Thailand: Adm. Sangad Chalawyoo Coup 1976

THAILAND: The Outer Shell and the Snail
Time Magazine

Monday, Nov. 08, 1976

"We like democracy. Soldiers like democracy. Everyone likes democracy."
—Thai Army Secretary Kriengsak Chamanan

Less than a month after it ousted the fractious democratic government of Prime Minister Seni Pramoj, the Thai military's 24-man National Administrative Reform Council (NARC) formally turned over the reins of authority to a civilian Cabinet. In ceremonies presided over by King Bhumipol Adulyadej, NARC'S nominal chief, Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, even bade an official farewell to the nation as a new civilian Prime Minister, Tanin Kraivixien, 49, was sworn in. A former justice of the Thai Supreme Court, Tanin announced that Thailand would be "guided" by stages back to full democracy. "From now on," he said, "NARC is the outer shell that protects the snail."

A snail's pace seems an apt metaphor for Tanin's plans to delay transition back to "full democracy" for at least eight years. Meanwhile, NARC's military bosses will remain as Thailand's real rulers, ready to step in if any civilian regime falters.

Most Thais seem to have accepted with relief or resignation the demise of then-chaotic three-year-old "democratic experiment." Bangkok has quickly recovered its sybaritic style. The city's annual autumn festivals, its race track and fleshpots are jammed with tourists. Shares on the local stock market have risen 70% in the past three weeks. The bullet-and-grenade-pocked classrooms of Thammasat University, site of the bloody student rioting that preceded the coup (TIME, Oct. 18), have become something of a tourist attraction. But the total of 41 dead in the riots is not forgotten: cremations and lotus ceremonies are still being carried out in Buddhist temples throughout Bangkok, and four unclaimed corpses remain in the morgue at Police Hospital.

Lessons Learned. Privately, Thais were shocked by the violence, which violated the traditional "Thai kar Thai" (Thai kill Thai) taboo against communal bloodshed. When NARC began arresting "subversives" last month, hundreds began literally running scared—sleeping in a different friend's home every night. To many Thais, NARC's crackdown and its strict press censorship suggested that Seni's paralyzed democracy would be replaced by the kind of lazily corrupt military rule the country had endured in the 1960s and early '70s.

Apparently aware that Thais would not stand for that and reportedly at the behest of the King himself, NARC's 24-man junta moved swiftly to set up Prime Minister Tanin and an 18-man Cabinet of soldiers, civil servants and technocrats as a "clean hands" government. Among its first official acts was the appointment of a committee to probe graft. As Army Secretary Kriengsak Chamanan, NARC's éminence grise, told TIME Correspondent William McWhirter, "We have learned the lessons of South Viet Nam and Laos. In those countries, corrupted politicians were a main cause of their downfall." It remains to be seen, though, if the committee will be able to investigate the military's own swollen private enterprises (among other things, the navy has a shipping company, the army a chain of service stations, and the air force its own airline). Cabinet-level corruption may also be hard to root out.

To help calm the left, Tanin has granted bail to 2,600 of the 3,000 students arrested at Thammasat. He has also restrained the gung-ho anti-Communist sweeps by the army and police, especially in the capital, and has released all but 200 of the 1,000-odd suspects they had corralled. After the initial postcoup excesses, the government is increasingly aware of the danger of providing Thailand's Communist insurgents with a fresh influx of embittered, educated cadres. The threat was underlined when four top members of Thailand's Socialist Party used clandestine Communist radios to blast the "fascist NARC and the puppet Tanin" and call for "violent struggle."

More ominously, the fragile detente that Thai democracy had evolved with its Communist neighbors in Indochina seems to have been derailed. Broadcasts from Hanoi and Vientiane have been sharply hostile to Tanin's government. Still, former Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj dismisses the possibility that Thai opposition groups—even aided by the Vietnamese—can wage real guerrilla war. Instead, he predicts, those who have gone underground or into exile "will be back on bended knees to ask forgiveness so they can go back to the baths, massage parlors and nightclubs. The jungle is not for them."

Thailand: Sarit Thanarat Coup 1957

THAILAND: Flight of the Thunderbird
Monday, Sep. 30, 1957
Time Magazine

For nearly 20 years the most agile, deft and eely politician in Southeast Asia's luxuriant political quagmire had been Thailand's steel-willed, soft-voiced Dictator Pibulsonggram. Pibul's favorite color is green, and he found it attractive in everything from U.S. dollars to neckties and the flashy Ford Thunderbird and Mercedes-Benz sports cars in which he liked to hot-rod it along Thailand's highways and byways. In the tinseled and temple-dotted capital of Bangkok, Westerners liked to dismiss Pibul as just another crooked politician. But he was much more than that.

