A Poltical Journey

Waking up this morning one year ago, I got ready for school in the same fashion as the many days before. My routine was uninterrupted until I descended the stairs into the lobby of my apartment building and was met with the seemingly out of place question of why I was going to school. It was a school day and as I was a teacher, I thought the answer was obvious. In the few words of English that she knew (and refusing to attempt to explain herself in Thai), she attempted to convey to me the reasons why I didn’t have to go to school today. Out the jumbled mess of words which subsequently came from her mouth that I was able to understand, only a few words stood out. Piecing it together, I came up with the innocuous sentence of, “You don’t have to go to school today because all the banks and government offices are closed because of the government”. After deciphering that, I was left even more confused than I was only moments prior. Despite her insistence that I didn’t have school, I was unable to determine the reasons for this impromptu closure.

Trying to make sense of everything, I gave one of my fellow teachers a call. As the phone was ringing, I half expected him to laugh at me and my gullibility and could imagine him asking how I could possibly think that there would be a school holiday only days before the end of the term. Our conversation didn’t take that tone. It bore a strange resemblance to conversations from the movies and books and seemed out of place in my run of the mill life. In a surprised tone, he responded to my question of whether or not there was school with the ominous, ‘you haven’t heard yet….’ He followed on shortly with the point-blank statement that the previous night there had been a coup d'état. The army was now in control of the country and there were tanks and soldiers stationed in the streets throughout Bangkok. It was one of those moments of suspended reality. In the seconds after hearing this statement, I attempted to piece together all of what I was hearing. With countless thoughts spinning through my head, I tried to focus on keywords. Coup d'état, martial law, tanks in the streets, soldiers in control and military kept coming up. And those words didn’t fit with my own reality. My only understanding of a coup d'état came straight from my high school history textbook and more often than not the descriptions that accompanied these fleeting mentions usually consisted of an subtle mention of the coup itself and instead were dominated by the atrocities committed by the new military government. That, of course, didn’t leave a very nice feeling in my stomach.

So, school was canceled and I found myself with the whole day ahead of me. However, the first order of business was to get a hold of as much information as I could about the coup in order to quell my own concerns as well as the inevitable concerns of my friends and family back home. The irony of the situation was that my family had actually found out about the coup before I had. The coup had begun the evening before, long after I had gone to bed, and even if I had been awake, information wasn’t widely available (much less information in English). And so it was breaking news in America while I was sound asleep. It soon became obvious that the coup was peaceful. The coup had been completed with no violence. As people woke up and found a new military government in control, they, surprisingly, began venturing out onto the streets of Bangkok, not to protest, but to hand out flowers and food to the soldiers stationed throughout the city. For most, this was a surprising, yet not completely unexpected turn of events. It wasn’t the first time the government had been toppled by a coup d'état. It was, in fact, the 19th coup d'état since 1932, the most recent of which occurred 15 years ago. And so, while that nation waited to see what would become of this turn of events and, more importantly, the opinion of the King, I took advantage of the day off and headed up to the lakeside restaurant outside of town and had a relaxing lunch with a friend who happened to be in town. He also happened to have studied political science in Bangkok at one of the more politically active universities in the country (Thammasat University). Today marks the one year anniversary of the coup and that presents the ideal opportunity for me to try to bring you all up to speed as to the political developments of the past year.

