1. The coup that was staged by Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha under the name of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on the 22 May 2014 was the 12th successful coup in Thailand. At this time, 4 months had past and it is in the beginning of the 5th month, the political, economics, and a social situation is deteriorating. The NCPO was not only seized power from the people and from the elected government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, but dissolved democratically elected parliament, declared martial laws, violated human rights, forbidding freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and freedom to peaceful assembly. The violation of human rights was so wide spread that 665 people were summoned by the military without charge. Out of that, 242 were detained, 77 were arrested, 14 were tortured, and more than 60 were charged and have to appear in the military court. Some disappeared and presumed dead.
The main objective of this coup is to destroy the Pheu-thai party and the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) or known as the Red-Shirt movement. Most of the people who were summoned by the military were the leaders of the red-shirt movement at all levels. Even though many had been released but the military still keep track of their movements, especially those who thought to be showing disrespect to the monarchy. The Les Majeste law, article 112, is being used. As of today, there were 16 cases pending in the military court, 30 have warrants for their arrest. The head of the NCPO who is currently the prime minister had created the atmosphere of fear throughout the country during sensitive time of royal accession.
2. The NCPO had established full military dictatorship. It started with issuing dictatorial decrees, followed by established interim constitution that granted them full authority and limited people freedom and rights (Article 4). They appointed the National Legislative Assembly where over half were Military generals.The head of the NCPO, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha became Prime Minister, key members of the coup makers became ministers of important departments such as Defense, Interior, Transportation, Natural Resource, and Education. They hope that they can deceive the people and the world, by the establishment of the Reform Council where no one believe it will be independent nor meaningful reform will come out since all are controlled by the military government which in turn controlled by NCPO.
3. It was clear that the military government policy that was announced on 12 September was a carbon copy of the previous civil government. What was added was to protect the monarchy, to return happiness to the people, to build national reconciliation, to suppress corruption, and to reform the country. No one believes that the military government can achieve these goals in improving the economic condition of the country or the recovery, the well being of the people will deteriorate.
4. It also has to be pointed out that the 22 May coup is a consequence of the political crisis during the last 8 years, starting with the conservatives-royalists-People Alliance for Democracy (PAD), later became the ‘Yellow Shirt’ movement to oust Thaksin Shinawatra government. It began in late 2005, when the middle class and the upper class began to dislike Thaksin’s policy. The conflict between those who dislike Thanksin’s policy and those who like let to the 19 September 2006 coup. The conflict continued and transformed into the conflict between the democratic force and the anti-democratic Amat force (or royalist force). The upper class and the middle class as well as some intellectual who support the coup have no trust in democracy, while the people from the lower class in cities and towns both in urban and rural areas especially in the North and Northeast supported Thaksin government. They came out to protest the 19 September coup.
The movement was led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). The anti-coup movement later became known as the Red Shirt movement, and this conflict had led to the ‘color coded conflict of yellow and red shirts’ that goes deep into every fabrics of Thai society never seen before. It even went down to the family level. The Yellow shirt used the judicial power of the constitution court to overthrow the two governments elected by the Red Shirt, the government of Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat. This is known as ‘judicial coup‘which led to Abhisit Vejjajiva of Democrat party became prime minister. The conflict intensified and in May 2010, the Abhisit government ordered the bloodied crack down on the red shirt protest, 99 people died, over 2000 people injured, and almost 200 people arrested.
A year later, Abhisit dissolved the parliament and declared new election on 3 July 2011. The Pheu-Thai party won the election and formed the new government with Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister. It was a victory for democracy and vast majority of the Red shirt who support this government. In the mean time, the Yellow shirt and their ally in and out of parliament began to organize to disrupt and try to topple the government. They used every means in their disposal. It took two and a half years for them to organize the yellow shirt into a formidable force. This time it was led by People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) where leaders were MPs from the Democratic Party. They employed violence tactics such as closing down the streets, seizing the government buildings, and shutdown Bangkok for over 6 months. The Red shirt fought back. The UDD came out en-mass holding a big rally to defend their government. The military, who never committed to the government control, stepped in and declared martial law before staging the coup on 22 May 2014.
5. This coup was supported by the upper class, the middle class and majority of Bangkokians, who believed that it would bring peaceful end to the conflict. Since the military junta or the NCPO was so partisan and always sided with the yellow shirt, the NCPO will not be able to end the ‘color-coded’ conflict. On the contrary, the conflict will intensify. People will be more divided. Most importantly, the people who yearn for democracy will not accept the coup and will protest. Slowly, the people will organize inside and outside of the country like the Organization of Free Thais for Human Rights and Democracy(FT-HD), the Human Rights Lawyer Center, the National Student Center for Democracy etc. The more oppressive the NCPO, and the longer they kept the martial law, the inability to solve the economic problems of low price of rice, rubber, and declining tourists, etc. will remain causing more people to protest.
Finally yet importantly, thanks to the help of various countries in and out of European Union that did not recognize the coup, and had applied pressure to the military government to stop violating human rights. We hope this effort continues and hope that they continue the demand the return of democracy through election to Thailand as soon as possible.
Jaran Ditapichai
European Coordinator of FT-HD
September 28, 2014