jcsmith

The EU is not my father.

Doesn't mean they have an invalid opinion. It's an opinion shared by most of the world.

Puff piece by The Nation lapdogs...good boy.

Apparently the Nation's attitude adjustment session worked.

I guess he does have a point, in that he is super rich already.

One could assume he's not in it for the money, but its pretty obvious he's here to help steer the ship after a certain future event.

Its going to take some strong leadership at that time, and if this guy gains experience now it can only help the country then.

The farangs that criticise everything he does do not seem to reason.. if it was not him..it would be someone else.

And im sure it could be a lot worse. Who would you knockers rather have leading the country at this time, Thaksin?

There is money and then there is power. They are separate things, even if they intertwine with one another. Prayuth honestly believes he is bringing happiness to the people, even if they never asked for it and he is restricting their freedom. In his mind he's building his own legacy as the savior of the thailand by moving it backwards 30 years in history.

If not him, who else? Perhaps someone who was elected rather than someone who seized power illegally? Perhaps someone who doesn't suppress basic human freedoms in order to keep themselves in power?

Let's see. A military government performs an illegal coup and proceeds to:

- Ban assemblies of any size, and enforce this very rigidly against the previously elected party, while giving plenty of leeway to the people who got them in power (Suthep).

- Attempts to make a single gateway internet so they can better restrict what people have access to in the outside world.

- Brings in media, politicians, or anyone else they deem for Attitude Adjustments.

- Jails students (or anyone else) when they speak their mind on this matter.

- Attempts to form a constitution which allows them to grab power in the future.

- The unelected government finds it a good idea to enforce all sorts of rules such as closing of bars at Midnight, enforcing the sell of alcohol within certain areas, without really taking into consideration the effect of these moves on business.

- Seems to be content with delaying elections as long as they can to hold on to power in the first place.

It's all just a misunderstanding...

"Don't ask about it" should be the junta's official slogan.

Journalists can either express opinions, or simply report. Journalists can absolutely be activists. This seems like an attempt to suppress journalists from expressing opinions or reporting things which go against a certain agenda.

Of course Prayuth's good buddy and devout monk Suthep seems to be missing from this list. He only organized blocking of voting booths, harassed potential voters, and suggested that protesters should grab the then Prime Minister and kidnap her... There's no doubt at this point who put Prayuth into power.

@Aleg: If that's their case, then they don't have a case. Their case relies on a forced and retracted confession, DNA evidence that can not be substantiated beyond, "trust us it's true", and the fact that people who worked near the beach were drinking at the beach that night. Half of the things they fed to the public have turned out to be completely unsubstantiated and they have denied the defense access to other things for testing because they likely destroyed it (if it existed) to cover the trail from the real perpetrators of this crime. The fact that you continue to try to argue their case despite this overwhelming evidence of either corruption, incompetence or both despite the fact that two young men stand to be executed if they are found guilty is abbhorent.

I don't know if these kids were involved in the crime or not. But I do know there is nothing remotely close to proving they were involved beyond a reaonable doubt. From the evidence that is out there, I'd guess it is far more likely that they are scapegoats than that they were involved in any way.

The military were politically active well before Thaksin did so. They blame him for the last 10 or more years, who do they blame for the previous 60 years? Thaksin also, because black magic told them he was coming?

The military are the biggest problem and they way they have imposed their views on the country has caused most of the problems present today and the attitude where the elite believe they are above any law.

QFT. I find it impossible to believe that reasonably educated people can look at the evidence and not see that. Junta apologists will constantly point to the Shinawatras as though somehow their level of corruption is worse than an unelected government siezing power and suppressing freedom of speech... But what about the previous 17 coups?

"But the PM should be more careful as he, on many occasions, speaks half-jokingly with [Thai] media and caused misunderstanding among foreigners that he [Prayut] denies media freedom," the Democrat party leader said.

There's no misunderstanding in reporters being called in for attitude adjustments. Call it what it is.

He's been in charge 18 months. It's time to own your own problems.

Stop looking back, start looking forwards.

And stop whining all the time like a spoiled kid.

the problem is that the peole he is referring to are still very much players and lets face it - they shouldn't be

very easy to point the finger at the PM and say he is not running a democracy (true) but the reality is it is the only way effective changes will ever be accomplished, past democratic elected governments have shown how ineffective they are over decades of theiving - power abuse - and corruption and have failed to do anything about it - why should they, they are all enriching themselves, although the current solution is not ideal I honestly don't see any alternative, politicians in this country cannot be trusted (fact) so the only way to ensure they do what they were elected to do is to introduce stiff boundaries, rules, agencies, and laws that hold people in office to account and for the time being restrict them until such times they can be trusted

The problem is that the military is so quick to step in. Not when it comes to protests that they support, but when it comes to them regrabbing power. In the majority fo the civilized world the military's role is to support the government. In Thailand it is not. They decide whether or not they want to offer support, and then take control when they personally feel it is necessary. The military in this country is a huge part of the problem. Another large part is the fact that it is so easy to organize protests by paying protestors.

