Military coup in Thailand.

The Thai army has seized the capital of Thailand Bangkok. There are no reports of any damage or shots being fired by the Thai army. People appear to be supporting the coup due to the promise of a return to an democratic government.



A military coup that promises to restore democracy thats an interesting twist on things. IMO the people that are supporting the coup are either very desperate or very naive. Personaly I doubt that the Thai military will live up to there promise of returning the country to a democratic government.

Of course it never occured to Thaksin Shinawatra and others that if they hadnt been so corrupt in the first place no one would have supported the coup.

Watch this space.


Related News Links:
www.news.com.au
www.cnn.com
www.cnn.com

[edit on 19-9-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

When military gets hold of a country under the false impression or promise of democracy we all know what that means.

It is not the people that is doing the government change but just a few that are doing it for the people.

Original posted by xpert11

www.news.com.au
THE Thai army seized control of Bangkok today without a shot being fired, dismissed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, revoked the constitution and promised a swift return to democracy after political reforms.

The seizure would be temporary and power "returned to the people" soon, retired Lieutenant-General Prapart Sakuntanak said on all Thai television channels.

Foreign news channels, including CNN and the BBC, were cut off.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I live in Thailand and that the news channels are closed is not correct. They might have been, but about 4 hours ago when I got up BBC was on and have been since. Same goes for ABC, DW, RaiUno and TV5, the other news channels I have access to.

But I can tell you on the internet bangkokpost.com and hotmail.com are closed. No access to local news sources and no e-mail let out.
The only non-government Thai news channel, ASTV is still on air.

Where I live - a rural area 150 km from Bangkok - there are no indications of a coup.

SMS-communication is still working.

FWIW - I have a thai girlfriend (we're in australia right now) so I have a little inside perspective here.

Things to note:

A) Thais have waited for this for a LONG time. Most are rejoycing now. Taksin was a (bad bad man!), beyond anything we've experienced in western countries.

B) Generally western media is portraying this takeover as a BAD thing, so that goes to show you who wanted Taksin in power. Interesting he fled to ENGLAND with the rest of his party.

C) Coups suck, but in this case it was certainly called for, from everything I've seen and read (g/f, thai friends, blogs, thai news, etc)

D) You will find those not living in bangkok will have a different perspective however - Taksin's ploy was to give the many poor people living out in the sticks some cash before the election, so he'd win, and then continue selling out the country.

E) Oh, Taksin's a billionaire. For a reason.

Thanks for listening

OH - some pics

bangkokbiznews.com...
bangkokbiznews.com...
flickr.com...
flickr.com...
flickr.com...
pics.manager.co.th...

OH and in case your wondering what all the yellow is, yellow is the color of the king, and the thais are very loving of him. The army supposedly did this coup in his name.


[edit on 20-9-2006 by TheyAreNotWhoTheySayTheyR]

[edit on 20-9-2006 by TheyAreNotWhoTheySayTheyR]

Originally posted by TheyAreNotWhoTheySayTheyR

B) Generally western media is portraying this takeover as a BAD thing, so that goes to show you who wanted Taksin in power. Interesting he fled to ENGLAND with the rest of his party.

Interesting now we really know to who our media caters too. I guess the conspiracy about how our media works is a reality.

Is nice to have the real news from the people that have first hand on the situation.

An interesting point is that the commander implemented the coup by gaining the backing of the military and performing it when the Prime Minister was out of the country, which are the textbook maneouvers in Luttwak's Coup D'etat: A practical handbook.

(Luttwak is the old 'grande strategist', no joke that guy)

I love the way that bush talks about this...
"they must restore democracy as soon as possible, and we are very upset by this takeover"

when it was the ousted government that was accused of restraining the media, and removing democratic institutions, not to mention rampant corruption...

So i guess it spells out who Bush could control, and who he couldn't...

interesting that he equates the newly found freedom of the media, with removal of democratic rights...
explains a lot about the massive gag orders, and national security directives that he has issued during his dictatorship-scratch- his PRESIDENCY...

Good luck to Thailand, and good luck to the new government...

Military takeover works in Tyrkia, so it is not all that suprising it went so well in Thailand too.

Anyway, strange that noone has noticed the Hungarian uprising/protests. Unlike in Tyrkia and Thailand, the police and military in Hungary is like other European countries; they oppose the people rather than support it... We Europeans are stupid to let our governments control/direct police/military against us rather than beside us... Its time for another revolution!

I was curious if there has been any further word about this scenario?

it seems like came, happened, and then no more information on it.