Thai Army chief Prayuth urges media to foster unity

[webfact]

Prayuth urges media to foster unity
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Mainstream media should avoid taking sides in the current political conflict and instead aim to foster unity, Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha said yesterday.

Prayuth, who chairs the executive board of the Army-owned Channel 5, said he has also instructed the channel to broadcast shows that will foster unity.

He also insisted yesterday that the Army would remain impartial and not play a part in deepening the conflict, adding that the military would create more enemies if it played favourites. Prayuth said he had told his officers not to take sides or voice their political preference publicly.

At celebrations yesterday for Channel 5's 56th anniversary, opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva praised the army chief for taking the right stance during the current crisis and urged the Army to play a bigger role if the situation worsens.

The opposition leader also reiterated that caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra should step down before it's too late.

When asked what he thought of the imposition of the emergency decree, Abhisit said he didn't understand the reason behind it, because unlike some elements in the 2010 red-shirt protest, the People's Democratic Reform Committee protesters were not armed.

He said there was also reason to believe that foreign mercenaries had been hired to create a situation, but he did not back this claim with evidence.


-- The Nation 2014-01-25

[Thai at Heart]

It gives me the willies when he says things like this.

It would foster more unity if he stayed out of it.

[Publicus]

The general is at an army owned television station, which is another component of the problem of the military in Thai society.

And the general proclaims his tv station is fostering unity while a partisan politician is standing with him and the political hack former prime minister calls for the legitimately elected PM to step down.

Prayuth and Abhisit probably then went from the general's tv station to the general's bank, the Thai Military Bank, to enjoy some military cash flow.

These two banana brains just don't get it, never will.

[Halion]

"The media should foster unity" Is that not the same as saying that they should manipulate the news given to the public and not report anything that could rock the boat. Whose boat are they referring too.

The function of the media is to accurately and unbiasedly report on current events . It is not their job to discriminate as to the content. There is enough manipulation in place within the various agencies who generate the information given to the public and this request simply underlines that the news should be released as they say it is and not in any way analyzed or commented on. Mushrooms, keep them in the dark and feed them shit.

[icommunity]

AV was lying that the DEM's PCAD/PDRC were not armed. The arms would have surfaced if not for the utmost restraint, tolerant, patience and forgiving attitude of the government. The government, redshirt, and individual made them look like a fool for not falling into their trap of arms.

[Ricardo]

Cue the usual attacks on the general, for daring to express an opinion, or try to encourage moderation & dialogue & non-violence, as he has several times recently.

Is there nobody else, apart from myself, who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess ?

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

[soi41]

"Thai Army chief Prayuth urges media to foster unity"

For starters my dear general, what about not interfering in politics for, lets say just 24 hours?

No doubt Prayuth is getting high every day on the power he is holding!!

Stay in the barracks, or come out on do the job,you are overpaid to do: Protect government buildings and not a allow a mob to intimidate average citizens!! (I know i normal countries, that is a job for the police, but as we all know..............)

[recycler]

The army knows what's best for the people!

[sprq]

This is the mantra of traditional Thailand, forever calling for unity, always trotted out whenever there is any political conflict in Thailand. It is in effect a call for the status quo, for the continuation of the power of the elite and the continuation of the submission of the masses. It is a mantra which does not admit that people in Thailand, as in every society on earth, have differing and conflicting opinions, and that these opinions should have outlets for their free expression. It is a mantra which accuses people who wish to express their opinions of rocking the national boat and being disloyal to the nation. It is a deeply deluded and undemocratic mantra.

[rreddin]

The army knows what's best for the people!

Yes, like more soap operas portraying domestic violence and armed gangs having shootouts with other gangs - all of which are centred around the lives of very wealthy people who never seem to do any work or make any contribution to society.

[pipkins]

The general is at an army owned television station, which is another component of the problem of the military in Thai society.

And the general proclaims his tv station is fostering unity while a partisan politician is standing with him and the political hack former prime minister calls for the legitimately elected PM to step down.

