[1] The military postponed the upcoming elections, suspended the Constitution, dissolved Parliament, banned protests, suppressed and censored media outlets, declared martial law, and arrested Cabinet members.
Some countries advised recent travelers to Thailand to be alert due to safety concerns.
And the principle of changing governments by street protest and military putsch has been re-established, undoing all the progress of the past decade, which had seen Thailand slowly emerge from the shadow of the barracks and the royal palace.
The piece continued to state how the general lack of international condemnation for the coup might embolden military leaders or reinforce authoritative tendencies in neighboring countries.
[49] The New York Times also criticized the coup, noting that "With the coup, Thailand became one more Southeast Asian nation that has reinterpreted democracy in undemocratic terms, either manipulating or sidestepping constitutional processes to achieve political ends... Now both Thailand and the Philippines, the region’s two exemplars of democracy, have ousted democratically elected leaders.