The New Prime Minister and Dictatorships

It seems the only military dictatorship Samak Sundaravej doesn't like is the one that overthrew Thaksin on September 19, 2006. Yet, here he is, a little over year later, the new democratically-elected PM of Thailand. The coup-makers have committed no massacres, and have handed power to an elected civilian government more or less on the timetable they specified went they sent the corrupt and self-serving Thaksin into exile.

Samak doubtless prefers the military dictatorships of the 1970s in which he was a sometimes participant, who massacred students and protestors on a regular basis, and who maintained their power until the late eighties when the most competent and enlightened of them all, General Prem Tinansulond, managed a peaceful transition to elected civilian rule.

There is some hope for those who opposed the elected-dictatorial rule of Thaksin Shinawatra however. Samak, elected as a proxy for Thaksin, is showing signs that he wants to be his own man and is showing signs that he would be quite happy if Thaksin never returned to Thailand.

Perhaps Samak may conclude that the September 19 coup was to his liking after all.