Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...seems unlikely that Thailand will go back to the political past. The violence in the streets showed just how much the country has changed; until then, Bangkok was the last place anyone would have looked for riots and bloodshed. Since the fall of the absolute monarchy in 1932, the country has experienced 10 successful coups, a number of failed ones and 14 constitutions. But only occasionally did violence occur in the so-called Land of Smiles. An old joke is that when a coup is attempted, usually both sides drive all their tanks into the street and then stop...
...more than 55 million people, is the world's largest rice exporter, a leading producer of seafood and one of Asia's top tourist destinations. Living and educational standards have expanded enormously: in 1965 only about 16,000 Thais were attending college; today the number is perhaps 300,000. Bangkok has matured into an overcrowded (pop. 8 million), traffic-choked city boasting chic restaurants, satellite and cable TV, fax machines and all the other appurtenances of a thoroughly modern metropolis...
THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, DEMONSTRATORS POURED into Bangkok's streets to protest. On one day more than 100,000, headed by opposition politicians and student leaders, gathered outside parliament to vent their anger at the appointment of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, the army's Chief of Staff, as Prime Minister...
Providing moral focus for the demonstrations was Chamlong Srimuang, a retired general and former governor of Bangkok who heads the opposition Palang Dharma party. A Buddhist, Chamlong announced that he would fast unto death to force Suchinda to resign. That vow sparked the antigovernment rallies. Suchinda fought back by accusing critics of promoting social unrest and declaring that he would resign only if his coalition suffered a parliamentary defeat. Suchinda's defiance was undermined, however, when his five-party coalition, clearly shaken by events, agreed to four constitutional amendments, including one that would require the Prime Minister...
...suffered drastic cuts in foreign news coverage and recently closed bureaus in Johannesburg, Bangkok and Hong Kong, he said...