Tag Archives: coup

Quick update

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So last Friday’s protest went largely unattended. I heard that about ten people turned up, then left when it started raining. No arrests were made.

There is supposed to be another protest at 5pm local time today, but it seems that the protestors are such a tiny minority that it will amount to very little.

It actually seems like they’re trying to goad the army into arresting them, and getting some publicity, which their efforts so far have failed to achieve. The authorities, sensibly, seem to be content to ignore them for now.

Oh, and the coup leaders even have their own website had their own website – now 404…

It’s not over yet

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A group of some 80 students and activists under the banner “19 September Network against Coup d’Etat” is calling on members of the public who oppose Tuesday night’s coup to express their disapproval by wearing black and gathering peacefully at Siam Paragon this evening. #

This evening, I shall be avoiding Siam Paragon, and wearing anything but black…

[Update: A post from the organisers:]

Statement from “19 September Network against Coup d’etat”

According to a group of persons under the name “Administrative Reform Council (ARC) under the Democratic System”, had staged the coup d’etat and remove the power from a government elected under the constitution that was drafted by the people. Abolishing the constitution, harassing the media, and putting an end to the independent agencies are regarded as acts of abolishing the parliamentary democracy system. This act will lead to the outcome like the previous coups that had happened in Thai society in the past.

We, “19 September Network against Coup d’etat”, are consisted of social activists, students, and regular citizens are opposed to the way of building democracy through the point of the guns. There is no such thing as building democracy through destroying democracy at the same time in the world.

We wanted to state that

We do not accept the political power of the military in intervening with the democratic system, by saying that they have intervene to solve the social conflict, since we see that the political conflicts and freedom of expression under the constitution are normal in democracy. The role of the military is not to solve the political problem by coup d’etat. Such an act reflects the lack of political awareness and is regressive for the developments of democracy. Any political solving processes should happen within the scope of laws and constitution, under the international democracy standards.

We ask the military to return back to theirs divisions and bases; and stop their involvement in the coup d’etat process. And stop intervening the basic rights of the people; such as freedom to expressions and bring the political procedures back regular period before the coup d’etat (19 September 2006)

We would like to invite people that are against the coup d’etat to express their thoughts through:

Express through using black color as the symbol (wear black shirts, tie, or arm)

Turn on the front lights of your car during the day

Organize talks and discussions on democracy within the family, company, organizations, friends, and at schools/universities.

Meet and gather peacefully and openly on Friday 22 September 2006 at the water fountains, Siam Paragon (Please wear black) from 6.00 pm onward.

19 September Network against Coup d’etat

(Issued: 20 September 2006)

www.19sep.org (Website currently down, at least in Thailand – Barry) #

…and I haven’t seen a SINGLE TANK!

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Thawee Kraikhupt protests at Democracy Monument

So there’s been a military coup here in Bangkok. All is well, and to be frank I’d hardly have noticed if not for TV and internet news.

There are a few soldiers around, but they’re smiling and very relaxed. They’ve been posing for photos with tourists, and the public have been smiling and giving them flowers, drinks and food. I haven’t heard any reports of violence, and the whole thing seems to have been well organised and generally accepted by the people.

There’s been a lot of posturing and grumbling by Western leaders about the fall of democracy, but in all honesty the former regime was anything but democratic. The constitution has been dissolved, and we are currently under Martial Law, but as I said you’d hardly realise anything was going on aside from seeing small pockets of soldiers every now and again (granted there are more in the heart of the government areas, but that’s miles away from my neighbourhood).

We will apparently have an acting Prime Minister within two weeks, and a fair, democratic general election in one year’s time. The army have said that they have no interest in ruling – they only wanted to remove the previous regime.

I travelled to the Parliament buildings yesterday morning to take a look around – plenty of soldiers, tons of press, but not much to see. We did see Thawee Kraikhupt, a minister from “Thai Rak Thai” (”Thais Love Thais”, the former regime), holding a one-man-protest at Democracy Monument (pictured); the signs in Thai apparently say that he is on hunger strike to protest the removal of democracy. Apparently he was removed himself shortly after I took the picture.

Talk of curfews and censorship are nonsense – international news was apparently removed from some cable/satellite feeds, but it didn’t happen here and is back on now in any case. The internet and phone networks have been working fine, and the local press has been reporting freely on events.

To sum up, life essentially continues as normal – for now.

Interesting Times

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Well this is all getting rather um, “interesting”.

Sep 19 10:27:13PM Martin: check thailand news
Sep 19 10:27:15PM Martin: i think summit bigs happened

The BBC is reporting an apparent military coup here in Bangkok. And typically, having been out and about in Bangkok all day, the first I heard about it was online, via the Western media.

Every Thai TV station seems to be showing stock footage of the King, set to “patriotic” music. There has been what looked like an address to the people by an official-looking chap repeated a few times, but I have no idea who he is or what he was saying. Everybody at the street restaurant where I saw it either spoke English or Thai; nobody spoke enough of both languages to be able tell me in English what the message was.

Tanks are, apparently, surrounding the government buildings (a few miles from here), I haven’t seen a single thing on the street to suggest any kind of crisis. Shops and restaurants here are open as usual – even the seedy massage parlour next door still had the neon lights on.

There has been no violence yet that I’m aware of, long may this remain the case.

To sum up, I’m fine and so is everyone I’ve spoken to here. Let’s just hope this is over quickly and peacefully.

[Edit: Martin has posted his piece here]