Thai Coup

Thailand Coup:

Now, here's something I wasn't expecting -- at least, not in this form.

Thailand has had some serious political disruptions in the last year, but the military has heretofore been quite disciplined in staying out of the politics. General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, in particular, has regularly voiced his intent to stay out -- and up to the moment he changed his mind, gave little sign that he might do otherwise. Some in the military have been in favor of a coup, but I had not thought Sonthi was among them.

General Sonthi is Thailand's first Muslim army chief, but he is an ethnic Thai Muslim, not related to the Malay Muslims in the South who have been carrying on the terrorist war there. His appointment, indeed, was meant to help quell the Muslim insurgents by showing that Thailand didn't discriminate against Muslims -- a move which accomplished little, since the real complaint in the South of Thailand is that the government discriminates against Malays.

I wouldn't have been terribly surprised to see a coup that split the military, with some of the hard-core loyalists to the King moving against the elected government, and other elements serving in defense of the Prime Minister. And, given the political chaos of last spring, a coup against the government in Thailand is not entirely unexpected.

I wouldn't have expected to find General Sonthi on this side of it, though. I would have thought he was an obstacle that would have to be pushed aside before a coup could take place. Apparently, when push came to shove, he decided otherwise.

UPDATE: Breitbart puts the 3rd and 5th Armies at the head of the coup. FWIW, it's the 4th Army that has handled the most of the fighting with the insurgents in the South.

UPDATE: I recall in the Spring, Prime Minister Thaksin had a sudden meeting over lunch with several top military leaders. He later told the press that he'd called them to thank them for their discipline in staying out of the political difficulties. At the time, I speculated that the military had really called the meeting -- to let Thaksin know that they wouldn't back him if the chaos pushed to the point of rebellion in the streets of Bangkok. Thaksin took a softer line afterwards, to the point of almost-resigning in a "leave of absence" for much of the spring. He returned after it became clear that no one else available was able to run the government as currently constituted.

More than ever, I wish we had a transcript of what was said at that lunch meeting.