Court cooks up a coup in Thailand

NY Times:

A Thai court ordered Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign Tuesday after finding that he had violated the Constitution by accepting payment for appearing on two cooking shows while in office.

His party said it would name Mr. Samak to succeed himself in the job, a move that seemed to defy the spirit of the court ruling and to insure that Thailand’s political crisis would continue.

"P.P.P. will propose Samak as prime minister on the grounds that he’s the party leader, and the wrongdoing was petty and not triggered by mismanagement," said Witthaya Buranasiri, an official of Mr. Samak’s People Power Party.

Parliament was to vote for a new prime minister on Friday.

Mr. Samak made no immediate comment, but he has said he would abide by the court’s ruling.

Anti-government protesters, thousands of whom have blockaded the prime minister’s office over the past two weeks, cheered and wept when the verdict was read over radio and television. But the party’s stance seemed to suggest the two-week standoff was not over yet.

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This seems like an extraordinarily harsh result for a meaningless offense. A more appropriate response would be to order him to disgorge the money received from the show or give it to the government. When combined with the political unrest sparked by his opponents the ruling has the smell of a coup.