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ASEAN not hurt if coup generals give up power quickly: Observers
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 09/23/2006 7:58 AM
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Thai military should quickly hand over power to civilian leaders and put the democracy process in Southeast Asian nations back on track, observers here say.
""By definition, the military coup is a setback to the democratization processes in the Southeast Asian region. But if the military keeps its promise to hand over power to civilians as soon as possible, we hope the negative impact will not be too damaging,"" former foreign minister Ali Alatas told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Alatas said he understood the reason for the coup and why Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej gave his blessing to the bloodless process. However, the return of civilian government was vital, he said.
The ASEAN Charter, currently being formalized, did not recognize governments that were not democratically elected, Alatas said.
Hariyadi Wirawan, an international relations expert at the University of Indonesia, said it was too early to say how Thailand's crisis would affect the region.
""The sooner the military is (out of) power, the less the negative impact,"" he told the Post.
Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted from his post Tuesday by an group of military generals, who declared martial law and quickly implemented a series of controls, including bans on public gatherings, political activities and censorship of the media.
The coup in the country is the first in 15 years.
Four officials close to Thaksin have been detained, while key police officials aligned with the deposed premier have been fired and replaced with army officers. Thaksin is currently in England for what he says are ""personal reasons"".
The coup has alarmed observers here, who fear the junta's unwillingness to restore Thailand's civilian government. The coup leaders have said they would appoint a civilian government within the month and that new elections would follow in a year.
A member of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing security and international affairs, Amris Hassan, feared the Thai military would be reluctant to give up power.
""I am afraid of the side-effects, such as harsh censorship, limited freedom of speech and arbitrary arrests during the military's control,"" he said.
Without Thailand, ""ASEAN can't be consistent and united in pressing for democratization, for instance, in Myanmar.""
Amris worried the coup might also give ideas to military generals here.
He said Commission I had officially recommended the government clearly convey its disapproval of the coup because it violated democratic principles.
Alatas and Hariyadi believed the coup would not affect ASEAN's agendas of achieving community integration and finishing the ASEAN Charter.
