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Published on September 19, 2007

From the very outset, this newspaper called the military overthrow of the democratically elected Thaksin government on September 19, 2006 a necessary evil, but one that turned back the clock on democracy. As the nation marks the one-year anniversary of that momentous event, we have not changed our mind. The coup altered the course of Thailand's destiny, but the country still struggles hard, as it has over the past 75 years, to achieve a fair approximation of democracy. Whenever there is a glimmer of hope, we invariably fail to sustain it.

Our parliamentary democracy under the constitutional monarchy has been trapped in a vicious circle that invariably starts with a civilian government's crisis of confidence as a result of corruption scandals, followed by a military takeover and a fresh attempt to rebuild democracy as we are trying to do now.

A huge effort must be made to break out of this vicious circle so that democracy can thrive and take root in this country.

The military junta, the Council for National Security, managed to seize and hold on to power without any loss of life because it had the consent of the urban middle class, which had spearheaded a peaceful but unsuccessful campaign to force the corruption-prone Thaksin administration to step down.

By the time Thaksin was forcibly removed from power, the leader of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party had been prime minister for five and a half years, during which time he and his cronies engaged in corruption, rolled back civil liberties and violated human rights. They did all this under the guise of a democratic government. Thaksin was about to achieve his goal of establishing absolute rule, which would have enabled him to pursue his own interests at the expense of the public. Virtually all of the key institutions including the Senate, Constitution Court, Election Commission, government bureaucracy and police force had been subjugated and manipulated. The rule of law, which underpins democracy, had been trampled by Thaksin's near-absolute power.

But the argument that a temporary military dictatorship is preferable to a bogus democracy under an elected but tyrannical leader like Thaksin has yet to be proven correct. This is because there is always the possibility that military leaders might get comfortable with the trappings of power and become as corrupt as those they ousted.

The CNS fashioned itself as a force for good and promised to implement reforms, rid politics of corruption, restore democracy through a free and fair election and hand power to the next government within a year. So far the military, the interim Surayud government and the National Legislative Assembly it installed have delivered on the promises to promulgate a new constitution, and prosecute deposed PM Thaksin, members of his family and their cronies in connection with electoral fraud and corruption. Preparations are being made to hold a general election sometime in December this year. But the performance of the Surayud government, has fallen short of public expectation. The same can be said of the military's handling of the insurgency in the deep South, which continues to escalate despite efforts to suppress the militants and re-establish law and order.

Both the urban middle class and the rural masses have yet to learn the right lessons from Thaksin's rule, the coup, and the military government over the past year.

But if there is only one lesson that needs to be learned, it is this: in order to rebuild democracy and make it serve everyone, both the urban middle class and the rural masses must do away with their dependency on either the military or a patron like Thaksin. That is because both sides have a vested interest in keeping people ignorant, conditioning them to rely on patronage to get things done, and to make them feel powerless as citizens to act individually or collectively to bring about positive change. 

What remains to be done is for the military to work itself smoothly out of its current extra-curricular role and submit itself to the civilian rule that will emerge after the upcoming election. The worst mistake the military can make is to assume that it can continue to dominate politics by pulling strings from behind the scenes.