SINGAPORE -- A decade ago this week, tens of thousands of Thais took to the streets of Bangkok to topple Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayun. Gen. Suchinda had led the successful February 1991 coup d'etat against the elected government of Chatchai Chunhawan. The terms of a constitution drafted on Suchinda's watch allowed him to assume the premiership without contesting the parliamentary elections of March 1992. But the resultant popular outrage overcame even the direct, bloody intervention of the Thai military. After a televised dressing-down from King Phumiphon, Suchinda resigned.
Tragically, the fate of many Thai civilians who disappeared during the "May events" of 1992 remains unclear. Nor has the conduct of officers responsible for the armed forces' excesses received adequate scrutiny. In several other respects, however, a 10-year perspective on those events reveals much about the progress of and prospects for Thailand's parliamentary democracy.
Most important, the 1991-1992 period, in retrospect, turned out be only a minor blip in three decades of parliamentary consolidation in Thailand. May 1992 has produced none of the long-term trauma of the demonstrations and violence of October 1973 or October 1976. And forcible military intervention in national politics appears safely relegated to the past.