In many ways it was Pibul more than any other Thai leader who built modern Thailand. He is a pensive sort of man, a firm-believer in the predictions of his personal astrologers, and in recent years has indicated often that he would like to retire. But, he would say, "there are only three ways to remove a dictator: by exile, jail or burial."

Time of Decision. Last week Pibul achieved exile. With him into discard, but in a different direction, went the more powerful of his two oldest and closest political cronies, Police Chief General Phao Sriyanond. His second longtime crony, Army Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, stayed on in Bangkok, comfortably ensconced as the new political leader of Thailand.

Marshal Sarit, onetime heavy drinker now reformed (liver trouble) who raises orchids and roses in his spare time, seemed genuinely sorry that he had found it necessary to call in his tanks and troops to remove Pibul. "I would like to say," said the marshal wistfully, "that I am not pleased with what I am doing. I will always be grateful to the Prime Minister. He has done a great deal for the nation."

Sarit added that he hoped Pibul would return, and "even run for Parliament, if he likes." Others were less kind. Cracked a Western diplomat: "This is the end of government of the Pibul, by the Pibul. and for the Pibul."

Marshal Sarit's bloodless coup so surprised Bangkok diplomats that most of them heard of it at breakfast the morning after. Shortly before midnight Marshal Sarit's brand-new U.S. tanks and weapons carriers had taken up positions controlling Bangkok's key traffic arteries. Efficient little Thai infantrymen, troops of Sarit's crack 1st Division, set up mortar and machine-gun emplacements, and over the radio came the first of a series of orders from Sarit and the new government.

"I Won't Resign." One of the first orders directed General Phao, who had been forced to resign as police chief the week before, to surrender himself. Phao heard the order at home, went first to a nearby Chinese bar for two quick bracers, then to Sarit's headquarters. Along the way, Phao unbuckled his police automatic and chucked it into the viscid, green waters of a Bangkok canal. Sarit gave him two choices: leave the country or become a Buddhist monk. Phao chose to leave for Switzerland, where he can count his money. He had not been exiled, said a Foreign Ministry official and, in fact, would go to work in the Thai legation in Geneva. In what capacity? "Oh," said the official, "as an adviser, or something like that."

As Sarit's troops were moving into position to take over Bangkok, the army radio broadcast frantic appeals for Pibul to surrender. "Please report, please report as soon as possible," said the military announcers. But Pibul, accompanied only by a military aide, was already speeding south at the wheel of his Thunderbird. Somewhere along the coast of the Gulf of Siam, Pibul and his aide boarded a navy LCM manned by his personal guards. Three days later Pibul and a skeleton personal staff disembarked some 200 miles away at the Cambodian seaside resort of Kep. On hand to meet him was a covey of Cambodian officials to tell him he was welcome if he agreed to indulge in no politicking. Pibul assented, was driven off to the capital of Pnompenh in a cream-and-green Buick thoughtfully provided by his hosts.

Change for the Better. His victorious successor, granite-faced Marshal Sarit got official blessing from 29-year-old King Phumiphon Aduldet, then sent personal messages to the U.S. and British embassies assuring them that the change in government presaged no change in Thailand's pro-Western foreign policy. As an earnest of his intentions, Sarit saw to it that able, pro-Western Pote Sarasin, a 52-year-old aristocrat who served for five years as Ambassador to Washington, was named temporary Premier. Meanwhile, a scheduled meeting of the SEATO military group convened in Bangkok without a hitch. Said Sarit: "Only the hosts have changed."

Though the ouster of Pibul meant the loss of one of the Orient's most colorful political personalities, there was reason to believe that, in the long run, the change in Thailand might prove one for the better—for Thailand as well as for its SEATO allies, including the U.S. Pibul had often been embarrassingly pro-U.S. in his public statements (though his personal newspapers were bitterly anti-American), and because both he and General Phao were personally unpopular with Thailanders, the U.S. has in recent months been sharing their odium. While the new government was settling in, U.S. diplomats would themselves have a welcome chance to start afresh.

Thailand: 1976-1979

Thais to go through motion of a democratic election
Victoria Butler
17 April 1979
The Globe and Mail

Special to The Globe and Mail

BANGKOK - For the first time in three years the people of Thailand will be allowed to vote for some of their leaders in a general election scheduled for April 22.

Politicians, representing 15 different political parties, have been star attractions at mass rallies and afternoon luncheons. They stroll through their constituencies shaking hands and conduct evening seminars to explain democracy.

