WHAT happened in Thailand on Tuesday—a military coup d’etat, despite the army bosses’ denials—could happen here. We would even hazard the guess that right now the Aquino-Liberal Party-coalition strategists are already planning for it.

We must make it clear that the Thai and Philippine political situations are immensely dissimilar. But they are alike in one thing: both countries are controlled by a minority, the elite in wealth, educational attainment, cultural achievement, and business and industrial power, who undemocratically want what they think is best for themselves and their country to be the national policy. The elite of both the Philippines and Thailand hate it when authentic electoral democracy interrupts their hold on political power and allows populist economic policies to disturb the rise of the GDP—even if stellar rates of GDP growth do not result in job creation and poverty reduction.