More Thailand Thoughts

I agree with Erik that the King’s decision to back the coup has essentially ended the political crisis. Thaksin doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of finding his way back into power in the near term. I also think that Erik is right to worry about the decision of the coup-plotters to suspend democracy for a full year. The US has denounced the coup, but this denunciation has not been accompanied by a call for the return of Thaksin, which suggests that there may be a “wink and nod” arrangement.

I do differ a bit from Billmon on the question of American media coverage of the coup. In the midst of criticizing the Post for quoting democracy advocates who support the coup, Billmon writes:

How, exactly, can those who support a military coup be described as “democracy activists”?

Orwell said the word fascism had become nothing more than a generic term for “something not desirable.” Likewise, it appears that democracy has degenerated into a synonym for “a government we support.”

I honestly don’t think that there’s a contradiction, or that anything Orwellian is going on here. I don’t have any contacts in the Thai democratic activist community, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that some portion were supportive of the coup, if not the 1 year suspension. Democracy has both substantive and procedural components, and while I’m not expert on Thai politics I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to find that Thaksin was violating the former while holding to the latter. The Post may be making up nonsense, but then it may not. The biggest problem with American coverage is that there’s simply not enough of it. The BBC, again, has been a far more complete source of information.