Thailand: Coup Update
Picture from HelloonEarth2006
It was a holiday today in Thailand after the military ousted Prime Minister Thaksin's government last night while he was away in in New York. There are no reports of violence and people are venturing out in the streets.
Stickman has pictures from Bangkok this morning and describes the situation on the ground
The atmosphere was not really what I had expected. While tanks and armed soldiers are never the most comforting sight, they seemed to be relaxed, and no-one seemed to be too tense. For sure, it did not seem like they were on high alert or anything like that. Soldiers wandered around casually, chatting to each other, and many had the famous Thai grin from ear to ear.
The coup seem to be enjoying the support of Thai people
A lot of the soldiers were given flowers by the onlookers, many also offered cold drinks. Without exception, everyone seemed to be in favour of the coup. Many people wore yellow, showing support for The King and all of the soldiers wore a yellow ribbon, not only on their person, but on their guns. All military vehicles and tanks also had a yellow ribbon – signifying their loyalty to The King.
There are more pictures at 2Bangkok.com)
The blogger at 19Sep (a blog created to document the coup) tries to comfort people who have friends/relatives visiting Thailand and people who were planning to visit the Kingdom and are now thinking of cancelling the trip
I want to state cleary that there is no Gun Fire or any violence until now and doesn't tend to be too. Live seems to be as usual, anyone can walk around the street, some companies still open. So you don't have to worry about safety for your friends or relatives, Thai or non-Thai, who currently are in all part of the country. They may be exited but they all are still fine.
Update: Thai blogger Gnarlykitty writes that the blog 19Sep is now dead.
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is now in charge of the internet. You are now all forbidden to post political comments on public forums. Future of Thai bloggers however is still unknown.
The blog is offline outside Thailand too. So it might be the author halting the blog and not censorship. Other blogs from Thailand are still online.
Update2: The blog is online now.
Adam's Gecko also writes about the people's mood
Today had been declared as a bank / civil service holiday, but everything else appears to be open as usual. It's just a regular morning in my part of the Big Mango, and people around here seem to be in a good mood. I think there is a lot of relief that the regime change took place last night without any shooting, and today is really a new day for the country.
The blogger is also reporting on the appointment of an interim prime minister
The Bank of Thailand Governor, MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, is on his way back from the IMF/World Bank meeting in Singapore, and has apparently accepted the position of interim Prime Minister. Note: “MR” is not for “mister” but is an abbreviated honourific title indicating his degree of relatedness to the royal family.
Cowboy Caleb, a Singapore resident currently in Thailand is posting a running commentary of the situation on his blog has an update where Mr. Devakula has denied the appointment.
Steve commenting on Thai blogger Lynn's post on the coup is looking the complex political situation facing the coup leader Gen. Sonthi.
The General can either hold elections or delay elections. If he holds elections, he will loose domestically. If he delays elections, he will lose internationally. The Thai Right is in a strong position here. If the General delays elections, they can demand elections and thereby gain international credibility. If the General holds elections, they can either boycott the elections if they think they will loose or participate in the elections if they think they will win. The precedent for annulling the results of an election that the party of opposition boycotts has already been set by the Thai Left, so the Left will have a difficult time deflecting a boycott by the Right.
22 comments
I am thai and not agree with the coup. King back this coup because thai ex-PM is so popular.Despite some thai people who gived the flowers to soldiers, but not all thai people agree whit thai military coup. The ones who not agree with coup can’t express their thought. The thai coup leader Has ever said that thai democracy still had long way, but now after 1 weeks he overthown democratic goverment.
The coup is Thailand is particularly interesting because it overthrew a democratically (albeit unpopular) leader. Most coups are reserved for the overthrow of a monarchy – in this case, however, the monarchy actually supported the coup.
A Bloodless Coup d’État for Thailand…
By definition, a coup d’état is the sudden overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military. In a coup, the top leaders of government are expelled but government institutions are preserved. A coup is notably …
The coup will establish the national security committee after new goverment have already been appointed by The coup. This committee will be the real groverner. Thailand will be second maynma. Some university teachers don’t want to be part of constutution drafting committee because the coup use tanks to overthrow democratic goverment. And there are some university students protest the coup.
Pong,
Your opinion is the one that we are not hearing about. Yet it is the opinion I would like to hear the most!! If you are not allowed to speak your mind in your own country, then feel free to do it here! So far, all we are hearing about is a “peaceful coup” and soldiers being given flowers and having their pictures taken with civilians.
I have plans to travel to Thailand at the end of October. But I would like to know the real picture before (if) I decide to go. Could this potentially erupt into a sort of civil war, or something similar to the coup that occurred back in 1991?
People who have ever been anti military goverment rally groups ask this military coup to return democracy recently. Leading university teacher not agree with coup but no sign of violence. About giving flowers to soldiers it’s the propaganda. The General who help this coup have been promoted to higher position in the army.
This coup is hated by Thugsin’s men for sure.
Thugsin men’s only love is cash and power.
Universitiy professors hated Thugsin and rallied against him.
But there are some deans promoted by his ministers that come out to protest the coup without people support.
These Thugsin’s professors have connection with Thugsin secretary Phrommin L. who was ready to stage a bloody clash of pro and anti Thugsin mobs, so that Thugsin could declare a state of emergency to suppress those who dare protest him.
Anyway the military head him off lol.
Most of Thugsin support came from rural area.
Where he gave away money for new moblie phones and motorcycles the same way Marcos and Peron did in Philippines and Argentina.
And those countries have not recovered since then.
I once joined a protest against Thugsin at Lumpini Park.
People went there to share information about all his gang’s wrong doing.
Because all mainstrem media were controlled by Thugsin men.
We were then face attack from Thugsin’s drunken thugs from the north.
They were Forestry minister’s men (all strong men) with sticks and bats while we consisted of middle aged and elderly and women.
They were discouraged when broadcasted by the independent satellite TV.
But they still managed to plant 2 small bombs to scare us away.
2 of our people were hurt but we managed to arrest the bomber.
We hand Thugsin man bomber to the police who stood around there doing nothing.
The police took him to to the police station and release him immediately.
Do you think that was democracy.
The professors who came out to voice disapproval of the coup are known to be silent when Anti Thugsin protesters were beaten unconcious on the street by Thugsin men in front of Central world trade Plaza in just another incident.
You know, the beaten man was 70 years old, got beaten till his blood was all over the street, and left with a broken nose, broken eye sock and ribs. Just for shouting “Thugsin get out”
A lady tried to help him, got a good fist on her face, fell down and got her head hit cement block with lots of blood.
All of this happened in front of hundreds of police.
After that, the police arrested the beaten old man for making noise.
We protested the police all night before the police release the old man.
Thugsin men were free and happy as always.
And let me tell you that those disgusting anti coup professors never seem to bother about this incident at all.