Many support coups as a last check
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Re: "Who will check the coup-makers?", Letters, November 30.
Everything I have ever learnt about democracy would support Kemadist Chiaracharuwat who wrote: “There must not be an ‘if’ to democracy. We must be totally committed to it, heart and soul. To cooperate with a coup-maker is to make a Faustian pact.”
The fact, however, that this is an issue of debate shows that Songdej Praditsmanont, who approves of coups, is correct to some degree. The reality is that some sectors of Thai society do believe that the Army is the “last-resort check” on those in power, and as long as that belief exists, then it will be to some degree true.
It is curious that the word “Army” rather than “military” is used in this debate, and that should raise some red flags for Americans who study military matters.
Who else has been making Faustian pacts?
Guy Baker
Bangkok
