Thailand after the "Good" Coup: A Lecture-Forum

THAILAND AFTER THE "GOOD" COUP

Kevin Hewison
Director, Carolina Asia Center
and Professor, Department of Asian Studies
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


ABSTRACT

The "good" coup has provided an opportunity for the conservatives and royalists to revise the rules of politics. The outcome for Thailand's political system and political participation will be highly paternalistic. Conservatives and royalists dominate the junta's political institutions. The appointed National Assembly is drawn mainly from the Bangkok elite, with few representatives of workers, farmers, or other political parties. The military and bureaucracy are having their prerogatives and power returned, and Bangkok-centered elites dominate limited debates about political and social rights. Conservatives in the military and the palace control the bureaucracy. Decentralization has been rolled back to insulate the bureaucracy from political leaders and parliamentary control. At the same time, the military has promoted its own interests and those of its leaders. The junta has purged the senior levels of the public service and has embedded military officers into significant positions in administration. For the moment this conservative turn appears to be supported by the middle class. A common middle-class refrain has been that the people who supported Thaksin—mainly the working class and especially poor rural population—were ignorant, bewildered, bought off, or coerced. The military supports this view and buttresses it by painting the "masses" as threatening.

PROGRAM

28 June 2007 (Thursday)
2:30-4:30 p.m.
Bulwagang Sala'am
Romulo Hall
Asian Center
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City


Registration (02:00-02:30)

Welcome Remarks (02:30-02:35)

Aileen SP. Baviera
Dean
Asian Center
University of the Philippines-Diliman

Introduction of the Speaker (02:35-2:40)

Thailand after the “Good” Coup (02:40-3: 40)

Kevin Hewison
Director, Carolina Asia Center
and Professor, Department of Asian Studies
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Open Forum (03:40-4: 25)

Last Comments from the Lecturer (04:25-4: 30)



Moderator
Armando S. Malay Jr.
Professor
Asian Center
University of the Philippines-Diliman