Reconciliation can only happen within principles of law: Prayut

[casualbiker]

Well done PM. I can see this is why he is the most popular PM in the last decade...

The rule of law is paramount and is why the coup was necessary. To remove powers that refused to apply those rules against terrorists.

He really does need to employ Robert Amsterdam though to polish up his speeches and highlight the reasons for the coup and express how the rule of law was abused previously.

Is it permissible to ignore the rule of law again those who violate the rule of law?

No! There can be no exception and no compromise on the principle of the rule of law.

If that is so, the general should he be put in prison for high treason?

Except high treason would be against the person who acknowledged this government as being legal so ... not really!

[oneday]

The current people in charge are not exactly shining examples of the "rule of law", given that they are stepping all over a couple of Democracy's most sacred tenants, such as freedom of speech and the right to assemble.

[ratcatcher]

The next elections are to take place in early 2016.

What's been a year in the time history?

We will see.

Today I saw his speech, with english subtitles.

Was quite interesting.

He talked about many problems such as water supply, prices of agricultural products, legislation, service obligations for state employees, etc.

A year? The coup took place on May 22, 2014 which is getting on for two years ago. Elections were promised for 2015, but have now been moved to 2016. When that eventually arrives on our doorstep, they'll no doubt be moved again to the following year.

As for the talk of the utilities and the cost of agricultural products etc., etc., is all just so much rhetoric for the benefit of TV audiences. The military continues to crackdown on dissent and in doing so, the country is gradually leaning towards authoritarianism.

"A year? The coup took place on May 22, 2014 which is getting on for two years ago."

In the world that I live in,it is February 21st 2015. The coup occurred on May 22nd 2014. That was 9 months ago.

Elections may well be allowed in 2016, OTOH, they may find some reason to cancel them.

On another point, a lot of talk is going on about amnesty for prominent people who have committed crimes / offenses on both sides of the table in Thai politics.

What about an amnesty for the poor people thrown into jail for the serious crimes of picking a few mushrooms in a national forest or those who got caught selling a few illegal lottery tickets. No doubt the government and opposition (such as it is) are working on that solution too and have their priorities well adjusted? .

[halloween]

The current people in charge are not exactly shining examples of the "rule of law", given that they are stepping all over a couple of Democracy's most sacred tenants, such as freedom of speech and the right to assemble.

They are also seriously affecting some of Thai democracy's most sacred tenants, such as the right of a government's politicians to steal as much as they possibly can, to pass laws for their own benefit , and to have their thugs intimidate and kill any who object to that.

[Always18]

Coups legal are they general?

Yep - "principles" and "law" are what the those who control Thailand say they are.................

[metisdead]

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[Baerboxer]

here we go again, all the p*ssed off ptp,red, thaksin lovers starting to whinge, never mind the fact that they were responsible for several deaths and sh*tloads of corruption before they were removed as long as you lot can whine about the one that stopped them doing it. Why is it that you always ignore the facts about your own side totally, deny they are guilty of anything and simply try to belittle anyone that is doing much better then they ever did. The big difference is that most of those against the ptp, reds,thaksin are not yellows at all but ordinary every day thais and expats that know the truth about yl and her minions, they have made up their own minds, they have accepted the facts proven in legal courts and by investigators. They also know that the yellows and their leaders are also part of the problem and dont want them involved anywhere in the current clean up. I have no problems admitting when either side screws up as I want whats best for my wife, her family and her country, not what some criminal and his henchmen/sister try to force on people, anyone that has the ability to read knows the truth about everyone involved in this(not all the unsubstantiated crap either), but some cannot admit they are supporting the wrong side and not the people of Thailand.

here we go again, anyone who doesn't like military governments is among

all the p*ssed off ptp,red, thaksin lovers

As for the rest of your comments,

they were responsible for several deaths and sh*tloads of corruption

ditto for current PM

Why is it that you always ignore the facts about your own side totally,

ditto for poster

that most of those against the ptp, reds,thaksin are not yellows at all but ordinary every day thais and expats that know the truth about yl and her minions, they have made up their own minds, they have accepted the facts proven in legal courts and by investigators.

can't say ditto to them accepting the results of elections, though, ... as for things "proven in legal courts", well...

They also know that the yellows and their leaders are also part of the problem and dont want them involved anywhere in the current clean up.

two points: the army and the 'yellows' are joined at the hip and have been for 70 years, as well as ... there is no "clean up" going on unless that is your euphemism for a "purge"

but some cannot admit they are supporting the wrong side and not the people of Thailand.

back to "ditto for the poster... " since the people of Thailand have no say in the current events. Only a minuscule minority wield any influence in Thailand today.

Your very clear and comment regularly on your dislike of military governments, fair enough.

