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Thai military junta says it may rule for a year
New York Times - May 31, 2014
The country may return to democracy in around 14 months as long as "peace, order and reform is achieved", said General Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the junta.
Speaking in a nationally televised address eight days after he overthrew the elected government, Prayuth laid out ambitious plans to put the military's stamp on Thailand's future. "We understand we live in a democratic world," Prayuth said. "Please give us time to change attitudes, values and many other things."
The military has closed a number of television stations, barred criticism of the coup in the media, blocked websites and arrested members of an as-yet small movement that has protested the coup. But a curfew that was imposed when the junta seized power has been relaxed to only four hours a night and most businesses in the country are operating normally.
A dozen successful coups have punctuated Thailand's history over the past eight decades. The country is more deeply divided than at any point in recent history. Prayuth said he was seeking to "return happiness to the Thai people and foreign nationals residing in Thailand".
Yet he offered a blueprint likely to appeal mainly to one side of the country's political divide. The general's plan for an appointed legislative council was similar to the demands of a protest movement, rooted in Bangkok's conservative establishment, that in the months leading up to the military coup had paralysed the now-deposed governing party.
The general used the moralistic language of the protest movement to describe his goals. "Rules and regulations will be amended in order to have a good, honest and moral leader to govern the country," he said.
Prayuth said the government would continue large-scale projects started by the previous government for flood prevention around Bangkok and a revamped train network.
He did not offer specifics on what reforms might be enacted, but analysts have speculated that the junta may seek to further reduce the role of elected representatives. After the last military coup in 2006, the upper house of Parliament was changed from a fully elected body to a half-appointed one. One of the framers of the constitution written after that coup, Wicha Mahakhun, said then that "elections are evil".
Many members of the Bangkok establishment, which has traditionally enjoyed hegemony in national politics and is made up of conservative monarchists, old-money elites, judges and middle-class Thais, are disillusioned with electoral democracy. They have felt threatened by consecutive victories by the political movement founded by Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon who raised the political awareness of provincial voters through policies such as universal health care and farm subsidies. Thaksin's movement has won every national election since 2001, but its leaders have been removed from power five times, three times by courts that have sided with the Bangkok establishment.
The junta now appears to be trying to scrub away the influence of Thaksin's political movement from the bureaucracy. It has removed governors and senior police officers who were seen as allied with Thaksin.
Thailand's normally cacophonous social media has been partly cowed by the junta's threats to take action against its critics. But a number of visitors to a popular Internet discussion board, Pantip.com, posted sceptical comments of Prayuth's speech.
A post by a user named Wareesiroong complained that Thai media was "broadcasting only good news" from the junta, "and negatively criticise the other side without allowing them space to respond." The post concluded: "Where's there reconciliation?"
Leaders of the former protest movement have been barred by the military from making public comments. But before Prayuth's speech, photos of them celebrating at a French restaurant in an upscale Bangkok neighbourhood circulated on social media. Many wore military fatigues, an apparent sign of their approval of the coup, and were shown dancing and singing their protest anthem.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/thai-military-junta-says-it-may-rule-for-a-year-20140531-zrts4.html.
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