Most Thais agreed a pause to democracy was necessary

Steve CM made two claims – that my contention Thailand was “ungovernable” in early 2014 was originally concocted by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), and that my diagnosis of the explosive national division has “nothing to support” it. Instead he contends that the country was governable at the time and blames the military for “sitting on its hands”. 

Check the historical record of that period and you find that the country was sliding into a state of chaos. Furthermore, as a Thai, I should have the edge over foreigners when it comes to understanding what most Thais were feeling at the time. The unrelenting hostility between a significant political force, the PDRC, and the Pheu Thai government, had plainly fuelled a situation of potential civil explosiveness all over the country except in the South. 

After the first failed general election, it was obvious that holding another was impossible under the Pheu Thai caretaker government. Subsequent opinion polls overwhelmingly supported a coup as an alternative to immediately holding another election.

I also take exception to the editor allowing a person to cowardly hide his identity and cast insults on the good faith of another writer. In so doing, I consider the editor an accessory and a party to those insults.

Songdej Praditsmanont