[shinawatra] surprising gaff led to removal

Easy with hindsight and yet Peter Kneisel’s piece in the Boston Globe is interesting. Entitled Never leave Home in the Autumn, he says it was a surprising oversight by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that led to his overthrow. He had used his fortune to consolidate power, but neglected to firm up his popularity as he fiddled with the military promotion lists, which are always leaked in September and published in October. Generals get restless in October, particularly if their careers are at risk. Ranking coups was a popular sport at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in the 1970s. Around an Indian buffet laid on by the Oriental Hotel, journalists, spies, diplomats, and expatriates would compare the latest coup with the one from the previous October. Oct. 14th, 1973 is remembered as the “Day of Great Sorrow”, when 41 people died. Shinawatra must have been supremely arrogant or supremely stupid or both.