Year on, Thailand's "good coup" gets failing grade

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK (Reuters) - As coups go in Thailand, the country's 18th putsch has been dreadfully disappointing.

A year after the soldiers who ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra were greeted with flowers on the streets of Bangkok, many Thais are giving the so-called "good coup" a failing grade.

"The coup that was supposed to lead to a better democracy has been proven to be a myth," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Chulalongkorn University, wrote in a commentary.

"The past year in Thailand bears the chief lesson that there is no such thing as a good coup," he said.

Most analysts say the coup makers have botched or made scant headway in achieving their stated goals of healing political divisions, eradicating corruption and reforming a political system they accused Thaksin and his allies of manipulating.

"The coup d'etat cost the country much," the Bangkok Post said on Wednesday. "The democratic system took several backward steps, Thailand's image suffered and foreign investors' confidence weakened."

It also failed to prise Thaksin from his central position in Thai politics, despite his party being disbanded for electoral fraud and 111 of its executives, including him, banished from politics for five years.

The billionaire telecoms tycoon has kept a mesmerising grip on the country.