Abstract

The coup d’état on May 22, 2014, has again broken the bonds within Thai society. Although many Thai peopledesire to resist the coup, they are forced into silence under martial law, which is in effect all over the kingdom.However, after the coup the military government declared that Thailand is working toward genuine andsustainable reconciliation. In this article, the author questions how the military government’s reconciliationworks and examines its effects on Thai society. The author argues that the military government’s reconciliationis composed of three main processes working simultaneously. These are 1) Forgetting, 2) Returning to IronicHappiness, and 3) Threatening and Hunting. Reconciliation scholars might be surprised by what is being called“reconciliation” in Thailand. Certainly, reconciliation undertaken in this way has no positive effect on Thailand’spresent or future and cannot bring true reconciliation to Thailand.

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