Thaksin can only blame himself for coups

Vint Chavala is somewhat contradictory but correct in blaming Thaksin Shinawatra for causing the last two coups. Thaksin’s style of government was based on cronyism, for-me-or-against-me divisiveness and seeing majority rule as an absolute. That was how the military justified its coups and what caused his family’s downfall. 

Even though the constitution at the time was the best ever written, his family and team misused and misunderstood it. 

They relied on legal standing as unimpeachable and conveniently ignored morality and ethics. They rode roughshod over the opposition to the extent of turning parliamentary democracy into parliamentary dictatorship. 

The coups came because they provided the rationale for them. To this day they still aim for majority rule and are biding their time. The words of Joan Baez’s song “Where Have all the Flowers Gone” are apt: “Oh, when will they ever learn?”

Songdej Praditsmanont