Around the world there will be alot of hand wringing about this but not in the City of Bangkok where their rampage is viewed as in bad form and unnecessary. No one in the West seemed to notice that for over six months prior to the Coup tens of thousands of Thais protested on an almost daily basis against Thaksin. No one in the West noticed that Thaksin was beginning to employ hired thugs to beat up the anti-Thaksin protesters. No one in the West really noticed anything until the Coup happened.The word "military" gets thrown around a lot in the article above. I am not allowed to 're-publish it" which is good for them as if I did I would go through it and point out all the mistakes.
There was NOT 5,000 protesters. There were 5,000 protesters last week when a factory closed. There were at most 3,000 protesters during the DAY. The riot was at 10:30 pm. There might have been 500 to 800 rioters. The organizers did incite the riot as they are well documented on video doing so. There were also some leaders directing and coordinating the rioters from the top of a truck.
Thaksin didn't control the military. Thankfully. He did control a large part of the Police and the Para-military "Forest Rangers" in the North. One of the reasons the Coup did occur when it did was to avoid Thaksin using his Forest Ranger Boarder Police (armed with HK rifles) to quell a large Anti-Thaksin rally that was planned. When the Coup occurred the Police where ordered to stay home, the Forest Rangers were restricted to their bases and their helicopters were grounded. Thus no blood shed.
Thaskin refused to step down after 2005 election results came into question. There was ample evidence of him buying votes, bribing election officials and so forth. Instead of stepping down he called a snap election in 2006 which was annulled as the opposition had refused to take part in it. He still refused to step down at that point. As unpleasant as a Military Junta might be to Western sensibilities Thaksin was a crook of the highest order and Thailand is better off with out him.
The constitution will be voted on. Copies of what it contains have be distributed to one and all and the debate about its contents has begun. This will be the 17th version since 1933.
Now if only they could fix that airport he had built.
