Thailand was back to work as normal on Thursday, just 36 hours after a military coup that was condemned abroad but legitimised by the royal palace and greeted by many Thais with relief.
A day after the military shut down the city, in the interests of maintaining calm, they said, Bangkok traffic was back to the familiar near-gridlock, while coup leaders worked on fulfilling a promise of a civilian prime minister in two weeks.
Ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, now in London after arriving from New York, where he was at the United Nations General Assembly when the coup was staged on Tuesday, appeared to accept his fate.
”I was prime minister when I came, and I was jobless on the way back,” the Thai News Agency quoted him as telling reporters travelling with him. ”I volunteered to work for the country, but if they don’t want me to do that, I won’t.”
Thaksin was welcome to return home to Thailand, coup leaders said, although the police chief made clear he would have to face charges already filed, including charges of election fraud.
The politically wise, however, were not ruling Thaksin out of the game.
”This is not a man who likes to lose,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University told reporters. ”Thaksin’s support runs deep.”
”If there’s an election supervised by the UN, Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai would win, and that’s a problem for Thailand,” he said, referring to Thaksin’s political party, which translates as Thais Love Thais.
He does not appear to have lost support in the countryside which swept him to two election landslide victories and made him Thailand’s longest-serving elected prime minister.
Dao Khempanya, A 65-year-old farmer in the paddy fields and coconut groves of Nonthaburi, 50km west of Bangkok, said the coup was the best way to end political strife in a society which values harmony and abhors conflict.
But his devotion to Thaksin was undiminished.
”Please come back Mr Thaksin and we’ll re-elect you,” he said with a toothy grin.
Economy fears ease
Fears for the Thai economy eased as calm prevailed and coup leaders set out the timetable for return to civilian rule, although Morgan Stanley cut its annual economic growth forecast for the second half of the year to 2,4% from 3,5%.
Thai stocks dropped some four percent on reopening on Thursday but soon recovered as foreign investors picked up what they considered cheap shares from retail investors not wanting to carry the risk.
The market was down around 1%, a far less precipitous drop than feared in the immediate aftermath of the coup, when credit ratings firms had warned of possible downgrades.
The markets received some reassurance from a royal proclamation legitimising the military government. That was a ”positive development”, ABN Amro Bank strategist Shahab Jalinoos said in a note to clients.
Moody’s Investor Service reaffirmed Thailand’s ratings and stable outlook on Thursday and the Thai baht was steady in early trade after shedding nearly 2% on Tuesday.
Two weeks
The coup leaders said they would craft within a year a Constitution to repair flaws Thaksin was accused of exploiting to wield near dictatorial powers, then hold an election.
”We have two weeks. After two weeks, we step out,” said army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin. ”It will take a year to draft a new Constitution.”
In the meantime, Thailand was technically still under martial law. The military issued orders on Wednesday banning political gatherings of more than five people and restricting information critical of the coup from being distributed on the Internet and scrolled on television stations.
The United States said there was no justification for the coup, but pointedly did not demand that Thaksin be returned to power and instead urged a swift return to democracy.
”We’re disappointed in the coup. We hope that those who mounted it will make good swiftly on their promises to restore democracy,” White House spokesperson Tony Snow said.
Tuesday’s putsch was Thailand’s first coup in 15 years but its 18th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
The military said it was forced to act because there was no other way out of a protracted political crisis that pitted Thaksin against the old guard and street campaigners accusing him of subverting democracy for his family and friends in business.
Not a shot was fired and many Thais seemed to welcome the coup, as long as it stayed peaceful.
”It’s about time this happened. It’s been a mess for a long time,” said motorcycle taxi driver Somsak Khanok (33). – Reuters