not that bad. Some of those would be achievements we could be proud of.
Yeah, look for the coup-enforcing soldiers there. Irony, anyone? :dubious:
Even a corrupt PM is no excuse for a military coup. I thought, and would have hoped, that Thailand would be beyond this. The AP coverage indicates that the PM is massively popular in the countryside - why aren’t they marching in protest? It’s amazing to me how mild (apathetic?) the Thai public reaction has been.
I agree that the coup seems to have the King’s tacit consent. What a shame. King Juan Carlos of Spain’s finest moment was when he appeared on TV to condemn a military coup, and it immediately folded.
Thank you. Still complicated, but at least less confusing.
Per ShibbOleth, if it works for them, if the country as a national entity is stable and isn’t causing anybody any trouble, and if the people themselves have no problem with the situation, then who are we to judge?
And the tinfoil version is that he arranged it himself; a lot of politicians who’d only referred to “this country” or “the state” suddenly remembered it’s called Spain; a lot of them moderated their speeches and went from almost getting into XIX century-style fistfights in Parliament to actually trying to, well, run the country.
The more-tinfoil-than-thou version says JC is too dumb to arrange something like that but Queen Sofia just might have.
The whole story is making me think a lot of that particular coup, too: both Kings are in the same situation of being Head of State but not Head of Government, both “delegate” most of their power on other people (Head of Government, Judiciary, etc.) but could theoretically choose not to do so, both are the reference figure in both coups. If Thailand’s king thinks the country will be better off by telling the golpistas to pack up and go home; it’s his right and duty to do so; if he thinks the country will be better off by his backing the golpistas, it’s his right and duty to do so. And if it was arranged by the three parts (as another poster posited), well, then he agreed to it because he thought it was best!
Well, that raises the perennial question about respect for national sovereignty vs. external encouragement/enforcement of Western values, doesn’t it? The massacre on Tiananmen Square and Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurds might have passed muster under the standard you suggest. (And no, of course I don’t mean that you would personally support any such atrocity).
“No man is an island.” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.” Insert your own favorite idealistic quotation here. I just hate to see democracy and the rule of law take a step backwards anywhere, and over the long haul I believe military coups are A Really Bad Thing. I’m sorry to see a coup befall another country, even one I’ve never been to (although I did write a report on Thailand in fifth grade, IIRC). I’m not Thai and know no Thai people, but I would wish them a better government than the one they now have at the point of a gun, even if it does (apparently) have some public support.
I certainly take your point that coups are, in general, a very bad thing. I couldn’t imagine a coup happening in the US or Western Europe. If by some strange chance someone tried it, the streets would probably be full of people raising hell about the matter and rightfully so.
OTOH, its taken me a very long time (>20 years!) to realize that the Thais simply don’t see political things the way I do. (I’m from Texas, by the way.) The form of government the Thais have seems to work very well for them with numerous opportunities for upward mobility, religious and political tolerance, and many other things I find admirable.
In all honesty, I don’t think the Thais would even want a government like that of the US or UK.
Testy
I agree but it is like jjimm pointed out last night. All the news is being controlled by the same people that just had the coup. I doubt I’ll ever know for sure but I’d like the King to make some public pronouncements. All I’ve seen so far is what someone says the king said. Of course, the guy is pushing 80YO so maybe this has been a bit much for him. The crown prince would do if the kink isn’t up to it.
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I understand that the King is worshipped, but how about the crown prince? Is he up for the job if his dad keels over? Does he command the same reverence?
I dunno if he’s up for the job or not. He certainly doesn’t command the same awe and respect his father does. Most of the expats in Bkk referred to him as the “Clown Prince.” Supposedly he’s been getting better in the last few years but he surely pissed people off for a while.
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That’s a good point, and one that for some reason didn’t occur to me. :smack:
Point of interest: the King’s children aren’t automatically royal by birth; they can only become royal if royalty is bestowed on them by the King, after they have proved themselves to be mature enough. He seems to have slipped a bit regarding the Crown Prince.
Last year the Princess got pissed off with Thaksin and the local government’s intransigence regarding tsunami reconstruction, and used her influence to bust through protocol and get her own aid organisation together to distribute supplies and grants. Awesome woman.
Other reports have said that not only is Gen. Sondhi Boonyarakalin, the acting Prime Minisiter, close to the king, but that Prem Tinnasuranoud, chief of the Privy Council and a top advisor to the king, was also a leading figure in the coup. Given the fact that the coup almost certainly could not survive if the king chose to oppose it, it would seem very likely that it would not have gone forward at all if he did not support it.
Absolutely. Now she’s popular.
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