It's not the Army that's killing democracy

An alternative reading of your headline would be, “How to prevent coups in Thailand? Have respectable politicians!” 

I nodded at lines in the editorial such as: “The best solution is getting rid of the … ‘pretexts’ for a coup”, “The bottom line is coups can happen no matter how the act is condemned or criticised”, “To break the vicious circle, therefore, it’s not up to the generals. It’s up to the politicians”, “Clean, honest politics will give birth to a coup-free society”, and “If politicians behave, democracy will thrive.” 

In line with these thoughts, I place little faith in the new constitution’s power to prevent future coups. I prefer to hope for a greater sense of fair play among politicians once they realise that pushing their luck to extremes, they encourage the Army to come out of the barracks.

The previous government offered a prime example. The Army would not have come out if that administration’s actions had not provoked the silent majority to cry, “Enough is enough.” 

Former US president Ronald Reagan once quipped, “It has been said that politics is the second-oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” 

Those words provide an accurate description of many Thai politicians. 

Songdej Praditsmanont