Thais are used to military control. The generals have ruled for most of the last 60 years, usually with little complaint from civilians. But now Thailand is experiencing a syndrome that has become familiar all over Asia: rapid economic growth leading to demands for reform of a rotten political system (following story). This time it wasn’t only Thai students calling for democracy, as they did in the 1970s. The new round of demonstrations was joined by a growing middle class-businessmen with cellular phones and beepers on their belts. Their chief target was the unelected prime minister, Suchinda Kraprayoon, 58, a former general who seized power in a coup in February 1991 and took over the government this April. Suchinda is widely viewed as the illegitimate leader of a deeply corrupt government, but when protesters took to the streets he blamed “the communists” and ordered a savage crackdown by his troops. “This man is crazy,” said a Thai businessman. “He shoots our children in the streets, then calls them communist agitators. He must go.”
Like many revolutions, the upheaval in Thailand took place mainly in the capital city. The political champion of the urban middle class was Chamlong Srimuang, 56, a former major general who now lives the life of a political activist and Buddhist ascetic. His hair is cropped, and he wears peasant clothing; he eats only one vegetarian meal a day and remains celibate, though he is married. People admire Chamlong’s morals even if they do not aspire to live by them. “Everyone respects him because he’s honest and won’t lie like the rest of the politicians,” says Kraisak Choonhavan, an academic and son of the elected prime minister deposed by Suchinda. In elections last March, Chamlong’s Power of Virtue Party won 32 of Bangkok’s 35 parliamentary seats but did poorly in the countryside. After Suchinda made himself prime minister without being elected to Parliament, Chamlong began a hunger strike and then led last week’s demonstrations before soldiers arrested him.
The government said 40 people died and nearly 700 were wounded in four days of unrest; the opposition put the dead at more than 100. It wasn’t entirely clear why it took King Bhumibol so long to act. As a constitutional monarch, he has severely limited power; he cannot just fire the prime minister. Bhumibol had to deal with the crisis through an intermediary, Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, 71, another former prime minister. “We all want the same thing, which is democracy,” the king’s popular daughter, Crown Princess Sirindhorn, said in a broadcast from Paris.
After their session with the king, Suchinda and Chamlong agreed to work together on two constitutional amendments. One would curb the powers of the military-appointed Senate; the other would require the prime minister to be an elected member of Parliament. Suchinda did not promise to apply that stricture to himself retroactively, and if he tried to cling to power, the unrest was likely to resume. At the weekend, he was summoned for a second meeting with the king, a sign that his resignation may be near. “We are tired of the old pattern of the military holding power,” said a businessman named Piboon who took part in the protests. “Thailand is a developed country and should be a true democracy.” The Thais had a long way to go, but the king and the middle class seemed to be pointing their country in the same direction.
