Thailand gets a new leader, a general who shunned politics

BANGKOK: When Thai soldiers fired on crowds of pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok in 1992, killing dozens, General Surayud Chulanont was head of special forces units seen dragging demonstrators through the lobby of a nearby hotel.

But the career army officer, who was made interim prime minister on Sunday by Thailand's latest military rulers, denied giving any orders to shoot and said the bloodshed hammered home a message he had pondered throughout his days in uniform. "It convinced me that the army should never be involved in politics," he said on national television in the aftermath of the uprising, which stemmed from the previous year's military takeover — Thailand's 17th since the 1930s.

Fifteen years and one coup later, the 63-year-old former army commander-in-chief and devout Buddhist faces a re-run of history. Following the September 19 military putsch against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Surayud has become head of a stop-gap government charged with keeping the country and economy ticking over while a panel draws up a new constitution.

Coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin has promised elections within a year but, as with 1991, there are concerns the shadow of the army, in the form of a Council for National Security, will loom large over the process and beyond. For Surayud, Sonthi's direct superior at the Special Warfare Command in the early 1990s and one of Time magazine’s 'Asian Heroes' in 2003 for his efforts to instill modern values into the Thai military, it could be a testing time. 

"He earned a lot of respect as a man of his word, as a professional soldier," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak ofBangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "In many ways, he's the iconic army chief in the minds of Thais. Someone who was professional, capable, competent — and reluctant to mess around with politics."