As a country frequently plagued with military interventions, Thailand has many lessons to learn from the recent political upheaval in South Korea, which reveals a case of democracy at work.
The world watched with grave concern as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol made a shock bid late on Tuesday night to suspend civilian rule -- the first time in more than 40 years in the East Asian country's history -- with martial law and eventually breathed a sigh of relief after the cabinet repealed the order six hours after. The president's martial law was nullified by parliament, which voted 109:0 against it.
Of course, the people of South Korea and the opposition MPs deserve credit for their hard-won victory.
More importantly, the whole incident attests to the fact that South Korea has a strong checks-and-balances mechanism, with a political system that efficiently prevents abuse of power by its leaders, as there is a mechanism for parliamentarians to veto the president's martial law.
As the incident develops, every element of society in South Korea, including the military, respects -- and tries to maintain -- the rule of law. Worth mentioning is the professionalism of the South Korean military, who refrained from violence and avoided the use of force when confronting angry crowds. Otherwise, the situation could have been far worse.
Now President Yoon has to face the consequences as parliament is set to impeach him today.
The victory of the people in South Korea has rekindled hope for politically conscious people in Thailand who are struggling to promote democracy post-coup. So many people who followed the Korean upheaval cannot help but ask: "What if?"
The Korean incident sheds new light on the need for Thailand to have a mechanism to counter extraordinary powers, ie, martial law or a coup.
Some may argue that South Korea and Thailand have different political cultures. While South Koreans are determined not to compromise, many Thais opt for flexibility despite this equating to a handshake with authoritarianism.
Of course, delusions over bad, corrupt politicians and the colour-coded conflicts that preceded the 2006 and 2014 coups may have led some Thais to embrace military interventions, but at the end of the day, Thais have learned time and again that coups are indeed the problem, not the solution.
There is no proof that coups did not lead to stagnation for the country. Coup makers are not fit to lead democratic governments. Most of them end up reinforcing patronage and client systems, if not nepotism. They end up no different than the politicians they eked out.
Take a look at the current military-sponsored charter, which contains so many clauses that are not well-matched with democratic principles, resulting in an inefficient checks-and-balances system that poses a political time bomb. Despite such flaws, charter amendment is an uphill task.
It's a pity that previous attempts of pro-democracy MPs to introduce anti-coup laws that would have provided a tool against military intervention -- like a ban on amnesty for coup makers and the ability for people to bring treason charges against them -- flopped. Yet, it's not too late to rekindle such efforts, together with a public awareness campaign for democratisation. It may be a long time before Thailand can catch up with the East Asian country, but the South Korean incident has set an example. A very good one.