The most important event as of late was the approval of the 2007 Constitution. The coup makers suspended the constitution that had been written and promulgated in 1997 and pledged to write a new constitution which incorporated many of the important parts of the so-called ‘People’s Constitution’ while at the same time addressing many of the structural deficiencies which enabled the former prime minister Thaksin to strengthen the power of the executive branch and use it to his personal advantage. The process was a lengthy one. There were many contentious issues and many protests were staged. The most impressive of which was a protest staged by a group of monks who marched on Bangkok on top of elephants with statues of the Buddha demanding that Buddhism be enshrined as the national religion. The most widely debated issues included the issue of religion, human rights, the method of selecting the Prime Minister, parliamentary representation, the format for the Senate and the election of senators, and amnesty for the coup makers. The constitution drafting committee, whose selection and purpose was also widely contested, deliberated for months on end and finally, in July, was able to release a finalized version of the proposed constitution. Shortly after its completion, a copy was mailed to every household in the county, including my own, for the people to read over before the national referendum scheduled for August 19. August 19 was a Sunday and the government declared August 20, the following Monday, a holiday so that people could travel back to the provinces that they were registered in to vote. The days leading up to the election were somewhat tense as most people were still undecided as to what direction the country was going to take. Throughout the previous months, rumors of coups and counter-coups were flying and the impending election did nothing but increase the number of rumors. When the day came to vote, the day passed as peacefully as the coup and in the end the constitution was accepted by 57.8% of the people. The passage of the constitution has paved the way for elections, which are now scheduled for December 23. This will mark the final transition from a military government back to a democratically elected government and for most people that moment can’t come soon enough. It is my belief that most of the ‘yes’ vote for the constitution came from people who simply wanted nothing more than to see a return to democracy or the removal of the military government from power. In theory, the approval of the constitution and the elections will accomplish just that, although, there are people who will disagree with that statement.

The announcement of elections has begun an almost frantic rearrangement of political parties and politicians. Everybody and their uncle seem to be jockeying for a position of power and are trying to ensure the greatest chance for success. There are alliances being formed and political parties are defining their positions but one of the most disheartening aspects of the whole process is that is appears to simply be a recycling of the ‘old horses’ of Thai politics. There are few new contenders for these positions of power and it seems that every political party, new and old, has recently elected a former prime minister or governor as party leader. Should that party take a majority of seats, that person is the most likely candidate for prime minister. Even the general who staged the coup, who subsequently pledged to stay out of politics, appears to in the races. While he formally denies that he has any plans after he retires at the end of September, he has yet to promise that he will not run for office.

The impending general election and political party activity has dominated most of the headline news recently, but just prior to the referendum many of the claims of corruption against the former prime minister had finally been processed and accepted by the courts. Several months ago, the courts asked the former Prime Minister Thaksin to appear before the court and defend himself. After submitting that request several times, they issued a warrant for his arrest. Thaksin, who was in New York at the time of the coup, has spent most of the past year in London. He refuses to return to Thailand to argue the charges until he believes he will receive a fair trial and only after power has been restored to the people. While in England, he did what everyone does while in exile and bought himself a premier league football team. This not only assured himself a place in the media in Thailand given Thailand’s love of premier league football, but it also makes him a more difficult person to extradite. Since his arrest warrant was issued (and a second one has subsequently been issued for a different case), Thailand has begun the arduous process of extraditing him. Thailand and England do have an extradition treaty but they first prove that the laws broken are laws in both countries and, more importantly, that the charges are not politically motivated. There are steps being taken to being many of the charges of corruption to trial, but it is a lengthy and time-consuming process.

Of the reasons stated in the so-called “White Paper’ released by the coup makers after the coup, Thaksin’s mismanagement of the restive south was one of the prominent justification for the seizure of power. The interim government has taken significant steps forward in acknowledging that there were mistakes made and have attempted to reach out to the different communities in the southern part of Thailand. There have been significant attempts to repair the political and social relationships with the government of Malaysia and progress has been made. However, the violence continues to escalate and there seems to be no end in sight. It appears as though this is a problem that a simple change in government cannot solve.

One year after the coup, I believe most people will still agree that the verdict is still out. The interim government has made several significant blunders and the validity of the new constitution and the impending elections is questioned, and rightfully so. Only time will tell if the actions of the past year will result in positive change or if Thailand will fall back into the cycle of coup, constitution, violence, elections and hope only to be subjected to yet another coup. It is hard to imagine breaking the cycle when Thailand has had nineteen coup d'états and eighteen constitutions and, more importantly, when there are no new politicians on the horizon bringing change and new ideas. In the end, Thailand is in the same position as many nations. Despite wanting change, the method of achieving any change is so deeply engrained in the tradition and culture of politics that most have given up hope of obtaining it. Those who are in the position to change the system –those who are in the position of power - after having fought so hard (and spent so much money) to obtain that position seek only to preserve the status quo. Maybe Machiavelli was right when he said those who we wish to have in a position of power, have no desire for that power. Positions of power are inherently occupied by those who seek only to perpetuate their own power and position.