The Coup

So not to worry. Except for a holiday on Wednesday for our school and Urana's, life is generally normal. You do see some troops stationed at bridges and important sites but they don't pull people over or bother anyone. The soldiers wear yellow ribbons around their weapons as a sign of loyalty to the King who is revered.

Democracy in Thailand is only about 70 years old. We take it for granted but it took us a long time to get it working and it ain't perfect yet, think about slavery & women's suffrage and then think about the 2000 election. Everyone we spoke to doesn't believe that the military people really want to run the country. They are generally respected because they tend to be educated. They are going to try to come up with a better constitution which can prevent someone like Taksin from becoming a dictator. Think of all the pseudo-democracies where the president eventually changes the constitution so he/she can remain in power longer than what was originally laid out in the constitution. Taksin is a Berlusconi kind of a guy, filthy rich, controlling his communications empire and able to buy votes by giving handouts to poor villagers and allegedly able to rig the voting process. He was planning on putting his cronies in the key military positions, it has been in the local paper for weeks, and his last election was nullified because of hanky-panky. Enough politics.

From Eleanor:

All is calm here--yesterday, it was business as usual. We woke up Wednesday morning and learned about the coup. Those of you who live in the snow belt will recognize the feeling that I thought I would never again experience--I called our Thai school (where we have been going for three hours a day, five days a week) and I was told: "No school today." Yeh!!! Hooray!!!, no school. Yes, the schools, banks and government offices were closed for the day. We persuaded Urana not to go downtown to see the tanks--citing Kent State and what could happen to innocent bystanders in volatile situations where people hold guns. We basically stayed home until the evening, and then went to Khoa San Rd, a major tourist area. The crowds were light but everything was normal. We saw a truckload of soldiers guarding the big monument but no sense of menace. Yesterday everything was open and we traveled back downtown to school. A few armed soldiers were posted under every overpass--just sitting around. Downtown, they were posing for pictures with the tourists. Of course, Jules took a few pictures (see photos). There were yellow ribbons tied around every weapon. This means that they are troops loyal to the King who came out with a statement that he supports the coup. (This is unusual--in 1992, the date of the last coup, he remained neutral) The people's attitude is: if the King supports it, so do we and we all know, Thaksin had to go. Right now, it is a wait and see. On the surface the crisis has passed (no demonstrations, communication restored) but only time will tell. We have talked to a lot of people and everyone so far is relieved that Thaksin has been removed. The icing on the cake was the following: he sold his billion dollar communications business and paid not one red cent in taxes.

So do not be afraid to come to Thailand--stay tuned for future events. Personally, I am cautiously optimistic. Eleanor