Word: coupe
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After just three months in office, Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has already bested naysayers who predicted his coalition government wouldn't last two weeks. Although he said last year that he was handpicked to run by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed by a military coup in 2006, Samak has recently distanced himself from the controversial, populist ex-premier. Sitting in the neo-Italianate splendor of Bangkok's Government House, Samak tells TIME's Hannah Beech that he doesn't take direction from Thaksin - and describes in detail the green curry and pork-tongue stew...
...Thai democracy returned to a state of normalcy? The coup was a waste of 17 months. [Before] we were on the frontline of ASEAN. After a year and a half [of military rule], we dropped back. When they staged the coup, the United States [and other countries] turned their back to us. Now that we have an elected government, they have all turned [toward] us, and we feel we have come back to normal...
What caused the 2006 military coup? Because Thaksin happened to enter politics, because of his ideas, because of his riches, so it created envy in politics. Thaksin used another way to run the country. Chuan [Leekpai, Thaksin's predecessor as Prime Minister] used the "bureaucracy way." Everything had to be by law first. But Thaksin [took] a little bit of risk - we call it a "commercialized way." No one thought [Thaksin's economic policies would have] success, but they did. But when [Thaksin won another] term, [the political establishment] thought Thaksin would stay forever. That's why a handful...
Last month, you publicly quashed coup rumors. Are you worried about another military intervention? I am the Minister of Defense, [a position held concurrently with the role of Prime Minister]. I work very closely with [the military]. [Previously], the prime minister would try to do this, do that, so that created an ill feeling. I get along with [the military]. I don't ask for this, for that. When you are happy, they are happy, too. Any [coup] rumor is impossible...
...socialism before opting for political Islam and imposing Sharia law in parts of the country. Musicians were arrested and private parties at which bands played were broken up by Nimeiry's goons. Little changed when Nimeiry was ousted. In 1989, Omar al-Bashir came to power in a military coup. He was backed by Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist ideologue who invited Osama bin Laden to settle in Khartoum in the mid-1990s. But when al-Bashir signed a peace deal with Christian rebels in the south, allowing non-Muslims into the government and paving the way for a more...