Unfortunately, the liberal charter was abused by Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who became prime minister in 2001 on populist policies that won him wide support from Thailand’s urban and rural poor.
Thaksin has evolved into a democratic hero for his followers over the past three years, partly because he was the victim of a coup.
“Now that Thaksin is the symbol of democracy in this country, we’ve forgotten what he was in the past,” said Chris Baker, the co-author of several books on the Thaksin years. “During 2004 to 2005 Thaksin engaged in closing down a lot of the state democracy in this country.”
Because of the groundswell of anti-Thaksin sentiment at the time, especially among the Bangkok middle class and political elite, the bloodless 2006 coup was largely welcomed in Thailand, but widely condemned abroad.
The coup brought direct benefits for the military, which saw their budget increase 60 percent in 2007 and 18 percent last year.
But other than feathering its own nest, the military did a poor job in setting up an interim government to run Thailand for a year after the coup, and also failed to prevent a pro-Thaksin government from returning to power in the Dec. 23, 2007, general election.
“The coup in 2006 indicated that launching a coup is one thing, to govern the country is another,” Thai political scientist Suchit Bunbongkarn told a recent seminar.
“The military realizes now that the problems facing the country are too complicated to be solved by a military coup,” he said.
Others argue that they don’t need one, since they have proven themselves adept over the past year at influencing the rise and fall of governments without resorting to tanks.
“The military has become Thailand’s crucial, clandestine player,” according to long-time political watcher Chambers. “The armed forces today [have] an even better deal than they had 30 years ago.”
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