Saturday, September 23, 2006

King gives formal backing to coup

According to the BBC here the leaders of the military coup in Thailand have been given formal backing by King Bhumibol Adulyadej via a formal decree of assent. This confirms what was already apparent in that the coup leaders have at least the tacit consent of the King. Interesting that there were a couple of limited pro democracy protests in Bangkok which I would not have expected given the intervention by the King.

There was also an interesting piece on BBC online on Coup leaders' addiction to power. For what it is worth I think that the chances are that this time the military will stick to their word and hand power back once the constitution has been rewritten. Of course the rewriting of that constitution will be where the sticking points lie. Doubtless the generals will want a constitution which makes it difficult for the Thai Rak Thai party in general and Thaksin Shinawatra in particular to win the next set of elections

3 comments:

Marie said...

Do you find it significant that the coup leader is Muslim?

Tony Ferguson said...

No I don't. There is a problem with the terrorism in the southern provinces and I think he may be in a better position to get this resolved

Anonymous said...

Strange coup really, I didn't read much about a whole lot of dissent before it but I'm also not reading a whole lot about dissent after it.