During the night of September 19 Thailand's military overthrew the government of PM Thaksin Shinawatra while he was in New York to address the UN General Assembly, abolished the constitution and imposed martial law. In a national TV broadcast the next day, Thai Army chief General Sondhi Boonyarataklin said the military had ousted Thaksin because his government was tainted with corruption and cronyism. Below are two initial statements on the coup from the Thai left.
Focus on the Global South
Focus on the Global South views the recent military takeover of government in Thailand as a most regrettable setback in the country's democratization process.
The rationale for the takeover — that Thai society has become divided as never before in the nation's history, and that the threats of violence require measures to maintain peace and security — may be an accurate reflection of the current political and social situation. Undoubtedly, corruption and arrogance on the part of the Thaksin Shinawatra government undermined democracy and the constitution, and it led people to challenge the legitimacy of the regime. However, the usurpation of power and trampling of rights and liberties by a group of officers calling themselves the Democratic Reform Council is in no way justifiable.
Indeed, before the coup, there were already attempts to resolve the political crisis by democratic participation within the framework of the constitution. These were forestalled by the military intervention.
As faithful advocates of participatory democracy, we demand respect for the 1997 constitution. This constitution was derived through the process of extensive consultation with all sectors of society, and is the only one that could be rightly called the people's constitution. Thus, we join most of the Thai people in demanding the expeditious and complete return of democratic rights to the Thai people and an immediate restoration of the people's basic rights to freedom of information, freedom of expression and freedom of association.
Dictatorship rules Thailand
[Issued by Giles Ji Ungpakorn of the Workers Democracy group within the Peoples Coalition Party.]
Last night the military staged a coup against the elected, but controversial, government of Thaksin Shinawatra. As usual, and in the tradition of all Thai military coups for the last 60 years, the dictatorship claimed to have staged the coup in order to "reform politics", "protect democracy" and that they had "no interest in taking personal power" and would be "returning power to the people as soon as possible". And in the tradition of many previous coups, they later sought and received support from the monarchy.
The military have taken over all Thai TV channels and have blocked foreign news channels such as CNN and BBC. The TV is showing pictures of the royal family along with various declarations from the so-called "democratic reform committee".
The Thai people's movement had good reason to oppose the Thaksin government, which presided over gross human rights abuses in the south and in the so-called war on drugs and pushed for many neoliberal policies, such as privatisation and free-trade agreements. Yet the Thaksin government retained huge popularity among the poor.
On April 2, 16 million people voted for the government, as opposed to 10 million who voted against. The reason was simple. The Thai Rak Thai government of Thaksin had initiated many pro-poor policies including a universal health care system and various measures to cut poverty. Yet many of those who joined the anti-government movement earlier this year, dismissed the electorate for being uneducated and ill-informed.
Unfortunately, many social movement leaders also took this position. Instead of respecting the poor and the electorate, they demanded that the king sack the government. Although the king refused to do this, the position taken by the anti-Thaksin movement has helped pave the way for this coup.
It is now up to us in the people's movement to once again struggle for democracy in Thailand. This struggle for democracy can be the only road to real and lasting political and social reform which is much needed in order to make Thai society a more just and peaceful society.
In the near future we shall have to make sure that the Thai Social Forum takes place in late October this year and that this forum forms a nucleus for democracy and social justice.