Coup De Tat

At 12:15 a.m. the phone rang. We thought we have overslept. The alarm was set to ring at 4:30 a.m., a time we have got used to waking up for races, only this time we were going to Klang to pick up my parents-in-law for our trip to Bangkok.

It was Mee Peng’s uncle who reported there was a major event happening in Bangkok. Disbelieving I log into the Internet. CNN and BBC reported at 10:30 p.m. the Thai army had moved 14 tanks to surround the Government office. Thaksin had declared a state of emergency. I tried going to the Thai newspapers: The Bangkok Post and The Nation but both were inaccessible. Apparently, their local CNN, BBC and Internet access were blocked.

I went back to sleep. At 4:30 a.m. the alarm clock rang. I log into the Internet again looking for updates. A coup had taken place and martial law was declared. At that point, the situation was unclear if Thaksin’s administration was staging any military counter-coup. There was an element of unknown.

After evaluating the risk, I decided to cancel the trip. I went back to sleep again but was interrupted by calls and SMSes from relatives and friends who were concerned about our whereabouts and safety. I also cancelled my 2-week leave and went back to work the next day.