Sonthi’s worst fear is obviously that somehow in the future the tables will be turned against him by subsequent political circumstances beyond his control once he retires as Army chief at the end of September. The fear then would be that his enemies or insincere friends might take advantage of his vulnerability and persecute him either for staging the coup or on some other pretext.
When Sonthi began testing the waters concerning a possible run in the upcoming election as the leader of a political party backed by the all-powerful military in order to secure himself a position of power, if not the premiership, he did it in order to protect himself.
It is a bad idea that will not only get Sonthi entangled in the most cynical form of politics that he obviously knows little about, but also belie the claim that the military is a force for good and a promoter of democracy.
- Extract from: “Sonthi, CNS must find graceful exit“, Editorial, The Nation, 12 July 2007
1 response so far ↓
1 jonfernquest // Jul 14, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Wouldn’t the eventual goal be to have a professional army that doesn’t intervene in politics as, for instance, South Korea has now, but certainly didn’t always have? I guess people don’t think this far ahead.
“It is a bad idea [yes] that will not only get Sonthi entangled [yes] in the most cynical [no or ???] form of politics that he obviously knows little about [yes], but also belie the claim [who?] that the military is a force for good [try "order"] and a promoter of democracy [no].”
Golly, when someone covers so many issues and ideas in one tiny little sentence like this, it’s hard enough just trying to figure out what he or she means, much less respond to or engage with it.
IMHO Good old academic citation practices that force one to engage with ideas in the world of citable texts in a systematic and meaningful way, on an item by item basis, would be of much value here.
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