[Tlc] Thai coup

[robert muscat]

Biff:  Nice to hear from you. Good idea since many members may miss good 
analyses appearing elsewhere.  My own personal interest in things Thai is 
especially heightened in the case of this coup. The reason is the 
comparison, too far out no doubt, of the Thai experience with the our sorry 
Iraq experience. Compared with Iraq, Thailand has had everything going for a 
successul transformation of political culture, from absolute authoritarian 
to democracy based on rule of law, orderly transfer of power, and checks and 
balances. Thailand is religiously and culturally relatively homogeneous, has 
been an independent state for a long time, has had a unifying monarchy, and 
has (95% of the population) a religion that does not claim supercession, or 
denigrate, or contain scriptural bases for violent attacks of, other 
religions. The frictions between its religious sects and mainstream Buddhism 
are as nothing compared with the Sunni/Shia division. Nevertheless, 
althought the Thais started down a road toward democracy, arguably around 70 
years ago, the transformation remains fragile and far from complete. I have 
used the Thai/Iraq comparison as a perspective that should have given, and 
should still give, pause to my neocon friends who thought that 
transformation in Iraq would be a shoe-in. This latest coup, paradoxical and 
quintessentially Thai as it is, has demonstrated my point once again.
Best regards,
Bob Muscat

>From: "Charles Keyes" <keyes at u.washington.edu>
>To: <justinm at ucr.edu>, <tlc at lists.ucr.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Tlc] Thai coup
>Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2006 14:21:22 -0700
>
>Justin and TLC,
>
>    Do we want to use this listserve to discuss the coup? There are now 
>many analyses that have been prepared, including a number by our members.
>
>Biff (Charles Keyes)
>----- Original Message ----- From: <justinm at ucr.edu>
>To: <tlc at lists.ucr.edu>
>Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 12:17 PM
>Subject: [Tlc] Thai coup
>
>
>>Bonnie Brereton has sent out these two English articles which
>>provide a good general overview of the Thai coup situation. Of
>>course, the stories are changing (seemingly everyday there is
>>a new explanation), but these are good for those trying to
>>keep up on the news beyond what CNN reports.
>>Best,
>>justin
>>
>>1)
>>http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/heroes/surayud_chulanont.html
>>
>>
>>
>>2) Thailand's Thaksin had clashed with king - Yahoo! News
>>
>>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060920/ap_on_re_as/king_vs_thaksin_1
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>______________
>>Dr. Justin McDaniel
>>Dept. of Religious Studies
>>2617 Humanities Building
>>University of California, Riverside
>>Riverside, CA 92521
>>951-827-4530
>>justinm at ucr.edu
>>_______________________________________________
>>Tlc mailing list
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>>
>
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