Oct 17th 2019IT WAS A speech worthy of Dr Strangelove. In a 90-minute lecture-turned-rant at the army headquarters on October 11th, Apirat Kongsompong, the head of Thailand’s armed forces, accused academics and other leftists of implanting “communist chips” in the minds of brainwashed youths. Opposition politicians such as Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party, were involved in the conspiracy, too, the general added—how else to explain Mr Thanathorn’s meeting with a democracy activist from Hong Kong? The aim of their plotting, General Apirat confided, was nothing less than the toppling of Thailand’s sacred monarchy.To foreigners all this may sound like an absurd spoof, but to democratically minded Thais, it was ominous. Similar talk preceded a notorious massacre at Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1976, when soldiers and police casually fired into a crowded campus of student protesters, their work finished by a right-wing lynch mob. Perhaps 100 students died. Moreover, General Apirat’s father, who was also head of the army, led a junta that overthrew an elected government in 1991.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address