“NOT OFF THE TABLE”
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science and international relations at Chulalongkorn University, concurred that while there is reluctance for another coup to happen, the option “is not off the table”.
“It’s very sad and frustrating to say … but in the past 20 years, Thailand has seen a series of interventions, either from the military or judiciary, sometimes paved by street protests, and that has led to undemocratic changes of government,” he told CNA’s Asia Now.
After the last military coup a decade ago, the country’s economy suffered and it faced international criticism, Pongsudhirak noted.
“So (the military) would be reluctant, I think, to intervene in the same fashion. But the longer this drags on, if Thailand becomes intractable, ungovernable, nothing gets done … then there’ll be calls for them to break the impasse somehow,” he added.
“Either you have a judicial intervention, this dissolution of ruling parties, or you have a military intervention. And that’s been the way; it’s been systematic. There’s a pattern to it.”
Hewison noted that Thailand’s Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, which came just before Paetongtarn’s suspension, also left the position of defence minister vacant.
“The military does have an opportunity to move, and it would do that if it saw that there was political instability or a political vacuum. In Thailand, with its history, you can’t rule out a military coup,” he told CNA’s Asia First.