Prayuth and Abhisit probably then went from the general's tv station to the general's bank, the Thai Military Bank, to enjoy some military cash flow.

These two banana brains just don't get it, never will.

I thought that.

The message was great, very even handed and maybe concilliatory. If it is true, lets take hats off to him. It is possible that Army or Forces people have been exposed to Western people and may be different from the Coup bound backers that have plagued the country for decades.

But, then up pops the little puppet and squeaks on about his time on the horse. So much more respect had he kicked Abhisit out of the way for a few weeks.

Abhisit is even more loathsome than Suthep.... mad as he is, Suthep does speak his mind and everybody knows his position.

Abhisit is wait and see. If the coup fails, they believe they are keeping enough distance from the Mob for the electorate not to notice their part in in.. One presumes.

[LarryBird]

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

Either that, or the game is just more complicated, and they can't figure out the right move.

[fab4]

Cue the usual attacks on the general, for daring to express an opinion, or try to encourage moderation & dialogue & non-violence, as he has several times recently.

Is there nobody else, apart from myself, who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess ?

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

I think you're right, you are probably the only one "who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess"

Prayuth, the Voice of Reason

[Gweiloman]

"At celebrations yesterday for Channel 5's 56th anniversary, opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva praised the army chief for taking the right stance during the current crisis and urged the Army to play a bigger role if the situation worsens."

I can't see the current situation worsening unless it is caused by the demonstrators themselves

[MilesofSmiles]

The military should be apolitical.

Unity comes from a common sense of purpose. This need not be a 0-sum game!

Improving life for ALL Thais, particularly the poor and disadvantaged would be nice.

If the media instead fostered transparency, accountability, analysis, critical thinking and some debate, the same problems may stop reoccurring.

[Baerboxer]

Cue the usual attacks on the general, for daring to express an opinion, or try to encourage moderation & dialogue & non-violence, as he has several times recently.

Is there nobody else, apart from myself, who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess ?

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

I think you're right, you are probably the only one "who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess"

Prayuth, the Voice of Reason

I agree with Ricardo. So once again, you're wrong

[pipkins]

Cue the usual attacks on the general, for daring to express an opinion, or try to encourage moderation & dialogue & non-violence, as he has several times recently.

Is there nobody else, apart from myself, who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess ?

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

I think you're right, you are probably the only one "who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess"

Prayuth, the Voice of Reason

I agree with Ricardo. So once again, you're wrong

He is right actually...<edit> There can not be 2 people in Thailand Dumb enough to have swallowed that when he had his last puppet Abhisit with him

Lucky we are that the plan to draw the reds into violence has failed. Even the Judicial Coup is not guaranteed as some of them started to hedge their bets.

Good luck to Suthep with his violence tomorrow. After saying yesterday they will not block elections. He has just said the opposite now on the stage.

Marching on Chalerms home as well tomorrow hoping to attact violence. Won't work, The Gov have outsmarted these muppets this time.

Be funny if the violence kicked off with the PDRC against the whiteshirts and respect my vote... who are going to vote tomorrow. Army would have to either kick Sutheps arse (thus siding with Yingluck) of show their real yellow colours by ignoring it our couping.

Imagine a coup against an elect Gov caused by 2 groups of BKK middle classes locking horns. Lets hope the military's days at the trough are numbered here as well.

Edited January 26, 2014 by ubonjoe
Removed flame

[Ricardo]

Cue the usual attacks on the general, for daring to express an opinion, or try to encourage moderation & dialogue & non-violence, as he has several times recently.

Is there nobody else, apart from myself, who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess ?

I suspect that, a few decades ago, the military would already have held another coup, and I view their reluctance to do so now, as being progress in the right direction.

I think you're right, you are probably the only one "who finds his comments to be a lonely voice-of-relative-reason, amidst the current mess"

Prayuth, the Voice of Reason

I agree with Ricardo. So once again, you're wrong

Thanks BBaerboxer for your common-sense, I've had fabbie on Ignore for several weeks now, so wouldn't have seen his puerile comment otherwise, can't say that I missed much either.

