Thai student group against coup marches in streets

The military leaders that staged the coup in Thailand are now banning political meetings of five or more people, and are shutting off all media that can get out, including text messaging.  This is what military rule looks like.  But a pro-democracy student group is resisting.

Yesterday I wrote about the political theory behind why blind trust for a military-led coup is bad for democracy.  My column referred to the bloodless military coup on September 19th that overthrew the Prime Minister of Thailand while he was in New York.  To summarize, I said the following:

Democracy isn't perfect, but it is much better than handing overcomplete authority to a military force that, unlike an elected body,has no incentive other than possibly its own idealism to serve thepeople's best interest.  I am sorry to all you idealists out there. But when a governmental system relies solely on idealistic trust, asopposed to a realistic power structure that forcesleaders to serve the people, then that system is taking a giant leap offaith.  In that leap of faith, all that it takes is one non-idealistofficial in the government who uses his power as a means to an end, aspower politics usually works, to completely consolidate authority andremove populist-friendly laws to his liking.

Today, young educated adults in Thailand are realizing precisely how dangerous it is to let their military consolidate power in weakened democracy.  A student group is trying to take back the streets:

Using the worldwide web, the group - calling itself the 19 SeptemberNetwork against Coup d'Etat - has labelled the military overthrow ofthe Thaksin administration as the death of democracy in the troubledSouth-East Asian nation.

"You can't build democracy by destroying it," the group reportedly said in a statement.

The group was planning to meet peacefully in Bangkok tonight to protest against Tuesday night's coup.

Political meetings of five or more people are now banned in Thailand under hardline military law.

While coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin has been thanked forthe bloodless nature of the takeover, any sign of dissent has beenswiftly dealt with by the military.

The military has also sought to impose sweeping bans on the media,affecting web-sites, text messaging and even the broadcasting ofopinions relating to the coup.

Please e-mail the U.S. State Department and tell them to put pressure on Thailand's new self-installed head of state, and urge for immediate elections.