By James Buchanan
The country will not be able to move forward until it has properly dealt with its past.
On June 24, the interior minister of the elected Thai government – ousted the month before in a military coup – officially formed an opposition movement in exile, denouncing the junta as illegitimate and vowing to fight against it. The name of the movement, Seri Thai, echoes a World War 2 resistance movement who fought against the Japanese. It will strike a chord with those who oppose the coup. The date of the announcement – always important to numerically minded Thais – is also symbolic, referencing the anniversary of the 1932 revolution that abolished the absolute monarchy and set out to establish democracy in the country.
However, to dismiss the timing of the statement as pure symbolism may be missing the point. In many ways, the crisis that has convulsed Thailand for much of the past decade dates back to this turbulent period and can be understood as part of a long, historical struggle between civilian politicians and royalist elites for primacy – a theme explored in the recently released book “Good Coup” Gone Bad, a collection of essays on the 2006 military coup, currently not available for purchase in Thailand.
Rapid social change, displeasure at the privilege given to Siam’s multitude of aristocrats, and the exogenous shock of the great depression laid the foundations for the revolution of 1932. As these things go, the events on June 24 were underwhelming and can be more accurately described as a bloodless coup. However the ease with which power was taken not only obscured the momentous change that had taken place, as seven hundred years of arbitrary monarchical rule were overthrown in a single day, but also failed to signal the eighty years of contention that would follow as a result.
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