Even Thaksin voters are happy in post-coup Thailand

Bangkok Letter: When is a coup not a coup? It's another hot day in Bangkok and young women wearing skimpy camouflage tee shirts and mini skirts are energetically going through a dance routine to entertain soldiers guarding Bangkok's parliament building. This display takes place just days after the army deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and it's not a sight you traditionally associate with a military putsch.

The mood on the streets of the Thai capital is one of contentment, occasional indifference and often jubilation, particularly since the coup has received the backing of the beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej. At the roadblocks formed by tanks and troop carriers, young women drape the soldiers with the yellow flowers and ribbons that mark loyalty to the king. The McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Seven-Eleven outlets in the background make for an incongruous scene - this is a putsch with all the branding of the capitalist First World.

The soldiers propping up the Humvees beneath the six-lane flyovers in the busy commercial centre of this city of 15 million are the real thing, bristling with high-tech US weaponry and equipment and alert to a possible counter-coup at any time.

But one or two troops do find time to ogle a small baby held out to them by a grandmother - Thais love children and even tough military hearts melt when confronted with the youngest supporters of last week's bloodless stealing of power, which they are calling "The Happy Coup".

There were none of the usual scenes we have come to associate with military coups the world over - deserted thoroughfares guarded by nervous-looking soldiers at road blocks, frightened citizens gazing out from behind barricaded windows; bloodshed as the inevitable counter-coup begins.

Martial law was not much in evidence in the bars and restaurants of Bangkok, still packed with slightly bemused tourists and largely indifferent locals. Traffic is its usual snarl along Sukhumvit Road and after closing briefly, it's business as usual at the banks, travel agents, import-export firms and property companies that keep Thailand's economy buzzing.

People are calling this a Thai-style coup for the nigh-on graceful way in which it was brought about. But many remember the bloody putsches that shook the country right until the early 1990s and although it was peaceful, last Tuesday's coup was simply another case of the military doing what it has done 18 times in modern Thai history - seizing power by force of arms.

At the same time, the reaction to the coup is something new, and something that's still quite hard to gauge. Is it a sign of inherent stability in the Thai political system, that a demagogue and allegedly corrupt leader can be removed without a single shot fired?

Is this another example of southeast Asia-style "People Power" in action, as seen in the Philippines, or Indonesia in the last decade.

Or is this actually a terrible day for democracy in one of the very few functioning free societies in a famously chaotic region?

Where have all of Thaksin's supporters gone? This is a man who was voted in with a landslide majority twice.

Bangkok is certainly not his constituency - his power base is among poor farmers and in the north, in the city of Chiang Mai and its environs. But the tuk-tuk cab drivers and taxi owners and street stall traders who used to be vocal in supporting Thaksin are all now, suddenly, happy with, and fully supportive of, the coup.

And the feeling is largely that democracy had failed because the opposition was unable to come up with a candidate capable of unseating Thaksin.

Obviously this is a take on the old adage "Don't vote or the government will get in", but there were signs Thaksin was meddling in the political process and massaging his majority, and a common refrain among the people is "What were we supposed to do?"

Political tension was growing and the military line is that it wanted to make sure to head off the possibility of civil war.

The leader of the coup, army commander Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who has become the first Muslim military chief of this largely Buddhist country, has always shunned politics and says the interim "Council for Democratic Reform Under Constitutional Monarchy" has no intention of running the country and would return power "as soon as possible."

His indication that a former army chief will run the government in the interim is seen as another step in the wrong direction for democracy, but former generals have led Thailand before, as elected leaders.

The only opposition to the coup so far comes from a tiny group of students and activists fearful that civil liberties are being eroded.

They stage their demonstration outside Siam Paragon, a vast shopping mall recently opened in Bangkok, home to all the top luxury brands and popular with rich Thais and visitors alike. Most of the opposition demonstrators hail from the political science departments of Bangkok's top universities and are effectively a marginalised group.

Most of the shoppers are indifferent, indeed puzzled as to what the demonstrators are doing, and up the road, the women keep taking photographs of each other draping the soldiers with ribbons.