BANGKOK, Thailand -- Six weeks after a
bloodless military coup destroyed Thailand's
democracy, squabbling has erupted among
supporters of the putsch, amid worries that
corrupt politicians are hiding illegal loot while
the ruling junta dithers without direction.
"It could all turn into a political farce,"
warned Campaign for Popular Democracy member
Suwit Watnoo, after rifts among the coup's
collaborators spilled into the public arena.
"So far, corruption allegations are just that
-- unfounded allegations. This makes society
uneasy," complained Ongart Klampaiboon, spokesman
for the Democrat Party, which benefited from
sudden toppling of Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra's government on Sept. 19.
The popular coup also did not stop Islamist
separatists fighting in southern Thailand, where
more than 1,700 people have died since January
2004, despite the junta's promise to listen to
minority ethnic Malay Muslims' demands for
justice, equality, autonomy and multiculturalism.
Pojaman Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin's wealthy
wife, successfully scandalized one of the junta's
top officials by privately meeting him while her
husband remains self-exiled in England.
Her 15-minute Bangkok meeting with Gen. Prem
Tinsulanonda raised eyebrows because Mrs. Pojaman
was widely perceived as trying to cut a deal for
her billionaire husband and circumvent the
junta's anti-corruption tribunals.
Gen. Prem, prime minister from 1980-88 and a
former army commander, is president of the Privy
Council -- the monarchy's top advisory group --
making him one of the closest officials to
revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose military
loyalists staged the coup.
After the meeting, Gen. Prem, 86, insisted
their small talk did not include Mr. Thaksin's
future return to Thailand.
But Thai media, overwhelmingly supportive of
the coup, condemned Gen. Prem for meeting Mr.
Thaksin's wife on Oct. 27 because it could give
the impression that a sleazy deal was being cut
and that the coup leaders were willing to be
compromised.
"Prem-Pojaman Meet Ill-Advised," said the
headline of a Nation newspaper editorial the next
day, after weeks of jingoistic, pro-coup
commentary.
"It is believed that the September 19 military
coup to topple Thaksin could not have succeeded
without Prem's blessing," the paper said.
The meeting "raises the rather disturbing
specter of a possible negotiated compromise in
the corruption investigation against Thaksin and
his cronies."
Thais are anxious because coup leaders have
not fulfilled their altruistic pledge to bring
Mr. Thaksin and other officials to trial for
alleged wrongdoing.
Tribunal officials, however, insist their
investigations must proceed according to law, and
evidence is scarce because many suspicious deals
involved complicated paperwork, loopholes, cash
transactions and deniability.
Thais who support the coup demand the junta
extradite and imprison Mr. Thaksin for alleged
corruption, hundreds of extrajudicial killings
committed by police during his shrill nationwide
"war on drugs," and other misdeeds.
Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sonthi
Boonyaratkalin unleashed the coup just before he
was to be fired by Mr. Thaksin, who was
installing pliant officials in most institutions.
But Gen. Sonthi said corruption, and the
king's safety, motivated him to topple Mr.
Thaksin's elected government, rip up the
constitution, suspend political rights, muzzle
free speech, and clamp this Buddhist-majority
Southeast Asian nation under martial law.
"I suspect many Thais still lack a proper
understanding of democracy," Gen. Sonthi said in
a rare interview published on Oct. 26.
"The people have to understand their rights
and their duties. Some have yet to learn about
discipline."
The U.S. and European Union criticized the
putsch, but American Ambassador to Thailand,
Ralph "Skip" Boyce, attended the junta's
unveiling of a hand-picked National Legislative
Assembly on Oct. 20, alongside envoys from
Southeast Asian countries.
E.U. diplomats stayed away because the E.U.
did not recognize the unelected group.
Washington regards Bangkok as a "major
non-NATO ally" and U.S. President George W. Bush
had congratulated Mr. Thaksin for helping the CIA
capture a suspected, Indonesian-born, Islamist
terror-mastermind named Hambali, who was hiding
in central Thailand in 2003.
Hambali is currently caged without trial in
Guantanamo Bay.
Mr. Thaksin's supporters are meanwhile
demanding a show of evidence of his so-called
crimes, and permission for him to return home.
The coup leaders claim they need to keep
Thailand under martial law and block Mr.
Thaksin's return because, during the past five
years, he won three elections with up to 16
million votes and could easily destabilize the
junta.
Gripped by despair, a taxi driver protested
against the coup by hanging himself on Tuesday
(October 31), one month after intentionally
crashing his cab into a tank, breaking his rib
bones.
"I am a taxi driver who has sacrificed himself
for democracy," said a suicide note written by
Nuamthong Praiwal, 60, according to police.
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Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich, who has reported
news from Asia for the past 28 years, and is
co-author of the non-fiction book of
investigative journalism, "HELLO MY BIG BIG
HONEY!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and
Their Revealing Interviews. His web page is
http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent