Red Shirt protesters rally at Ratchaprasong intersection. Vinai Dithajohn/Demotix. All rights reserved. As the anniversary of Thailand’s 2014 military coup came and went last May, any hopes of the military regime that ousted former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra simply being a transitory, caretaker government went with it. While the leader of the coup, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, has referred to himself as a “soldier with a democratic heart” and has repeatedly claimed that he overthrew democracy for democracy’s sake, it is becoming increasingly clear that what the country’s elite is really trying to do is permanently ingrain itself within the system.
Historical background
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. Simone Kuhlmey/Demotix. All rights reserved.Thailand is no stranger to coups. The country has continuously suffered from political instability since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932 (the most recent coup is, in fact, the country’s nineteenth). Successive military dictatorships ruled Thailand throughout the Cold War with hefty military and economic aid from the United States who, in a narrative that is all too familiar, saw the authoritarian generals as key allies against the communist fervor that was engulfing the wider region.
In 2001, however, a subtle revolution took place as the Thai people elected the Pheu Thai party to power in the most open elections in the country’s history; a moment that has rightly been referred to as a political awakening for Thailand’s mostly poor working class population. For the first time, the bulk of Thailand’s rural poor saw their lot improve as a result of their vote. The Thaksin government gave Thai villagers access to affordable healthcare for the first time in history and brought millions of Thais out of poverty through microcredit and other redistributive schemes.