A lot of time, money and energy is being spent by more than 1,000 candidates competing for 301 seats in the lower house. But, as Kukrit Pramoj, a former premier and current candidate, humorously said, There is a spirit of fight in the air but against whom and for what no one seems to know.

In marked contrast to 1975, this election lacks excitement and zest. Moreover, it lacks a sense of purpose. In 1973 the military dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn was overthrown. Thais were prepared and determined to replace it with a government promising democratic reform. Instead, as many see it, they got an uneasy coalition government and a parliament riddled with internecine squabbling. In October, 1976, the mirage of democracy was shattered in a bloody coup.

After the 1976 coup, politicians were hobbled and hounded by the government of Tanin Kraivixien. Tanin didn't last either and in 1977 Gen. Kriangsak Chamanand, in yet another coup, imposed a more benign martial law on the country. History has had a sobering effect on both the candidates and the voters.

Several other factors have combined to rob the campaign of its piquancy. Most important, the question of power was decided long before the contestants entered the political fray. The constitution allows Gen. Kriangsak to appoint parliament's upper house, which will have powers virtually equal to those of the elected lower house on major issues.

Members from the upper and lower houses will jointly choose the next premier, who does not have to be an elected representative. It is thus virtually assured that Gen. Kriangsak, who is not a candidate, will return as premier. Summing up the paradox, a political scientist said, This whole exercise is a way to legitimize a military premier who has not submitted himself to an election. He added, The entire constitution was written for Kriangsak.

The candidates themselves have also unwittingly contributed to the generally flat tone of the election. Old soldiers from earlier electoral battles have emerged once again from Thailand's political demi-monde to lead their political parties.

The Thai press unkindly refers to them as dinosaurs. Although there are fewer parties this time around - 15 versus a previous 40 - there are practically no new faces. Remarked one analyst, The continuity in party leadership is remarkable.

For the most part the parties vied for candidates who were former MPs and who were certain of re-election. Ideology, as Kukrit openly admits, is of little importance.

To many Thais the continuity of leadership is not only remarkable, it is alarming. What, asked one businessman, will be the difference this time around. Many of them just want power and money for themselves and won't do anything for the country. Pessimistically he added, It will just be a bad rerun.

Thailand: 1992 Military Coup

Thai Military Overthrows Government
AP
Sunday, February 24, 1991

Military chiefs toppled Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan's elected Government today, apparently without firing a shot. The coup leaders, who were reportedly angered by the appointment of a rival to a top Government post, accused the Government of corruption and protecting enemies of the monarchy.

Rebels led by the armed forces' supreme commander, Gen. Sunthorn Kongsompong, a strong critic of the Government, reportedly detained Mr. Chatichai and members of his administration. Troops took over the Government-run television and radio stations without resistance.

"Chatichai has a policy of no resistance to coups," said a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rebel announcements over radio stations said the Government was dissolved, martial law imposed and the 1978 Constitution abolished. General Sunthorn said Thailand's pro-Western, anti-Communist foreign policy would not change. New Leaders Named

The rebel announcements identified General Sunthorn and five other top military officers as the country's new leaders. [ Reuters quoted a military spokesman as saying General Sunthorn would assume the responsibilites of caretaker Prime Minister. ]

The military has traditionally been the most important power broker in Thailand, which has seen more than a dozen military coups and coup attempts since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

The most recent coup attempt, in September 1985, was easily crushed.

The rebels in today's coup were said to have been angered by Mr. Chatichai's appointment on Wednesday of Deputy Prime Minister Arthit Kamlang-ek, who was unpopular among military commanders, as Deputy Defense Minister.

Mr. Chatichai was reportedly en route to present Mr. Arthit to King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Chiang Mai city when he was arrested. About 20 members of an air force commando unit armed with automatic weapons seized Mr. Chatichai at the Bangkok airport, said a senior air force officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. Inquiry on Assassination Plot

The coup leaders said in radio broadcasts that they they took over because of Government corruption, as well as Government attempts "to destroy" the military and to "distort" a recently opened investigation into a 1982 assassination plot against national leaders.

In a statement, General Sunthorn said that plot involved an attempt by Maj. Gen. Manoon Rupkachorn and other officers to topple the constitutional monarchy, the country's most cherished institution.

General Sunthorn said Mr. Chatichai protected and promoted General Manoon, then tried to blame other parties for the assassination attempt. "This action showed disloyalty which the armed forces could no longer tolerate," General Sunthorn said.

