October 11, 2006
Retrospective Democracy: An Asian Way of Doing Things
I attended a seminar in the Monash Asia institute today, conducted by another luk krueng like myself, a Ms. Virginie Andre.
Firstly, I'm delighted to find that I'm not the only one who acknowledges that HM Bhumibol Adulyadej has more of a guiding role in Thai politics than the general public will admit. I won't comment further on that, though!
What I did find interesting was the way she argued that the coup was democratic. In retrospect, 84% of the Thai population showed support for the coup.
Her argument was that before the events that occurred, there was a general feeling that Thaksin had to go. The various opposition (PAD, Democrats, Academics, etc.) had exhausted all conventional democratic means to oust the vote-buying prime minister, and, as she put it, were left with the options of assissination or coup.
So was it democratic? Well, it seems that atleast in retrospect, it certainly was a landslide victory in favour of coup d'etat.
Right now, what is to be seen is whether the revived talk in peace negotiations in the South will amount to anything, or whether this is simply another political means to gain support for the movement. Like Virginie, I'm hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.
fon @ Wednesday, October 11, 2006 link to post * *