Now perhaps you'd share your opinion of the PTP former government and caretaker government with us?

[Suffinator]

"Do not make judgements or turn personal bias into reason. It could be someone you like personally, but if the person has done wrong, then they are guilty. This person should learn to improve themselves in the future. Certain developments are setting the benchmark for the country and for everybody who will come in and administer the state," he said.

So if you are guilty of treason then you're happy to face a criminal court?

We'll see how the gander dishes it out for the goose and I doubt there will be a level playing field. The underlying law here appears to be that those who can pay their way out are the ones that avoid justice.

[DrTuner]

And I thought army guys were not full of hot air. Either he's made a Guinness book of records worthy speed conversion into one, or he was always a sleeper.

[joshstiles]

Does the law allow for one to stage a coup?

[joshstiles]

Is "caretaker government " the same as "coup government"?

[joshstiles]

Will Thailand (whether Democratic, Communist, Socialist....etc) have another government who's motto is "Do what we say and not what we do"?

[bobmac10]

The law is the plaything of this government.

It can be anything they want it to be.

[FangFerang]

This latest coup, of 18, has its own agendas and lies that are only the same as most previous coups' agendas and lies by sheer coincidence. Saying anything else is surely supporting the ear medicine guzzling, corrupt, self-indulgent reds...

The Shinawatras and PTP and UDD are the ultimate Red Herrings.

Yes, in point of fact, they are.

Historians are not buying into the watered down version of the truth to support the yellows or current non-government.. Neither are most people.

The whole news article is an announcement as follows: "Yingluck is going to jail. We up here know all the details because we already wrote the script. Forget anything that makes you question our motives. No member of the junta has ever committed a crime, and never will. After all, we are gods. You may kneel."

[djjamie]

This latest coup, of 18, has its own agendas and lies that are only the same as most previous coups' agendas and lies by sheer coincidence. Saying anything else is surely supporting the ear medicine guzzling, corrupt, self-indulgent reds...

The Shinawatras and PTP and UDD are the ultimate Red Herrings.

Yes, in point of fact, they are.

Historians are not buying into the watered down version of the truth to support the yellows or current non-government.. Neither are most people.

The whole news article is an announcement as follows: "Yingluck is going to jail. We up here know all the details because we already wrote the script. Forget anything that makes you question our motives. No member of the junta has ever committed a crime, and never will. After all, we are gods. You may kneel."

It is frustrating when criminals that you support are held to account heay!! So much so that sarcasm becomes the thread that weaves your sentences together.

I think that working within the law is a given. That is what the shin's didn't do and is why Prayuth has to spell it out because people are so used to working outside the law.

[rubl]

This latest coup, of 18, has its own agendas and lies that are only the same as most previous coups' agendas and lies by sheer coincidence. Saying anything else is surely supporting the ear medicine guzzling, corrupt, self-indulgent reds...

The Shinawatras and PTP and UDD are the ultimate Red Herrings.

Yes, in point of fact, they are.

Historians are not buying into the watered down version of the truth to support the yellows or current non-government.. Neither are most people.

The whole news article is an announcement as follows: "Yingluck is going to jail. We up here know all the details because we already wrote the script. Forget anything that makes you question our motives. No member of the junta has ever committed a crime, and never will. After all, we are gods. You may kneel."

Ms. Yingluck may go to jail, but it's too early to say. Apart from Amply Rich people seldom going to jail in Thailand, the Supreme Court will probably announce on the 19th of March if they accept the case. With Ms. Yingluck going on record defending her 'self-financing' RPPS (she liked photo-ops, and dialogues talking to the press), and having lost 700 billion Baht in the process, I have no doubt the Supreme Court will accept the case. Of course Ms. Yingluck will get the opportunity again to explain and defend her RPPs. I fear though that just stating "democracy has died" will not impress the court.

Of course, some see holding Amply Rich people to their responsibility as against reconciliation.

[rubl]

"Do not make judgements or turn personal bias into reason. It could be someone you like personally, but if the person has done wrong, then they are guilty. This person should learn to improve themselves in the future. Certain developments are setting the benchmark for the country and for everybody who will come in and administer the state," he said.

So if you are guilty of treason then you're happy to face a criminal court?

We'll see how the gander dishes it out for the goose and I doubt there will be a level playing field. The underlying law here appears to be that those who can pay their way out are the ones that avoid justice.

So, when not guilty of treason go to face a Criminal Court only when someone makes the formal charge and the court accepts it.

As for paying, rumour has it some don't want the law applied to an Amply Rich lady. Should we condemn that move?

