Many in Bangkok Embrace Military Takeover
Thai Army Chief Vows to Turn Power Over to Interim Leader Within Two Weeks

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 21, 2006

BANGKOK, Sept. 20 -- Jubilant crowds in this sultry capital embraced Thailand's new military leadership on Wednesday, as Thais showered soldiers with flowers, posed for photos with tanks and welcomed a bloodless coup that deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra a day earlier.

Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, the army chief who led the rebellion and who is now acting prime minister, vowed that an interim leader would be appointed within two weeks. But in an indication that the restoration of democracy is a long way off, he made clear that elections may wait until October 2007, after the drafting of a new constitution.

For now, the military remains in control of a country that had become one of the strongest beacons of democracy in Southeast Asia. Provincial governors -- including many still loyal to Thaksin -- are being forced to report to four regional army commanders. To prevent any uprisings among Thaksin's supporters, based in the rural north and northeast, the provisional military authority also advised farmers to "remain calm" and banned political gatherings of five or more people. Some television and radio reports have been blocked or censored.

Despite the new period of uncertainty, ushered in by a coup that was denounced by the United States and other foreign governments, many Thais in the capital appeared overjoyed.

"Democracy has won!" said an ecstatic Orathai Dechodomphan, 59, a tailor and Thaksin opponent who joined hundreds of people handing out roses to soldiers near the army headquarters. "Thaksin tried to steal power and did not respect our king. He never would have left on his own. What happened yesterday is our first step toward recovering a real democracy."

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was seen by many here as having effectively allowed Thaksin's removal, endorsed Sonthi, appointing him the official head of a new governing council charged with creating "peace in the country," according to an announcement televised nationally.

Sonthi is close to the king, and there had been speculation that the monarch played a role in the coup. Sonthi dismissed those suggestions Wednesday, telling reporters: "I am the one who decided to stage the coup. No one supported me."

The general, who only a week ago had ruled out the chance of a coup, said the military had been forced to act because Thaksin's moves to remain in power had divided the country. At the same time, Sonthi said, Thaksin's actions were dangerously bordering on lese-majeste, a powerful charge in a country where the king is widely revered.

The ousted prime minister, a billionaire tycoon who rose to power in 2001, was extremely popular among rural Thais largely because of a series of lucrative local programs he backed. But allegations of corruption and abuse of power earned him the hostility of the country's elite, mostly in Bangkok. He had been accused of monopolizing the media, altering the constitution to enhance his powers and stocking electoral commissions with his supporters. He was also scorned for mishandling the increasingly violent Islamic insurgency in the south of Thailand, a mostly Buddhist country.

In a public opinion poll released Wednesday by Rajabhat Suan Dusit University, almost 84 percent of respondents supported the coup. The overwhelming majority of those taking part in the poll were from the capital.

Sonthi suggested that Thaksin could face prosecution if he returned to Thailand. Thaksin, for his part, did not immediately appear ready to stage a comeback. "I volunteer to work for the country," he told the Thai News Agency in London, where he arrived Wednesday after departing early from the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly. "If they don't want me to do that, I won't."

Thaksin received international support. The European Union demanded "that the military forces stand back and give way to the democratically elected political government." The Bush administration denounced the coup and said negotiations on a free-trade agreement with Thailand depended on restoration of democracy.

Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, called the developments a "step back for democracy."

Sonthi insisted the military had no interest in maintaining power. "We have two weeks; after two weeks, we step out," he said, referring to his search for a caretaker prime minister, who analysts say would probably still operate under the scrutiny of the military.

While activists who had long sought Thaksin's ouster cheered the military's move, some opposition leaders acknowledged that Thailand must find some way out of its political crisis.

"Of course we would have liked to see this handled another way, but we also recognize that Thaksin's abuse of power had grown to the breaking point," said Abhisit Vejjajiva, head of the main opposition Democrat Party. "Now, at least, we will see a new constitution written and the path of a clean electoral process. That is what the people of Thailand want and deserve."

Diplomatic sources and Thai officials said there was little indication that the remaining Thaksin loyalists in the military and police would attempt to resist the coup. Although analysts said such a response could not yet be ruled out, Bangkok newspapers reported that at least two high-ranking military figures linked to Thaksin had pledged allegiance instead to Sonthi's "political reform council."

[Early Thursday, Lukman B. Lima, an exiled leader in one of several groups fighting the central government for a separate Muslim state, told the Associated Press that "it is the right thing that the military has taken power" and that Sonthi was the "only one who knows the real problems" of the Muslim-dominated provinces of southern Thailand.]

Thailand has suffered 17 successful or attempted military takeovers, but Tuesday's was the first in 15 years and something of a shock for Thais who thought they had left the days of coups behind. Many leading opposition figures have called this coup different in nature from the others -- mostly because the military is being trusted to simply act as a caretaker and restorer of democracy -- but others here recalled the coup in 1991. A year after that takeover, when pro-democracy activists began demonstrating against the interim military commander, at least 50 people were gunned down by troops.

"We are entering another vicious circle in Thailand -- of coups, democracy, corruption and more coups," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "We had hoped that we would get beyond this. We went 15 years without a military intervention, but clearly recent events have shown that we have yet to escape that cycle."