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Who are behind the bombings and the coup rumors that have made
Bangkok a city on edge since the New Year began?
The ruling military men say they are “men in
uniform,” but military-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont
points to men linked to deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
They could be both. The terrorists could be
Thaksin’s men in the Thai military.
Not well known to Filipinos is that the first
move to pull a coup in September was made by Thaksin himself.
In New York for the UN General Assembly meeting,
he gave orders—through the military radio stations and civilian
ones friendly to him—for the dismissal of General Sonthi
Boonyaratglin, the armed forces chief and today’s leader of the
ruling military-junta. He was ordering the military (thinking that
generals loyal to him would rally against General Sonthi) to mount a
coup when suddenly the military radio cut Thaksin off the air. It
replaced his voice with classical music. The private radio and TV
stations followed suit.
The next thing that happened a few hours later
was the rumbling of tanks in Bangkok followed by General Sonthi’s
announcement that the military had taken over the government.
Then the king blessed the coup.
After a while the military junta named retired
general and former prime minister Surayud Chulanont prime minister.
Also appointed were the other key men to form the present Thai
government.
It is among the possible scenarios that the New
Year bombings were the work of the very same military men that
Thaksin had thought would pull a coup d’état against his own
government, obeying his order from New York. He thought these
generals would later install him as PM. With him in a position like
PM Surayud, he would be spared from the attacks of opposition
politicians, media questioning and exposés of his alleged
wrongdoing and the humiliating rallies right outside his office.
Results of an opinion poll released on Friday
indicated that public support for Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont
has drastically declined among Bangkok residents after the New Year
bombings.
Surayud himseld has warned his countrymen that
they must get ready for months of political unrest. He told them he
could see new bomb attacks coming.
As reported by AFP, only 48.5 percent of the
1,600 people polled around the Thai capital said they supported
Surayud. This is almost half his 90 percent support in October 2006.
Bangkok is now tense with rumors of a new coup,
one that could be mounted by Thaksin’s men. But a coup could
also be launched by General Sonthi’s present group of rulers. They
might have become dissatisfied with Surayud’s performance as PM.
The rumors forced General Sonthi to speak on TV
last Thursday and yesterday morning to calm the Thai public.
Meanwhile, leading civil libertarians and media
people want civilian rule to come back. I met some of them in
Singapore at a recent media conference organized by the Konrad
Adenauer Foundation.
They don’t want Thaksin back. But they want a
properly elected government that is civilian, democratic and
respectful of human rights and press freedom. They want something
like the Philippines—but the Philippines before it became the
champion killer of journalists and political dissenters, a
Philippines that in addition has Thailand’s better sense of
running the national economy and its private-sector businesses.
These Thai friends are nervously noticing that
General Sonthi has been attempting to get involved in day-to-day
government matters instead of letting civilians do their work. I
think we should also be nervous here, watching more and more
ex-generals taking over key government offices and having a
situation that has been described as “undeclared martial law.”
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