Thailand passed another critical point Wednesday evening in the path from democracy through military government and, hopefully, back to democracy.  In an painfully long eleven-hour court session, the Constitutional Court (a combination of nine high-ranking judges including the three from Thailand’s Supreme Court) read the entire election tampering cases against the Democrat and Thai Rak Thai political parties.  

At stake: the possible dissolution of the two largest political parties and the banning of their executives from any political activity for the next five years.

This is a highly complex story because what it essentially involves is a military government (the CNS) conducting a coup to overthrow a democratically elected government (Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party), on charges that the Thaksin government had undermined democratic processes in interfering with the April 2006 election.  The CNS then instructed the Constitutional Court to look into these accusations (against Thai Rak Thai as well as accusations against the Democrats), which is what Wednesday’s ruling was on.

Above: Split screen coverage on all local channels.  On the right, one of the judges reads the case.  On the upper left, a live view from the Democrat party headquarters.  On the lower left, a live view from the Thai Rak Thai party headquarters.  Throughout the show, channel 5 provided English-language updates scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

There had been widely-reported fears of violence, protests, and a possible counter-coup.  It turned out later that the hysteria around this was largely the result of comments by the CNS about how ready they were to maintain the peace.  Both parties had made very public statements that their members were to respect the rule of law regardless of the outcome of the court cases.

During the early part of the court cases, the CNS sent a message through all mobile phone providers reminding people to respect the King’s teachings and the rule of law.

The result of the ruling: the Democrats were cleared of all charges.  Thai Rak Thai was found guilty of interfering with democracy and will be dissolved.  Additionally, 111 of the top executives of the Thai Rak Thai party were barred from any political activities for the next five years.

Confused yet? 

To make it a little more confusing, let’s consider the concept that is widely being discussed here in Thailand: that of “rule by law” versus “rule of law”.  The latter is the standard formula of there being widely accepted laws and judgements are derived from them.  The former is that there is someone in charge and since they have power, judgements are derived from that power.

Quoting an op-ed piece in the Nation,

The judgement is legally valid, subject to what the conception of law is. If the law refers to an order of the ruler, the judgement by the Constitution Tribunal is unquestionable but legally unnecessary. If law means a popular consensus, the punishment that was based on the orders of the coup-makers is questionable, but politically necessary and important in ensuring that the politics of fear continue to work as the dominant theme in Thai politics so that those in power now will continue ruling the country.

Can a government who has subverted the rule of law, then use those same laws to prosecute the democratically-elected government it overthrew?

In either case, the strange case of Thai politics continues.  The former leaders of Thai Rak Thai, at least those not banned from politics, vow to regroup.  The Democrats, who have historically been less friendly towards the military – or at least, less influenced by them – look to have an advantage in any elections scheduled for later this year. 

One wonders whether the CNS will partner with selected Thai Rak Thai members to build their own popular party, minus Thaksin, who was seen as exerting too much control over the military.  

What fascinating times.

In other news, our friend Anthony was visiting from the Bay Area last night with his friend Francis.  We joined them for dinner at Cafe de Laos, a nice Lao-style restaurant on Silom Soi 19.  Ever the thoughtful visitor, Anthony brought us a box of Japanese tea cakes from his stop-over in Japan.