Rumors of coup attempt in Thailand

[Sophia]

I just switched my TV to CNN and saw that there may be a coup going on in Thailand. Apparently military troops have surrounded the government building and have told police to stand down, and the PM has declared a severe state of emergency.

Rumors of coup attempt in Thailand
POSTED: 12:00 p.m. EDT, September 19, 2006

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Tanks have been seen rolling through the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday amid rumors of an attempted coup, witnesses tell CNN.

(more at link)


source (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/19/thailand.coup.rumor/index.html)

[MLA]

Doesn't seem to be a rumor any more, according to CNN.

While the cat's away, the mice will perform a coup d'etat.

[Sophia]

There's now a media blackout.

[jnettie]

While the cat's away, the mice will perform a coup d'etat.

ba-dum da!

[MLA]

ba-dum da!

*bowing* Thank you! Take my wife! I'll be here all week!

;)

[bookworm]

Does this just seem strange to anyone else? I never think of Thailand as unstable.

A friend's SO is there now (living in Bangkok for the time being). Earlier today, he had to stay inside, but had phone/email. I'm not sure what's going on now.

[jnettie]

No, it doesn't seem strange. Thailand may seem stable, but all of Asia is kind of unstable, one way or another.

[PG-rated]

I just think it's really sad. Every time a country has a coup, it resets their "democracy clock," making it that much longer before their democratic institutions are fully consolidated. Thailand had 15 years under its belt, and seemed like it was on a somewhat stable course. I suspect this coup will continue to be largely bloodless, but it still moves them farther away from true democracy.

[sue-bert]

I am trying to understand what is going on there. Now I am reading that the King of Thailand backs the coup. I think I am a bit ignorant of the political climate there (except for the wave of Islamic terrorism against Buddhists in the Southern provinces); I don't really understand the dynamics of the situation very well.

[MLA]

I know that the prime minister was elected twice in a landslide win, but that landslide was made possible by the people in rural Thailand. Maybe it's a struggle between the urban and rural areas that's underlying it?

[fuzzy]

Sort of a third hand perspective, but...

My intern is from Thailand. Her mom is the Thai diplomat to Russia and her dad holds a position somewhere in the Thai equivalent of the State Department. So, of course I asked her about her perspective and what she's heard from her relatives.

Apparently, according to her, everyday folks over there aren't overly concerned about it. Somewhat shaken and surprised, but not panicked. She said that the PM's popularity has plummented and he was widely expected to be voted out of office in the elections that were to be held this October (she's very much urban, so there may be something to that rural vs. urban theory). She believes that the military coup moved that process of getting him out of office along a bit (although I just saw a headline about elections being moved back until 2007?? That wasn't announced when we talked).

She also said that the king is very much popular and is widely known as a pacifist, so people are not panicking because of this -- they believe if the military has pledged allegiance to the king, then things will be relatively stable.

She said that last night everyone was planning on going to bed like normal and would "deal with it in the morning."

[sue-bert]

She also said that the king is very much popular and is widely known as a pacifist ...

This part I knew from the time I spent in Thailand (which is why I was perplexed by his apparent endorsement of a military coup). It just seemed very uncharacteristic of everything else I had heard about him.