Thailand

Over the last few years Thailand has been immersed in political turmoil. Today, it got a lot worse.

In the 2001 election, widely seen as one of first clean elections in Thai history, the Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) won a majority in parliament and formed government with Thaksin Shinawatra as Prime Minister. Thaksin was immensely popular in the rural areas north of Bangkok, but was despised by the Bangkokian elite, the military and hard line royalists. In 2005 Shinawatra and the TRT decisively won reelection In 2006 the military launched a coup d'etat and overthrew Shinawatra. The military then banned Shinawatra from politics and abolished the Thai Rak Thai. Party members then joined the People's Power Party (PPP), which subsequently won the 2007 elections, effectively returning the TRT to power. Samak Sundaravej became prime minister, and openly said he was a Thaksin proxy. Despite the election results, the opposition was not done in their quest to purge the Thaksinites out of government. Supporters of the main opposition party, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), took to the streets in massive protests against Samak and occupied many government buildings. In September the courts forced Samak out of power. Before becoming Prime Minister Samak had been the host of a cooking show. After he became Prime Minister several pre-taped episodes were aired. The courts decided that this violated a provision of the constitution banning a Prime Minister from drawing income from a non-governmental so Samak was forced out of power. He was replaced by Somchai Wongsawat. Since then the PAD protests have continued, culminating in the takeover of the Bangkok airport last week. Earlier today, the constitutional court banned the PPP and barred Somchai and the top PPP leaders from politics. The remaining Thaksinites will likely now join the Puea Thai Party, which will probably take power.

This whole episode has been deeply disturbing. Either Thaksin or his supporters have been elected in the last three elections by convincing margins. The election after which the military launched it's coup was a Thai Rak Thai landslide and had the highest voter turnout in Thai history. That electoral verdict should have been respected. The PAD and it's supporters need to understand that political change should be accomplished at the ballot box and not through street protests and coup d'etats. Thaksin was, admittedly, a poor Prime Minister, but that doesn't mean the PAD and the military should launch coups and street protests and use back room maneuvering to pry him out of office, rather it means that they should do all they legally can to beat him in the next election. Democracy will never flourish in Thailand if the opposition or the military thinks it can just throw out the popularly-elected winner. One can only hope that PAD's disgusting attempts to circumvent democracy fail and that Thailand's military permanently removes itself from politics.