[Emster23]

And who makes the laws? Hmmm a non elected body appointed by leader of a coup.... Principle of law and government is "Consent of the people". If one doesn't consent or agree with current situation, it is arrest and off to reeducation classes. People may be laying low for now, but their legitimate gripes regarding the Lords of Bangkok elite cabal are not going to go away.

[tbthailand]

here we go again, all the p*ssed off ptp,red, thaksin lovers starting to whinge, never mind the fact that they were responsible for several deaths and sh*tloads of corruption before they were removed as long as you lot can whine about the one that stopped them doing it. Why is it that you always ignore the facts about your own side totally, deny they are guilty of anything and simply try to belittle anyone that is doing much better then they ever did. The big difference is that most of those against the ptp, reds,thaksin are not yellows at all but ordinary every day thais and expats that know the truth about yl and her minions, they have made up their own minds, they have accepted the facts proven in legal courts and by investigators. They also know that the yellows and their leaders are also part of the problem and dont want them involved anywhere in the current clean up. I have no problems admitting when either side screws up as I want whats best for my wife, her family and her country, not what some criminal and his henchmen/sister try to force on people, anyone that has the ability to read knows the truth about everyone involved in this(not all the unsubstantiated crap either), but some cannot admit they are supporting the wrong side and not the people of Thailand.

Let's see if you have the ability to read;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/thailands-ineffective-rule-by-force/2015/02/19/0c53b660-b863-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/19/guardian-view-military-rule-thailand

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2015/02/18/liberty-dies-as-thailands-military-monopolizes-power-junta-dispenses-repression-instead-of-happiness/

but I suppose I should just listen to your opinion, as you have so much credibility.

If you want an unbiased and the most credible view in the world on Thai Politics then read this:-

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0529-thompson-thai-coup-20140529-story.html

and if you want to check the authors credibility then you will find no peer of him in this world..enjoy...

http://www.recovery-assets.com/DrWSThompson.html

Its a view but know plenty of equally credible and respected academics, Thais included that strongly disagree with his take on the army general and Junta, as do i.

he has his paper credentials, but either they don't extend to his brain, or he doesn't really understand Thai history, or, most likely given his age, experience and background, he is just a partisan American who preaches freedom and liberty at home and oppression abroad... we have too many of these fake freedom lovers.

He makes such statements asm

It is always difficult to justify a coup d'etat,

but of course he goes on to justify it.

It would not surprise me if he were a ghost poster here since he also claims m

To justify opposition to the coup requires support for Thaksin,

which is total nonsense, but repeated here daily.

Of course when he states that the roots of the political turmoil are deep, he is correct, then he demonstrates a wilful ignorance by going only back to the 97 financial crisis.

He closes with this statement - unsupported of course because there is not any evidence to back it up:

It has been a general historical truth that regimes bringing order at least make a democratic transition possible.

A lot of people repeat this lie, no one shows the historical evidence.

If this is an example of a "credible source" then people need to look much further for credible, educated, informed, and non-partisan sources...

[tbthailand]

here we go again, all the p*ssed off ptp,red, thaksin lovers starting to whinge, never mind the fact that they were responsible for several deaths and sh*tloads of corruption before they were removed as long as you lot can whine about the one that stopped them doing it. Why is it that you always ignore the facts about your own side totally, deny they are guilty of anything and simply try to belittle anyone that is doing much better then they ever did. The big difference is that most of those against the ptp, reds,thaksin are not yellows at all but ordinary every day thais and expats that know the truth about yl and her minions, they have made up their own minds, they have accepted the facts proven in legal courts and by investigators. They also know that the yellows and their leaders are also part of the problem and dont want them involved anywhere in the current clean up. I have no problems admitting when either side screws up as I want whats best for my wife, her family and her country, not what some criminal and his henchmen/sister try to force on people, anyone that has the ability to read knows the truth about everyone involved in this(not all the unsubstantiated crap either), but some cannot admit they are supporting the wrong side and not the people of Thailand.

here we go again, anyone who doesn't like military governments is among

all the p*ssed off ptp,red, thaksin lovers

As for the rest of your comments,

they were responsible for several deaths and sh*tloads of corruption

ditto for current PM

Why is it that you always ignore the facts about your own side totally,

ditto for poster

that most of those against the ptp, reds,thaksin are not yellows at all but ordinary every day thais and expats that know the truth about yl and her minions, they have made up their own minds, they have accepted the facts proven in legal courts and by investigators.

can't say ditto to them accepting the results of elections, though, ... as for things "proven in legal courts", well...

They also know that the yellows and their leaders are also part of the problem and dont want them involved anywhere in the current clean up.

two points: the army and the 'yellows' are joined at the hip and have been for 70 years, as well as ... there is no "clean up" going on unless that is your euphemism for a "purge"

but some cannot admit they are supporting the wrong side and not the people of Thailand.

back to "ditto for the poster... " since the people of Thailand have no say in the current events. Only a minuscule minority wield any influence in Thailand today.

