THAILAND: Coup de Repos

In little more than 25 years, Thailand has had 13 coups or attempted coups, often accompanied by assassination. But what happened last week in Bangkok was not a coup d’état, nor even a coup de main, coup de Jarnac, coup de grâce, coup de maitre, coup de pied or a coup d’oeil. Searching for the trenchant Gallic phrase to describe Strongman Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat’s apparent coup against himself, the best that observers could manage was coup de repos, i.e., a move that leaves the main features of a situation unchanged but also puts opponents at a disadvantage.

Since seizing power 13 months ago, Strongman Sarit has spent most of his time abroad undergoing treatment for a chronic liver ailment in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, and then in Britain. Back home, his Chart Sang-khom Party seemed safely in control of two-thirds of the seats in the Assembly, after an election he had decreed; his own man, General Thanom Kittikachorn, was Premier; young King Phumiphon was carefully holding himself above politics and giving no encouragement to the opposition. When a Soviet attaché and a Tass newsman spoke slightingly of Sarit this month, the government reacted sharply by kicking both out of the country.

But there were subsurface rumblings. Some of Sarit’s own supporters in the Assembly had gone off on freeloading junkets to the Soviet Union. Many of Bangkok’s dozens of newspapers were accepting Red bribes in return for attacking Sarit and the U.S. The embittered aristocrats who dream of re-creating the Thailand of the past were giving covert support to the Communists and other opposition leaders. Premier Thanom, who had not wanted his job in the first place, seemed to be floundering.

Reflecting on these symptoms of unrest as he paced in his borrowed estate 25 miles from London, Strongman Sarit decided it was time to reassert himself. He flew back to Bangkok last week. Next day he dissolved the National Assembly, deposed the Premier, banned all political parties, scrapped the constitution and promised to draw up another (which will not be submitted to a referendum), padlocked a dozen publications, and declared martial law because of “pressure of internal and external forces, especially of the Communists.” In the name of the “revolutionary party,” Sarit promised Thailanders that he would 1) respect the power and independence of the courts, 2) adhere to all of Thailand’s international obligations, especially SEATO. Sarit is reportedly quite impressed by the way General de Gaulle is handling affairs in France, and believes that he might do as well himself if only he did not have to face so many democratic handicaps.