Sitting grim-faced at a table with other somber-looking officers, the diminutive General Sunthorn, 59 years old, said in a televised statement:

"The National Peace and Order-Keeping Party, consisting of the army, navy, air force, police and civilians, has taken over national administrative power and the situation is entirely under the control of the party." 'Head of State Forever'

"One of the most important reasons for the takeover of power," he said, "is preservation of the democratic administrative system with the King as head of state forever."

Mr. Chatichai was said to have been held at the military airport until at least noon, but his later whereabouts were unclear. Some less-senior people were later released, the air force officer said.

About 30 rebel soldiers with two armored personnel carriers relaxed in front of a television station as night fell. Most wore blue scarves to identify themselves as rebels. Premier's House Guarded

Police officers and soldiers with artillery pieces and machine-gun-armed jeeps were stationed at Mr. Chatichai's house and blocked the street leading to it.

But most of the city appeared normal. Traffic was heavy and shoppers crowded downtown shopping districts as usual.

The military involvement in Thailand's affairs is intensive; generals talk not only of defending the country's troubled borders, but also of developing the country's impoverished northeast and who should hold what ministerial portfolio in the Government. They run Government-owned telephone and railway organizations, sit on the boards of corporations and own private businesses.

A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he did not expect the new leaders to hold power too long before calling elections or handing power to a selected political figure.

Mr. Chatichai took office 2 1/2 years ago as the first Prime Minister since 1976 to be an elected member of Parliament. This raised hopes for an end to military interventions in politics in this newly industrializing nation, which in recent years has had one of the world's highest economic growth rates. Criticism of Military

Government-military friction sharpened last year after a Cabinet minister criticized the military's seizure of a Government radio truck.

Mr. Chatichai resigned in December under military pressure. He was reappointed, then fashioned a new Government with many new faces but without the minister who had criticized the military.

General Sunthorn, who has been armed forces chief for nearly a year, had been due to retire in 1991. He took over as military commander from Gen. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, an appointee of Prem Tinsulanonda, who was then Prime Minister. U.S. SUSPENDS AID

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Special to The New York Times) -- The Bush Administration suspended all military and economic aid to Thailand today to protest the military coup that overthrew the civilian Government only hours before.

"We deplore the change of Government and constitution by military means," the State Department said in a statement. "The United States strongly supports constitutional rule and deeply regrets the overthrow of Thailand's democratically elected Government."

The Administration had planned to send Thailand, one of its traditional allies in Southeast Asia, $14 million in economic aid and $2.4 million in military aid, all for training, this year.

THAILAND AT A GLANCE

GOVERNMENT Thailand is a highly centralized constitutional monarchy, with a king who serves as head of state and symbol of national unity. King Bhumibol Adulyadej or King Rama IX, 63 years old, ascended the throne June 9, 1946.

The armed forces have traditionally exercised a pervasive role in Thai politics. Since the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1932, Thailand has undergone more than a dozen military coups or coup attempts. The last attempt, in September 1985, was crushed by Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda, himself a former army general. Although in recent years a civilian, educated middle class has emerged, the military has defended its dominant position in public industries and the private sector in the name of national security. HISTORY

The Thais migrated to what is now known as Thailand from southern China as early as the 11th century. In the latter part of the 18th century, the Thai leader, who took the name Rama I, drove out invading Burmese armies, established his capital in Bangkok and founded the present ruling dynasty. Succeeding Thai monarchs preserved Thailand as the only country in Southeast Asia not colonized by European powers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thailand had an absolute monarchy until 1932, when officers led by Col. Luang Pibulsonggram seized power in the first of a series of military coups. Colonel Pibulsonggram's dictatorship sided with Japan in World War II. GEOGRAPHY

Thailand covers 198,455 square miles and is almost as large as France, It is made up of four distinct regions: mountains and fertile valleys in the north, a semi-arid plateau in the northeast, the fertile central valley and the southern peninsula covered by rain forests. THE PEOPLE

Thailand has an estimated population of 54 million, made up of about 75 percent Thai stock, 14 percent Chinese, and smaller minorities of Malaysian, Indian, Khmer and Vietnamese origin. About 95 percent of the population are Buddhists. ECONOMY

Like much of Southeast Asia, Thailand is largely an agricultural country, with more than three-fourths of the population engaged in farming. In recent years, the exports have developed rapidly. A major rice exporter, Thailand's other main exports include rubber, corn, tin and textiles. With an average annual growth rate of more than 10 percent since 1987 and modest inflation, Thailand has appeared on the threshhold of becoming one of Southeast Asia's newly industrialized countries.

Map: Thailand, indicating Bangkok and Chiang Mai.