Buddhist Thailand's history of corruption and military intervention might come to an end at the hands of a Muslim general with royal assent, writes Gamal Nkrumah Last week's Thai coup is straight out of a Graham Greene novel. Thai Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who led the coup, is a Muslim in a predominantly Buddhist nation. This places General Sonthi well outside the traditional convention of Thai military takeover strategists who have tended to be guided by a more narrow, well-defined sense of national interest. The coup leader, who took power 19 September, had just returned from the far south of Thailand -- one of the country's least developed and marginalised areas, where the ethnic Malay and Muslim minority is geographically concentrated. Crown Prince Vajiralongkom, a serving military officer, accompanied him on his trip. In the past poor Muslim peasants joined the Communist Party of Thailand. Today they are far more sympathetic to militant Islamist groups. The political consequences of General Sonthi's takeover may reach further than any previous coup in Thailand. Muslims rarely make it to the top ranks in the country. And one of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's most glaring failures is the brutish and messy business of quelling the secessionist rebellion among Thailand's restive Muslim minority in the south. Thaksin deployed 300,000 troops in southern Thailand to crush a rebellion that claimed the lives of 1,700 people since 2004. "Possibly the tour was an opportunity for Sonthi to explain how he would try solving the Muslim crisis in southern Thailand," Anthony Paul, an Australian-based expert on Thai affairs, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Meanwhile, royal approval is a prerequisite in Thai politics. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the 78-year-old Thai King and the world's longest reigning monarch, is the master puppeteer in Thai politics. General Sonthi who hails from a prestigious family descended from a long line of prominent Muslims has close relations to the palace -- his mother was a lady-in- waiting to the Queen. One of the Buddhist Thai King's many formal titles is "the Protector of Muslims". The importance of these connections cannot be underestimated at this decisive moment. Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin has metamorphosed into the bête noire of Thai politics. His Thai Love Thai Party was once a tangible symbol of his slogan "national reconciliation". But his most serious crime was that he challenged King Bhumibol's political clout. There were palpable tensions, for example, between King Bhumibol and Thaksin on the 60th anniversary of Bhumibol's ascent to the Thai throne in July. The recently released The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handly, who reported for the distinguished Far Eastern Economic Review, appears to exaggerate the role of King Bhumibol in Thai politics, according to some, however: "The BBC and Handly made rather too much, it seems to me, of the king's active endorsement of coups. But he certainly played a role in giving a nod and a wink over the years, rather in excess of his official constitutional role," Bangkok-based journalist Nicolas Buchele told the Weekly. "The achievement [of the king's repeated intervention in the country' political affairs] has mainly been, in the 1960s and 1970s, to keep the communists at bay," Buchele explained. "At the height of the anti-Thaksin demonstrations, the king summoned top brass who had been rather too fervent in their public support of him, and gave them a dressing down. He then told the courts to sort out the 'mess' that was the recent election boycotted by all opposition parties, which they promptly did by annulling it." The public and deepening rift between Thaksin and the King's favourite privy councillor, General Prem Tinulauaonda, who led a coup in 1980, was interpreted as an affront to the king himself. It appears that Bhumibol has proven again that he is no walkover. Thaksin -- Thailand's first democratically re-elected prime minister -- remains a popular hero to many in Thailand, however. He devised development plans like a cow for every farmer, a laptop for every student. Only a billionaire (which he is) could pay for these schemes. Massive handouts of free food at campaign rallies in Thailand's poor and underdeveloped Northeast -- a region ignored by previous governments -- won him the support of poor peasants. He also freed the motorcycle taxi drivers of Bangkok from the clutches of the mafia that extorted massive bribes. But Thaksin was fond of "populist schemes" allowing poor peasants to "convert their land deeds so they could take out loans on them, which meant instant cash, and a chance for big agribusiness to buy up the land from defaulters later," Buchele noted. Thaksin, an ethnic Chinese, was loathed in the south because of his shady business deals. While the Chinese in Thailand seem to be better integrated than their fellow Chinese in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, there are still occasional rumblings about their stranglehold over the Thai economy. Thaksin was accused of vote buying, but was cleared of asset concealment. Now, a special commission has been appointed by the new government to examine the tax records of Thaksin's ministers. The nine-member National Counter-Corruption Commission head, Parnthep Klanarongran, delivered a strongly worded nationwide broadcast on Thai television. "If anyone commits wrongdoing they will have to be prosecuted in courts," he said. "Any cases that cause serious damage to the country we will have to investigate urgently." Thailand -- literally "Land of the Free" -- is well accustomed to coups. The Southeast Asian nation is replete with corrupt politicians, ruthless ambitious military leaders and blundering bureaucracy. This particular coup has timing on its side. "People were fed up with Thaksin and his political tricks," Thai political commentator Pasuk Pongpaichit told the Weekly. The coup also benefited from "political uncertainty, higher oil prices and rising interest rates," Pasuk noted. While part of a dynamic Southeast Asian economic region, Thailand -- at least in recent years -- has been no ferocious tiger. Last year, the Thai economy grew by four per cent, well below the Asian average of seven per cent. The 1997 Asian financial crisis wreaked havoc on the Thai economy. Indeed, the economy was just recovering when rumours of Thaksin's corruption scandals erupted. Sectarian violence in southern Thailand in 2004 and the tsunami of December in the same year took a toll on a country suffering the highest rate of HIV/AIDS per capita in Asia. The political impact of this coup, however, is to provoke a sense of political drift. Regional reactions so far have been generally unfavourable. "The Thai military's coup d'état is unconstitutional and undemocratic, no matter how objectionable some policies of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have been," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post warned. "Whatever the motives of the coup leaders, this power grab needs to be condemned. What's happening in Thailand is a step backwards. It is bad for the image of Thailand," wrote Malaysia's New Straits Times. "The coup is a tragedy for democracy," noted Hong Kong's Daily Apple. "It is an act of violence against the idea of elective politics for an army to throw out an elected government. This is subverting the people's will," stated Singapore's The Straits Times. Coups, however, break things down. Sonthi's punitive action was swift. He established the Council for Democratic Reform and purged four senior police officers. The general also ordered a military reshuffle. Several ministers in Thaksin's government were detained. Why has the Thai urban elite turned so reflexively anti-Thaksin? Despite winning a landslide victory in February 2005 and holding 377 seats in Thailand's 500-seat parliament, Thaksin had a reputation as a crook. He evaded paying taxes and had passed control of an important national asset -- his family stake in Thailand's telecommunications corporation sold to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for $2 billion -- to foreign investors. Thaksin's anti- narcotics campaign also angered many powerful magnates. Recently the billionaire politician flew from New York to London where he has extensive business interests. It remains to be seen whether Thaksin possesses the will to fight back, and fight back effectively. For the moment, General Sonthi's opponents have to tread carefully.
