Things that crazy leaders do to stay in power
Play
The Washington Post (The Nation News, Feb 3) seems to think that all coups are hostile to the incumbent administration. But there have been regular self-coups throughout history engineered by the government in power to prolong its authority.
President Marcos of the Philippines declared martial law in 1972 after claiming there was a communist conspiracy to unseat him. In fact we now know that Marcos’ agents were busy planting the bombs throughout Manila. Some commentators believe that the Turkish failed putsch of 2016 was close to a self-coup. It certainly gave president Erdogan a free hand to impose dictatorial powers to eliminate all opposition.
There is surely no further coup on the cards in Thailand. However, the United States might be a very different matter. A nuclear device exploded on the New York underground by Islamic State supporters might just give the Donald the excuse he needs to cancel the general election of 2020.
Barry Kenyon
