The media, at least here in Canada, have been taken completely by surprise by recent events in Thailand. A faction of the Thai military says it has overthrown Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Presumably, a long sequence of important events led up to this, but none of them attracted the attention of journalists in North America. It might be wise for people here to pay a bit more attention. At place of concentrating on dubious and implausible attempts to bring democracy to places like Afghanistan, we should be more concerned about its precarious position in relatively important places like Thailand. For Thailand is an important country, with tremendous economic potential. It is unique in the region in that it never suffered the experience of colonialism, though it has had to dance nimbly between the pressures brought to bear on it by Britain and France (which had colonies on either side of it), by Japan, America, and China.
Under Thaksin, Thailand seems to have had a thin veneer of democratic process, under which steamed a cauldron of corruption, manoeuvering by the military, and factional disputes. It is not clear to me exactly who wants this sudden military coup, and who opposes it. I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion about Thaksin and his policies. To tell the truth, I’m embarrassed that I know next to nothing about this important country’s politics. Thailand is the kind of country that should be able to find its inner strengths, and establish a working democracy. There is no scarring legacy of colonialism, it is full of enterprising and well-educated people, it has a vigorous cultural life, it has not been torn up by war. But it doesn’t seem to be able to make things work. I’m hoping that some Thai correspondents will give me some insights into this perplexing situation.
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