Thai coup more of the same

26 May 2014

'Same same, but different' is a common enough slogan printed on t-shirts in Thailand. And the coup called last week by the head of the Thai military, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, fits the tag.

The formal declaration of the coup is a high point in the slow but steady disintegration of Thai politics over the last two years. It has been a coup in slow motion.

The problem for anyone seeking to make sense of the whole mess is that there is really no decisive or determining issue impacting large numbers of people to create a groundswell of protest or contest. It is hard to interpret unfolding events when there is no clear set of issues about which there is a political contest.

What 'issues' there are largely come down to personalities. Corruption in Thailand is ubiquitous. It is as much a part of every activity and every transaction as taxation is in places like Australia. Its reach is literally everywhere and politics is just a different form of business with all the usual forms of corruption included in the political processes.

And all players follow the same rules. Both the Red Shirt leaders, supporting the Shinawatra family and the leader of the Yellow Shirt 'establishment', especially Suthep Thaugsuban, have distinguished records as people who have used public office for personal material advantage. There are no white knights in Thai politics.

What is even more disturbing is that the Crown Prince, a friend and and alleged beneficiary of the Shinawatra family, did what he could to see that the Shinawatras' party did not lose the slender grip on power that they had. By telling the military leadership two weeks ago that they could do everything up to but not including a coup, he proposed a cognation of the existing Government. If the military enacted a coup, the Government would fall for military rule to be set in place.

Well, the coup happened. After locking up the contesting parties in a room and telling them to come up with a solution to Thailand's political challenges, the political leaders remained a intransigent as ever and no solution emerged. The army decided to act and the coup flowed.

The only question now is what comes next. This time there will be a variation on 'same same, but different'.

The difference right now is indefinite rule by the military. But as has happened so many times in the last 60 years, the military

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Thai coup more of the same

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