Bangkok 23 September

And further settled.

The CDR or council for democratic reform as the coup like to call themselves, have added an extra letter to their title and have become the council for democratic reform under constitutional monarchy, but hang on a minute which constitution? hasn't the constitution been suspended with the introduction of "Martial law"?
I am supposed to be going in to pick up my passport from immigration on monday (final stage of the work visa shennanigans) all "government offices are open and operating as normal, it's all very odd. The new government have mind you made a call for public unity, requesting no political meetings or gatherings of more than 5 people and no anti coup media coverage. Some dozen or so community radio stations and newspapers have been closed due to their criticism of the coup and it's leaders. The newspaper I read has dedicated a lot of space to the king, much in the vein that all radio stations played patriotic music and all t.v. stations showed footage of the monarch during the 24 hours of the actual "coup".

A rally was organised yesterday by the anti coup faction, the leader was phoned by the head of the CDRM and requested not to have his protest, he went ahead, 20 protestors turned up and they were grossly out numbered by the forrest of reporters who turned up to rubber neck. Nothing bad happened and everyone went home again.

The fortune tellers wadded into the debate today, predicting a long time of prosperity and political stability as a result of this coup, some attributed it in part to Pluto's recent demotion to "dwarf planet" hmmm.

There is much debate about the "legitimacy" of the coup and it does in some regards highlight many of the flaws (etomologically) underpinning democracy today. In most "mature" democracies we find ourselves, at election time, faced (like a football stadium) with a choice between parties whose major differences consist of the colour shirts and scarves worn by their fans, and their ability to convince a "star" to stand under their banner. Meanwhile burgeoning democracies following these faltering molds struggle with educating the voting public who generally speaking are naive of the various corruptions power bestows on their leaders. They are too easily ensnared by election promises which amount to little more than small time bribery on a big time scale. In both these scenarios the educated classes become frustrated at their lack of political clout versus their clarity of political vision and so the desire to install Plato's republic manifests in online debate or in Thailand in military coup.

The time has come for greater political accountability and greater public access and contributions to the political process. In the technological age we now live in there is no excuse for these kinds of channels of communication and public participation not to be embraced. True democracies where the voices of the people are heard in parliamentary debates can happen, it could (and perhaps should) lead to the collapse of party politics but from it's ashes could emerge true democracy, by the people for the people. Well we can all dream can't we.
N.J.