Thailand Footprint: The People, Things, Literature, and Music of Thailand and the Region

Smells like a coup, tastes like a coup, looks like a coup

By on May 22, 2014

While I take a break in the USA here’s a good blog post re the Thailand political situation from Ugly Truth Thailand. I’m just the messenger.

Uglytruth-Thailand

Giles Ji Ungpakorn

Today Thai army general Prayut Chanocha declared martial law without consulting the caretaker government or any other elected representatives. Troops took over all radio and TV stations and are positioned along major road intersections in Bangkok.

Despite the fact that he claimed that “this is not a coup”, Prayut’s actions smell, taste and look like a coup. This is from a man who has blood on his hands. Four years ago to the day Prayut oversaw the shooting down in the streets of almost ninety Red Shirt pro-democracy demonstrators. Before the elections in the following year he made public statements against the Pua Thai Party. He had previously been a key figure in manoeuvring Abhisit’s anti-Democrat Party into an unelected government in 2008. He has never been brought to court for his crimes and was on the list of those who would be given total amnesty in…

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8 Responses to “Smells like a coup, tastes like a coup, looks like a coup”

  1. Collin Piprell

    Coup-coup logic. Coup-nocoup same-same. Or something. I’m only quoting Al the Alien, who sits in the far corner of the Outlandish Bar.

    Reply
  2. Peter Montalbano

    Ji is a guy who seems to have had an axe to grind his whole life. I would bet he still thinks Mao’s little red book is a great piece of writing. It’s true his father was unjustly exiled, really, really unjustly, but that’s no excuse for the kind of sloppy thinking he does, which uses made-up facts (some of which he makes up himself) and cites them as unassailable truth. His intelligence is almost entirely going to waste, as far as I can see. About the “coup,” or whatever it turns out to be, well, let’s wait a bit and see. Anything that has a hope of bringing about dialogue and serious, productive discussion at this point is welcome to me. But the fact is, there are a couple of big elephants (not just one!) in the room that no one is willing to deal with in an effective way. And I’d point out that the 2010 crisis almost found a negotiated way out, but it was apparently bollixed at the last moment by the elephantine Thaksin. Of course, Ji wouldn’t say that anyone on the “red” side is beholden to Thaksin, but in my opinion, if that movement would stick to the questions of injustice and make it clear they were cutting “Mr. T” entirely out of their equation, their case would hang together a whole lot better. That’s all I wanna say in a public forum.

    Reply
    • Kevin Cummings

      Peter,

      Thanks for your comment. I had no knowledge of those facts, they are appreciated. As for waiting, not to long of one it turns out. I hope we can meet up and discuss this further in NorCal later this summer.

      Reply
      • Peter Montalbano

        I may have to eat crow on this one. Today’s developments seem to say rather unequivocally that it is, indeed, a coup. Damn. Forever the optimist.

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