Thailand's new military ruler pledged yesterday to resign from power in two weeks and restore democracy in a year, after sweeping aside Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup.
General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who orchestrated Tuesday night's coup while the premier was out of the country, said Thaksin had been pushed out in line with the wishes of the people after months of political turmoil.
"I will resign as interim prime minister within two weeks, and now we are looking for the person who will become the new prime minister," said Sonthi, who added that he hoped to hold new elections in October next year.
PHOTO: AP
"The potential candidates are politically neutral and love democracy, with the king as head of state," he said.
After announcing the coup on Tuesday night, Sonthi and his generals met with revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Sonthi Boon-yaratglin said in a television statement yesterday that the king had endorsed him as the head of the interim governing council.
"For the sake of the nation's peace and order, the king has appointed General Sonthi Boon-yaratglin to become the leader of Military Council for Political Reform," said the statement read on national television.
"People should be calm and all government officials should follow General Sonthi's orders," it said.
Thailand has been wracked by months of upheaval since Thaksin's family sold nearly US$2 billion of shares in the telecoms firm he founded -- without paying any tax.
Waves of street protests convinced Thaksin to call a new election in April and step down temporarily, but the poll descended into chaos and members of the election commission were jailed on charges of helping Thaksin's party.
New elections were repeatedly delayed, and Sonthi said the generals had finally decided it was time to take action. He denied the king was involved.
"Nobody was behind us. We decided on our own, and we took care of it on our own," he said.
"We decided within the last two days to stage a coup because the people have called for it and also because of the mismanagement of the government," Sonthi said. Across Thailand, there were no immediate reports of violence or unrest.
Sonthi, who announced after the coup that the Constitution had been annulled, said a new interim constitution would be ready early next month, which would lead to a permanent constitution about one year later.
"The next general election will hopefully take place in October next year," the general said.
Earlier, Sonthi said there would be strict new controls on the media and a ban on public gatherings.
The country's border with Laos and Myanmar in the north, a strongly pro-Thaksin area, was closed.
In the capital Bangkok, the epicenter of the anti-Thaksin movement, many people seemed relieved. People adorned military vehicles with flowers and some gave soldiers food and drink.
"The revolution ... was not that bad and there was no violence," said the governor of the Bank of Thailand, Pridiyathorn Devakula. "This change is acceptable to the people, so it should not affect investments."
Also see stories:
Insurrection brings calm to Bangkok
Billionaire PM had no shortage of enemies
Army chief recently said coup would be `impossible'
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS