A Political Christmas Story

Christmas in Bangkok. A wonderful morning. I'm up early as usual. My Thai wife is still sleeping as usual. We stay in a comfortable hotel on the banks of the Chao Phraya.

I go to the hotel restaurant, sit on the cozy terrace with a view of the river. On the terrace there is another early riser, a middle-aged Thai man, reading a Thai newspaper and I hear him grumbling something about the military coup or something. He was not far from me and I asked in my best Thai "what do you mean by military coup". I've always been interested in what a Thai thinks about it now.

“There would never be another coup,” he replied. No matter how the government blundered but there would never be another coup, that is what they promised. The country has become too complex, he continued. The generals and colonels are not smart enough to carry it out. They have lost touch with the modern world and live in the past with the filthy rich Bangkok elite. I nodded and shut up.

He saw that I understood him and continued his story. But today's bourgeois politicians and technocrats frustrate even more. They are smart and modern, have a worldly and sophisticated view of how things should run within the kingdom, but they are too cowardly to do it and too busy to stab each other in the back and they go for personal wealth and power . I hope for once that someone in Thailand will stand up who would put the interests of the Kingdom before his own "me".

I responded by saying “I thought things were a bit better now”. Much better than say 10-15 years ago. When I travel through Thailand now, I see a decent infrastructure, a lot of activity, a reasonably educated workforce and to be honest Thailand is working hard on its economy.

He replied "that's the problem". The Thai get something and then they want more. Blame them for that. They also earn more. But do you really think that Bangkok intends to give them much more? That goes against the old "Brahman caste", still the "social order" here. The rich and powerful of Thailand give the Thai no more than the crumbs they can sweep up from their table.

I tried it just one more time. According to most Thais, the military rulers are not doing badly. They are trying to clean up the political chaos and tackle corruption. When I look at the past, I see that a large part of the Thai infrastructure was created under military rule. I believe they did a number of things right.
"Did" yes, but it's too late for them now. They are pawns of the Bangkok plutocrats. Whether they know it or not, these plutocrats are the real rulers against whom the generals cannot compete.

I saw his irritation grow and continued. I'm really sorry to hear this from you. I hoped things would change despite coups and weak civilian governments. My Thai relatives are all well now and I would hate to see them pushed back to the old values. Okay, maybe they're doing things right the generals. Maybe I'm exaggerating. But I keep telling my fellow Thai citizens “don't think the generals are solving anything”. They are out for their own gain and will never break the power of the plutocrats. But the time will come when the Thai people will break the power of the generals and plutocrats. I believe in that. I replied timidly “so no more coups then”. I will not miss them and I hope Thailand gets the government it deserves.

Dear Thailand bloggers, this conversation took place on the first Christmas morning of 1989. Now 26 years later I am writing this story again. It seems the reality of now. Nothing has really changed in 26 years.

As I have often stated “history in Thailand repeats itself over and over again”. But that grumpy middle-aged Thai man was only half right. The generals and colonels are really not smart enough to rule Thailand. But the time when the Thai people will break their power is still a long way off. It does not stop Thai generals from continuing to stage coups and will continue to do so.