Once again toppling a democratically elected government, the Royal Thai Army under the leadership of General Prayut Chan-ocha said that they had to take power to restore peace and stability to the kingdom. The following is a brief oral history of the events that transpired on May 22, from the leaders of Thai society both then and now.
Thaksin had been in exile since a previous military coup overthrew him in We wanted to reform and have a revolution by the people. In order to make that happen, we had to show a symbolic force. We believe that a show of force would be necessary to make the government make changes. We wanted a period of reform before the election. What Thailand needed was a major overhaul, we wanted reform.
It needed to take place immediately. We did not trust politicians with power, they were not genuine about changing. The Senate would appoint an interim government. They wanted to appoint a non-accountable body to carry out reforms and put politicians on public trial. It is like these people never opened a textbook or read about the French Revolution. To make matters worse, the protesters were singing songs from Les Miserables, while marching and holding pictures of the king. My irony meter died that year.
As the protests continued Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved the House of Representatives and called a snap election scheduled for February 2, The court then removed Yingluck Shinawatra from office on May 7 for dereliction of duty and abuse of power over the transfer of a security officer in When they removed me from office, I understood immediately that there was going to be a coup.
I just did not know when it would take place. I became powerless to do anything except watch the situation unfold. After my removal, General Prayut Chan-ocha imposed martial law nationwide. The Prime Minister was thrown out by the constitutional court, the government did not have legitimate power. We wanted the senate to exercise their power and appoint a government and then help the country reform and come to a resolution.