Funny how familiar his snide pseudo-flames sound, I can't help feeling, someone with a similar style used to post here prior to last October ? Perhaps just coincidence.

His cartoon condom-rabbit is also irritating, should have based it on a troll, instead.

[Ricardo]

He is right actually... either you or Ricardo are lying. There can not be 2 people in Thailand Dumb enough to have swallowed that when he had his last puppet Abhisit with him

Prolific newbie can't resist flaming ?

One more for the Ignore-list.

[BlueNoseCodger]

The elite control the mainstream media, but they don't control the social media. I've attached a slide to show you how the new media things works.

Alexa rank of this site ThaiVisa.com is the 23rd most popular thai site.

For comparison, the BangkokPost.com is the 30th most popular thai site, i.e. lower ranking.

Nationmultimedia.com is a pitiful 100th most popular thai site, barely makes the top 100.

How about the big Thai sites that are dominated by the pro-democracy lot? Are they popular?

Sanook.com is the 10th most popular Thai site.

Pantip.com is the 6th most popular Thai site.

So yes the pro-democracy sites are very popular. So whilst any call to the media from the military might get a good response from Bangkokpost and Nation, these are really not as important as winning the crowd on pantip, sanook, or even ThaiVisa.com!

[pipkins]

Interesting as I was reading translations from Pantip.

They had unearth an e-mail from the PDRC and it looks like they paid the top guy at the hospital to mobilse that part of the march.

It looked a very shabby affair and all those Red Cross flags drew attention to them, but for totally different reasons.

Right it does all go on on Pantip and Sanook.

[BlueNoseCodger]

Interesting as I was reading translations from Pantip.

They had unearth an e-mail from the PDRC and it looks like they paid the top guy at the hospital to mobilse that part of the march.

It looked a very shabby affair and all those Red Cross flags drew attention to them, but for totally different reasons.

Right it does all go on on Pantip and Sanook.

pipkins, did you not know this (pantip and sanook are the core info sites) already?

The letter reported today on Bangkokpost, was already reported on Pantip yesterday, even before they officially released it. I wonder if its the NSA that has all Bangkok elites tapped?!

Edited January 26, 2014 by BlueNoseCodger

[BlueNoseCodger]

Just been reading up on the Snowden leaks, it does look like NSA are in Thailand. They certainly have an X KeyScore server in Bangkok.

Here's a hypothesis, maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong.

1) USA has taken sides, and that side is a pro-democracy backing of Yingluk and the elections.

2) USA has infiltrated most communications, and certainly all of Thailand's military and civilian comms is tapped.

3) Thus USA knows every embarrasing secret on the whole lot of them, their internal communications, discussions, plans, emails, phone calls, and so on. We know the US has bugs in phones, and can even spy on computers that are switched off via 'implants'. We know they use those against high value targets, like leaders in countries. I assume it would include all of the elites/media/officials.

4) And if you were backing Yingluk, you'd probably give her access to a lot of that dirt and secret comms.

"The opposition leader [Abhisit Vejjajiva who was at the army celebrations] also reiterated that caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra should step down before it's too late"

Subtle threat there, but I bet she had the words of his speech before he'd clicked 'save' on his PC. If he discussed the speech with anyone, that communications would be known, any internal discussions in the army etc. All of this is relatively new. Much of this spy system didn't exist in 2006 or even 2008.

I wonder how much of a game changer it is.

Edited January 26, 2014 by BlueNoseCodger

[englishoak]

The military should be apolitical.

Unity comes from a common sense of purpose. This need not be a 0-sum game!

Improving life for ALL Thais, particularly the poor and disadvantaged would be nice.

If the media instead fostered transparency, accountability, analysis, critical thinking and some debate, the same problems may stop reoccurring.

The military should'nt be just apolitical it be hobbled, gagged and its power base shattered so it is made to serve the country and people instead of playing god every few years.

Its time will come and i look forward to it very much, it is one of the major things that is wrong with the place, as long as it remains as it is so will 99% of the other problems.