Have to love when the leader of an illegal coup starts throwing out words like treason on others.

I love how these guys have appointed themselves the representatives of the people.

It seems people are trying their hardest to get called in 'for adjustment' simply so they can use that as their story. Those hypocritical students were the same : I wonder if the 30 who died during the REAL protests lay on their conscience.

Quite pathetic. They obviously know nothing bad will happen to them. They didn't try any of this when the punishment would be a grenade on their front porch.

What warped sense of reality are you living in? These are people who are being detained for expressing an opinion and your painting them as wrongdoers. What in the world gives the junta the right to take control of this country, and then to set their own archaic laws that infringe on basic human rights with the fear of imprisonment for speaking your mind?

If the above is true, then people need to be held accountable for this. I'd love to see the DNA compared to some other DNA which has been said to not match so those theories can be laid to rest or confirmed, as well.

Don't you mean " you can only buy the votes to get a majority for so long"

I'm all for cleaning up the vote buying, though its never been shown to have any effect on the process, and has been done by both sides. It should absolutely be stopped, but it is the losing sides crutch to justify that they can't win an election (even though they do the same). So using that as a justification is a cop out.

I'll be honest with you, I moved to Thailand during Thaksin's era. Was not a fan of the guy. Having been in the blind to previous history, I thought him being ousted was a good thing. But in time since then we've seen this cycle repeat, and its obvious that the entire system is corrupt. But one thing that the reds have on their side is that they are elected by the people, time and time again. Since that time we've seen two coups, and PMs pressured with constant protests until things reach the boiling point. We've seen the military pretend to be against both parties, when it's obvious that Suthep is in bed with them. You could read that in braille. And it's obvious to everyone that they did not want elections. Why? Because they knew they would lose. Blocking voting booths and then ousting a government on the basis of that? We'll be looking at years of this illegal coup before there is an election, and they'll stretch it out as long as they can. Several years back they were trying to rig the elections so they could win with the ridiculous college education rule. They've given up on winning them entirely at this point and are looking for ways to stay in power without them.

On would hope that this is a tentative date based on the strength of the new charter. It is imperative that strong checks and balances be integral to the constitution before a govt is formed so as not to give them the ability to abuse it.

I personally am sick of Thailand seeing coup after coup after coup as being the only effective check and balance to keep the government honest and to protect the very majority that were being held in contempt by them (elections as a checks and balance!? don't give em sustainability to keep them poor and then offer 50% above market value always shuts them up)

One can hope this date is realised, but for the sake of the majority that yearn an honest government that listen to them (amnesty anyone?) make sure they do it right this time.

The continous military coups is not the fault of the majority. It is the continous failure of the minority to control the majority

One can only hope that someday the Thai military will honor the soveriengty of the Thai people, defend and protect their constitutional rights and liberties instead of subverting them.

Until the military's purpose is to serve the elected government, this situation will never resolve. When they eventually have elections in 2020 or whenever the reds will win again. The minority will launch protests for whatever trumped up reason they can decide (maybe the new PM hosted a podcast), the military will then pretend they have to step in to "bring happiness to the people" again. The cycle things are going on right now will eventually lead to a civil war. You can only suppress the majority for so long.

Get up, stand up.You have to admire people who are willing to stand by their convictions in the face of jail time. When this is all over it should be somebody else facing prison.

I don't even know how to respond to this one. He's reached a new low.

If by solving the countries problems he means finds a way so that the old money can stay in power despite the will of the people, then he may be correct.

Red or Yellow: Suppress them with heavy hands is the only solution.

And what would give the military the right to do that? A military's job in anything other than a military-state is to protect and serve the government. Yet in Thailand they find a way to insert themselves into power and suppress the will of the people time and time again. Now your saying the military dealing with the political parties with heavy hands is the only solution. How about this solution? The military performs their duty in serving the elected government rather than staging a coup and then trying to use the kings name to justify it.

You are correct Prayuth, they have no right... because you took that away from them inexplicably.

although not ideal I see it as something of a compromise and a nessecity given that last governments antics, it could actually work

(shakes head)

I can't believe anyone coudl support this. This is basically just a way for the military to step in whenever the opposing side wins. No need to restrict votes when you can just take over the government for no apparent reason after protests which you orchestrate bring a crisis that you created.

When attitudes need to be adjusted, there can be no witnesses.

Following a comment by former Peoples Democratic Reform Committee Suthep Thaugsuban, who lambasted the EC for failing to prevent corruption, EC member Prawit Rattanapean admitted that the current EC was unable to hold the last general elections as political conflicts intensified even though it, like everyone else, wanted to hold a free, fair and corruption-free election but could not do so as it had no power required.

Does nobody find it ironic that the party and the person responsible for blocking those elections is now complaining about it?