Whilst visiting the ‘October 14 Memorial’ near Democracy Monument, myself and a friend spoke to a school teacher who worked at a nearby school. He shed some light on local thoughts about the coup, the military and the current political climate:

“Every country has corruption. In Thailand we have corruption. Thai people know this. The difference in other countries is that even though they have corruption they do things for the people. Thaksin do things for the people.

“Now the military worry about people in the countryside. Thaksin ran Thailand like a business and he did many things for the people. The people in the countryside will likely come to Bangkok in the next two to three months because they are not happy. The military don’t know about business and so now they are afraid of the people in the countryside. I think there will be a big problem in the next few months. Not even all the military like this government.

“The taxi driver who killed himself – the people forgot about it already. The newspapers are quiet. The journalists are quiet. He was a very, very good man. They should make a memorial for him. We are not afraid of the army. They have guns and walk around with them but the people are not scared. We know they will not shoot us because every country in the world is looking at Thailand now.

“The situation in the South is also very bad. Last week prime minister said ‘I am sorry.’ But nothing stop. If he thinks because the last government make some mistakes that people will like him if he talks about that and everything will stop, he is wrong.”