When a military coup last year ended months of political turmoil and violence in Thailand, even some democracy advocates welcomed the junta’s promise to restore stability and return “happiness to the people.”
But 15 months later, a deadly bomb that ripped through a venerated shrine in downtown Bangkok highlights a critical question: Are the generals losing their grip on troubles blitzing them from alldirections, in a land that once seemed endowed with a magic touch?
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the former army chief who engineered the May 2014 coup, has said he had to take over the government to end protests and political clashes that left about 30 people dead. With the junta cracking down on dissent, most of the country had been relatively peaceful until the Aug. 17 bombing, which killed 20 people and injured scores of others.
Speculation about possible motives and culprits ranges from anti-government radicals to Muslim extremists to a renegade military faction, underscoring the array of woes facing the country. Prayuth described the attack as “the worst incident that has ever happened in Thailand.”
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