Army chief’s comments a threat to democracy: scholars

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee 
The Nation 

 

ARMY chief General Apirat Kongsompong

 

ARMY chief General Apirat Kongsompong’s provocative comments against foreign-educated politicians with leftist leanings and activists is a threat to democracy and could lead to social unrest, violence and even collapse of the regime, prominent scholars and rights defenders warned yesterday.

 

“Those who graduated from abroad shouldn’t bring extreme leftist ideology to topple the Thai democratic regime with the monarchy as head of state,” Apirat said at a press conference held to mark the 112th anniversary of the First Infantry Division (King’s Guard).

 

“Students, scholars and even government officials, no matter where you graduated from, should bear in mind that democracy needs to be adjusted in line with local culture and norms,” he said. 

 

“We are Thai and this is Thai democracy. You have to adapt what you have learned to fit within our country,” he said. “Thai democracy is the notion of Thais love Thais, and we are united.”

 

Though the Army chief did not mention any group, he was clearly referring to comments posted on social media – a weapon that he said is more powerful than military hardware – that labelled one political group as a democratic force and the junta as dictator. 

 

The Army chief called on all parties to accept the rules set and enforced by the Election Commission. “Like a football match, if a team loses, the fans have to accept defeat too,” he said.

 

The connotation of democracy versus dictatorship is a political discourse created to divide voters, he said implying that a six-party coalition led by Pheu Thai, calling themselves the pro-democracy camp, are competing with the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat Party to form a government. 

 

“Let me ask if the NCPO [National Council for Peace and Order] is a dictator? Is our work over the past [five] years that of a dictatorship?” asked Apirat, who is also the NCPO secretary-general. 

 

Human Rights Watch’s Sunai Phasuk, meanwhile, said military coups and military interference in politics are the biggest threats to Thailand’s democracy. 

 

Hence, he said, instead of denouncing people’s demand to end military dictatorship, the Army chief should take his troops back to the barracks and end all forms of meddling in politics. 

 

“The right way to ensure stability and reconciliation is to respect differences and peaceful coexistence in society, not repression and prosecution of dissenting voices. That is why the military needs to give power back to the people and return the country to democratic civilian rule,” Sunai told The Nation.

 

Paul Chambers, an expert on military affairs from Naresuan University, said Apirat’s comments were clearly directed at Future Forward Party, as he detests the party because of its anti-military standpoint and political reformist nature. 

 

“Hence he has joined the chorus of those already attacking Future Forward for somehow being a threat to Thailand’s constitutional monarchy. But his words amount to simple intimidation of a party that is simply seeking democracy,” he said. 

 

The Future Forward’s secretary-general, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, who graduated in law from France, is in the hot seat as ultra-rightists are accusing him of championing an anti-monarchist ideology with the intention of toppling the institution of monarchy. 

 

Many have twisted Piyabutr’s lecture on the role of monarchy in the justice system, painting the scholar-turned-politician as a threat to the monarchy.

 

In a Facebook comment, former senator and academic Jermsak Pinthong said that using anti-monarchy comments as hate speech against Piyabutr would only give rise to social unrest and eventually hurt the monarchy. Jermsak, a former economist at Thammasat University, cited the anti-monarchist notion that the rightists used to spread hate against students before the Thammasat massacre on October 6, 1976. 

 

“It will be good for our society if all groups stop bringing this highly revered institution into the political sphere,” he wrote on Facebook. 

 

Meanwhile, former Thammasat rector and prominent historian Charnvit Kasetsiri used the Thai proverb “iron loses its strength when it rusts inside” as a metaphor to warn people that sometimes one ends up destroying what they want to preserve. 

 

“The administration of the ancient Ayutthaya kingdom had collapsed from inside long before the Burmese came and toppled it,” he warned. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30367023

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-03

Thai army chief warns against protests after disputed election

By Panu Wongcha-um

 

Thailand's Royal Army Chief General Apirat Kongsompong arrives before an interview with members of foreign media at the Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's army chief on Tuesday warned against protests after a disputed election, invoking the revered monarchy and castigating people he said "distort" democracy.

 

His words were the latest in a series of signals from the military and royalist establishment against opposition parties loyal to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

The inconclusive results to the March 24 election, pitting the party of the junta leader against an opposition alliance, have seen both the pro-army Palang Pracharat party and the opposition claim victory. Final results may not be clear for weeks.

 

General Apirat Kongsompong said the military would remain neutral in the election, in which his predecessor as army chief, Prayuth Chan-ocha, is seeking to stay in power as an elected prime minister, five years after he seized power in a coup.

 

"General Prayuth has to be on his own path and the army has to step back," Apirat said. "We cannot get involved in politics."

 

At the same time, Apirat made clear the military would not allow a repeat of past mass street demonstrations in which both supporters and opponents of Thaksin paralysed Bangkok for months on end.

 

"I cannot let Thais settle their differences on the streets anymore," Apirat told reporters, adding that both the eventual winners and losers in the election must settle their differences in parliament.

 

He also had harsh words for politicians he said "distort" democratic principles to make them incompatible with Thai culture that reveres the king above all else, a clear reference to Thaksin's party and its allies.

 

"This is not right," Apirat said of such politicians. "Thailand is a democracy with the king as the head of state."

 

Thaksin-loyal parties have won every election since 2001, even after he was ousted in a 2006 coup.

 

Thaksin has remained an influential political figure despite having lived in self-imposed exile since he fled Thailand in 2008 to escape a corruption trial that he said was politically motivated.

 

Last week, six other parties joined with the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai party in a "democratic front" alliance, which they claim will gain enough seats in parliament to try to form a government and block Prayuth from staying in power.

 

"People should accept winning and losing," Apirat said. "Instead, they constructed a democratic side and a dictatorship side, which is not right. We are all Thais."

 

The army chief also alluded to an election-eve statement from King Maha Vajiralongkorn, telling reporters on Tuesday "we must choose good people to govern so that bad people don't have power".

 

King Vajiralongkorn's unexpected statement on March 23, which broke from his late father's practised silence on politics, mentioned "good" and "bad" people but did not specify any one party or politician.

 

However, less than a week after the vote, the king issued an official command that stripped Thaksin of all royal honours and decorations he had been given.

 

The king's command came on the heels of military moves to discredit Thaksin.

 

Last week the military said that Thaksin has acted "dishonourably" and stripped him from a pre-cadet school's achievement award as well as deleting his name from the school's hall of fame.

 

(Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-03

 

Army chief warns against divisive rhetoric

 

 

Army Commander-in-Chief General Apirat Komgsompong today issued a stern warning to politicians and academics to refrain from making statements which foment unrest, political divide, and challenge the constitutional monarchy.

 

In his first interview with the media against the background of the current post-election political situation, the army chief said there are some Thais who studied abroad and were influenced by foreign thinking.

 

“They have adopted ideas of these countries. But they shouldn’t try to change the democratic system with the monarch as head of state. Don’t be pretentious and try to apply what they have learned. This is Siam, Land of Smiles, which has its own unique style of democracy,” Gen Apirat said.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/army-chief-warns-against-divisive-rhetoric/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-04-03