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Breaking news this week in Thailand is a statement by media magnate and former Thaksin Shinawatra buddy-turned-nemesis Sondhi Limthongkul. “They staged the coup to take power (and put it) into the hands of the junta and then Surayud,” he said. “No changes were made. Now you get exposed, and you panic.”
The only question is, who are “they?”
Former prime minister and billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra was busy this last week enunciating clearly what he had hinted all along, even before he was overthrown by the Thai military on Sept. 19, 2006. That is, that Thailand’s chief adviser to the monarchy, retired General Prem Tinsulalonda, along with Surayud Chulanont and other unnamed members of the Privy Council, was involved in the plotting and eventual action against Thaksin and his so-called democratically elected government three years ago.
As Thaksin named names this week, aired on Thailand’s Red Shirt Channel DTV, many Thais and expatriate watchers of Thailand’s unique political upheavals nodded their concurrence that Thaksin was coming out with the truth for a change.
Some of those implicated may have gasped and determined to shut down the irritating Red Shirt station. Some will try to stay out of the very uncomfortable limelight, where blame is clearly placed and it is not so easy to deny involvement as names and dates have become public.
Thaksin’s intimation that Prem was involved – and the Red Shirts’ latest contention that the general and former prime minister was also involved in various other coups over the years – lends credibility to other uncomfortable possibilities that are only whispered behind closed doors or in very private conversations. The conversations involve Prem, who as president of the Privy Council, reports directly to the king.
Thaksin has hinted at what he perceives to be the nature of the relationship and suggested political nuances. Denunciations have mounted against the Privy Council members believed to have been involved in the coup, along with a historic call for Prem’s resignation by the Red Shirts. But no one dares to openly suggest that the alleged plotting goes beyond them.
After dropping certain hints, Thaksin has contradicted the implications in them, taking care to appear loyal to the monarchy. In the past he has been accused of being less than 100 percent loyal, even by one of his staunch supporters, Jakraphob Penkhair, who is currently being prosecuted for lèse majesté arising out of frank comments about the country’s monarchy and Thailand’s lack of democratic infrastructure.
“They” in Thailand has often been an official pronoun for unnamed but not uncontrolled or undirected “third hand” forces, who allegedly “take it upon themselves” to hang protestors, plant bombs, cause forced disappearances and engage in other political intrigue with painful consequences for perceived enemies of the state.
That Thailand has such a loose confederation of generally silent but very violent citizens as individuals and groups who are overly willing to demonstrate loyalty to one cause or another is legion. “They” have been involved in telephone calls to silence witnesses to murders, followed by denials that they were acting at the direction of officials or official agencies. “They” most often remain invisible behind denials made on their behalf.
So when Sondhi Limthongkul says, “They staged the coup,” the implication is that it is not just another “third hand” that is involved, but the “first hand” – in other words, the state itself. Many people now deem that the state is being obliquely identified as responsible for the September 2006 coup, for the creation of an unpopular Constitution and the continuation of the government administration that has failed the nation since the 2006 coup.
Thailand is indeed between the proverbial rock and a hard place. It had a widely popular and corrupt prime minister whose power was usurped in an illegal coup, and found itself facing – according to widely held theory – the same old coup makers that have time and again undermined democracy in the name of national security and stability.
Former privy counselor cum prime minister then again Privy Counselor General Surayud Chulanond said in a televised interview not long ago that he was not certain whether or not another coup would take place after 2006. His tone implied that any time those who run the state become uncertain as to the outcome of sociopolitical developments, another coup could be in the cards. In short, unless the status quo is maintained, the military will always step in and democracy will once again fall in another senseless coup.
From the current tempo of confrontations brewing in Thailand, it appears that stability can only be discussed in hypothetical terms. The continuing struggle by an ever-insistent mass of people demanding Thaksin’s return, and the equally strong resistance by those with deep-rooted and justified fears that their days are numbered, spell more uncertain times across the board.
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
