When Thailand’s generals seized power in a coup d’etat against an elected government last year, it looked as if they intended to hand it back to elected civilians quickly. ADVERTISING When Thailand’s generals seized power in a coup d’etat against
When Thailand’s generals seized power in a coup d’etat against an elected government last year, it looked as if they intended to hand it back to elected civilians quickly.
Now it appears not, raising the sticky question of whether the government of President Barack Obama will observe U.S. law and cut off military aid to Thailand. Obama has not done so in the case of Egypt, whose government also took power in a military coup. U.S. forces carry out more than 40 joint exercises per year with the Thai military.
Thailand’s generals, who ruled the country of 68 million for many years in the last century, seized power in May 2014. They named a National Reform Council, which was supposed to write a new constitution to be submitted to the population in a referendum by January. The drafting committee took 10 months to produce a document. The council rejected it Sunday, in a 135-105 vote, with the 33 security force representatives on it voting against the draft.
The constitution now goes back to a new drafting committee, which will likely take at least 10 more months to produce a document. That will probably push elections into 2017, leaving the military in power until at least then.
In the meantime, the Thai economy is showing feeble growth under military rule. Civilian political figures, including those of the Pheu Thai and Democrat parties, oppose military rule. In addition, a bomb that killed 20 people at a shrine in Bangkok last month indicated an increasingly shaky security situation, in spite of the military government’s predictable pledges to keep Thais safe.
The Obama administration should respect the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and use a cutoff of U.S. aid to Thailand as an incentive to the Thai generals to accelerate the process of returning the country to civilian rule. Neither Thailand nor Egypt benefits from military rule, and the United States should not support it.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
