Sonthi faces tough question over forces behind coup
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Will Thai society ever discover whether there was a mastermind behind the 2006 coup beyond General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin? Perhaps you can try to read between the lines on what Sonthi said yesterday and decide.
More than five years after the September 19, 2006, military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, coup leader General Sonthi – now an MP and chairman of the House Committee on National Reconciliation – was asked in front of national media by veteran politician Sanan Kachonprasart: Were Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanond and the bureaucratic elites behind Sonthi and the coup, as had been alleged by red shirts?
Sanan, de facto leader of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, took Sonthi by surprise by saying that unless Sonthi came clean and clearly affirmed that neither Prem nor the bureaucratic elites, known as amataya, were behind the coup, many red-shirt supporters of Thaksin would continue to believe so.
“Who was behind the coup?” Sanan asked at a symposium on national reconciliation hosted by Sonthi, who was sitting not too far away. “Was it you or did you not have any personal motivation? Please speak the truth, or else the public will continue to doubt. Before we can reconcile you must speak the truth and clear the doubt.”
Sonthi’s reply was enigmatic. He began by saying no one should ever doubt his loyalty to His Majesty the King, and then added: “I don’t think I can answer. For some questions, you can’t answer even if you are dead. When the time comes it will reveal itself.” He added that no good would result if he revealed it now. He then urged everyone to forget the past and think about today and try to build the future. He complained that he could no longer wear a red necktie, which was his favourite tie colour, since opponents of the coup and supporters of Thaksin had adopted red as their colour.
So he opted to wear a light-blue tie instead.
