FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Blaming the military is a defeatist attitude

Blaming the military is a defeatist attitude

Doing that will trap Thailand in a vicious circle

The question “Will Thailand come out of the military’s shadow?” has been widely asked here and abroad by so-called democracy advocates in the wake of the August 7 referendum. But the question sounds like a misplaced focus, as it seems to put too much emphasis on how the senior military officers think and what they do or plan to do politically. 
The question seriously needs modification and it should have been “What Thailand should do to come out of the military’s shadow?” 
This places the emphasis on the right places and the right men, and they are not the Army barracks and those inside them. Simply put, what the military thinks or does politically is irrelevant if the political system is good, strong, honest, transparent and accountable. 
A healthy political system does not depend on what the men in uniform think or do. It shouldn’t be up to them whether Thailand can “come out of the military’s shadow”, otherwise it will seem like a defeatist attitude. It’s almost the same as saying “No matter what we do, the soldiers will come and mess things up.”
That is not true, and smacks of destructive self-pity. The truth is that we haven’t done enough to prevent the soldiers from coming and messing things up. Whether it is patriotic, dictatorial or opportunistic, the military has a badly flawed political system to thank for all its political involvement or intervention over the decades.
Thailand must wake up and face the fact that the only way to keep the military in the barracks is for all the non-military elements to take matters into their own hands. And that doesn’t mean an uprising that may bring about a “democratically-elected” government with the same-old problems – corruption, nepotism and a Parliament that only caters to the powers-that-be and fails to uphold virtuous principles. 
By “taking matters into their own hands”, the non-military elements should strive to build a political system with its own integrity and powerful enough to fend off anyone trying to upend it.
Trying to “change” the military won’t help. By saying we need to change the military or teach it a lesson, we tend to forget what we need to change the most – ourselves. 
By saying the military needs a big change is unfairly passing the blame to the officers while ignoring our own flaws. That attitude has a certain outcome – a democracy that will keep weakening.
There have been complaints that the charter draft, which sailed through the referendum, will keep politics under the military’s shadow for a few years longer. We can choose to be bitter about that and curse the military while changing nothing at all about ourselves. Or, we can choose to swallow the pill, undergo tough rehabilitation and try to get better.
The first option will trap the country in a vicious circle. Every three or four years, the military will be hated, and probably an uprising will occur to kick it out of power. A wayward democracy will subsequently bloom for maybe three or four years, before it falls under the weight of its own flaws, opening the door for another period of military intervention.
The second option calls for a focus on democratic integrity no matter who holds power. Elected politicians are required to concentrate on themselves, not others. 
Hopefully, one day Thailand will achieve a real democracy that no “outsiders” have the audacity to interfere with. This option may take longer but it’s a surer way of getting out of the shadow that everyone is so concerned about.
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