A supporter of the People's Alliance for Democracy during a march through Bangkok. (Yvan Cohen for the International Herald Tribune)
Published: October 19, 2008
Monday 20 October 2008
Coup fears grow as Bangkok boils
BANGKOK: Bangkok was on edge this weekend after the army chief told the prime minister on nationwide television that he must resign and the prime minister - in office for just a month - said he was too busy to step down.
The demand by the army chief, General Anupong Paochinda, came Thursday, when he blamed the government for a violent crackdown on protesters and said, "You cannot be above the pools of blood."
His words raised worries of a military coup. But Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat brushed them aside, saying he still had a job to do, and turned his attention to Thailand's other, simultaneous crisis, the threat of a border war with Cambodia.
Pressure has been growing in Thailand since protesters barricaded the prime minister's office nearly two months ago, forcing the government to conduct its business in Bangkok's former international airport.
As the demonstrations continue, the divisions in society seem to be deepening and the mood seems more confrontational and angry.
On the surface, Bangkok appears unruffled. Office workers crowd the lunchtime food stalls, monks make their morning rounds, traffic sits and waits for the long red lights to change. Monsoon rains sweep through the city, then stop.
But dozens of interviews around the city in recent days, as well as in the countryside, suggest that even if the political confrontation is resolved, the underlying social and political tensions are likely to continue.
"The country is split right down the middle," said Wiriya Sungkhaniyom, an editor and translator. "I'm surprised at all the passion. I didn't realize that we were capable of such strong feelings. We are known for having short memories and prefer to go along and get along."
In a culture that prizes calm and accommodation, where even in traffic jams, drivers rarely honk their horns, people are speaking more vehemently these days, and in louder voices, and are showing less tolerance for opposing views.
A woman at a music shop who is furious with the demonstrators said, "If you aren't with them, you're bad - you're a bad person. Whatever the other side does, even the littlest thing, is just wrong, wrong, wrong. I hate them."
She said she was afraid to give her name because, she said, "they think they can do anything. They think they are above the law."
A colleague tried to quiet her but she only raised her voice. "I have a friend," she said, "a friend of more than 20 years, she doesn't talk to me. She says, 'You don't know anything!"'
At the moment, there seems to be no clear resolution of the political crisis or of divisions like these.
Anupong, the army commander, has said he does not want to stage a coup because it would only create new problems. Other possible scenarios seem no more likely to bring peace - the prime minister's resignation, a new election or a violent showdown in the streets between the anti-government protesters and government supporters who have gathered not far away.
The suppression by the police of an anti-government demonstration outside Parliament on Oct. 7 that killed two people and injured nearly 500 has only fired the anger of the protesters and given them a symbolic focus.
On Friday, 3,000 protesters trooped through the city's high-rise business center and its nearby red-light district, handing out thousands of video discs with bloody scenes of the crackdown.
In its broadest sense, Thailand's struggle pits the mostly rural poor against an established urban elite and middle class who feel threatened by their rising political power.
The leaders of the protests, an anti-democratic group called the People's Alliance for Democracy, or PAD, represent that establishment. But the protests have become a vehicle for a range of grievances, and the city at large has fragmented into bitterly divided camps.
The issues are personalized, pitting supporters against opponents of former Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup two years ago but remains a powerful, polarizing force from his self-imposed exile in London.
During six years in office, Thaksin courted the rural poor with populist policies and forged a strong political base that continues to keep his supporters in office. The PAD wants to dilute their electoral power by introducing a mostly appointed legislature.
As they spread through the city, the fault lines of the confrontation grow more complex, fragmenting campuses and workplaces, straining friendships and dividing families, even in some cases turning husbands and wives against each other.
"You have to be careful when you talk to people," said Samran Chana, 43, a motorcycle taxi driver who is used to talking with everybody. "Thailand is divided. You might be sitting and drinking with some people, and they end up shouting at each other."
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