Your very clear and comment regularly on your dislike of military governments, fair enough.

Now perhaps you'd share your opinion of the PTP former government and caretaker government with us?

sure,

If the choice were only between Abhisit and Yingluck, then I would choose Yingluck - that is simply because Abhisit is nothing more than an extension of the military government. That is not a presumption on my part, but a demonstrated fact. And as you point out my distaste for military governments, ...

Fortunately, that is not the only choice - 40 parties were in the last election.

The PTP government ... They did some things which were in the right direction and some which were well intentioned but poorly implemented, like the rice price support policy or the school tablet plan. Other things they screwed up. Their response to the flooding was completely lame (although it must be said that Abhisit's was as well, just that the flooding before the 2011 elections wasn't as disastrous and happened in the south, and not in BKK).

Given that the first lawsuit filed against the PTP government was in August of 2011, they spent almost 3 years trying to govern into a head-wind. While I had hoped for them to run out their term and for there to be another election, I never expected that once 2011 was finished and it became clear that the only job the Democrats had was to gum up the works as much as possible. The point being that the Democrats were clearly not doing that which was necessary for them to rehabilitate the party in the view of the Thai public so that they could actually win an election. Given that, it was clear that they did not expect there to be another election, either (or they were just political idiots, which is also possible).

While it would be nice, I don't expect any government or institution in Thailand to be angels. That is just not the reality today. The PTP, PPP, TRT governments were hardly free of corruption. Nor was the Dem government, nor is the military nor the police. That said, the issue of corruption (not only in politics) is a serious one and it needs to be dealt with. Regarding corruption in politics, I take the position that it should be dealt with but it cannot be an excuse for a putsch. In America, we have corruption scandals all the time. They get dealt with.

There is no perfect government in the world, only those where criticism is not allowed. I really wish that we could be here talking about the merits of government policy rather than discussing how there isn't self-governance and won't be for the foreseeable future....

[tbthailand]

Yes it's much better now.

We had thousands of protestors with weapons. Shootings, bombings, roadblocks, snipers, angry farmers, protesting monks, monks who got beaten up, and so on.

Now 600 billion baht is missing only on the ricescam, there are plenty more scams to be discovered.

The police did nothing to protect civilians, they just did what they always did, extorting people.

There was no other way out then this option. Or many more people would have lost their lives.

What's so democratic about buying votes for 500 baht and then stealing it back? And how many billions does it take to make some family's happy? It's an endless story.

I hope the corruption will be stopped now, police reorganised (replaced), new rules new game. Without the army the old game will be played again after 3 days.

the army is the "old game" as you call it.

[halloween]

sure,

If the choice were only between Abhisit and Yingluck, then I would choose Yingluck - that is simply because Abhisit is nothing more than an extension of the military government. That is not a presumption on my part, but a demonstrated fact. And as you point out my distaste for military governments, ...

Fortunately, that is not the only choice - 40 parties were in the last election.

The PTP government ... They did some things which were in the right direction and some which were well intentioned but poorly implemented, like the rice price support policy or the school tablet plan. Other things they screwed up. Their response to the flooding was completely lame (although it must be said that Abhisit's was as well, just that the flooding before the 2011 elections wasn't as disastrous and happened in the south, and not in BKK).

Given that the first lawsuit filed against the PTP government was in August of 2011, they spent almost 3 years trying to govern into a head-wind. While I had hoped for them to run out their term and for there to be another election, I never expected that once 2011 was finished and it became clear that the only job the Democrats had was to gum up the works as much as possible. The point being that the Democrats were clearly not doing that which was necessary for them to rehabilitate the party in the view of the Thai public so that they could actually win an election. Given that, it was clear that they did not expect there to be another election, either (or they were just political idiots, which is also possible).

While it would be nice, I don't expect any government or institution in Thailand to be angels. That is just not the reality today. The PTP, PPP, TRT governments were hardly free of corruption. Nor was the Dem government, nor is the military nor the police. That said, the issue of corruption (not only in politics) is a serious one and it needs to be dealt with. Regarding corruption in politics, I take the position that it should be dealt with but it cannot be an excuse for a putsch. In America, we have corruption scandals all the time. They get dealt with.

There is no perfect government in the world, only those where criticism is not allowed. I really wish that we could be here talking about the merits of government policy rather than discussing how there isn't self-governance and won't be for the foreseeable future....

"...some which were well intentioned but poorly implemented....." That's amazingly generous, or biased. Could you enlighten us as to how the rice scam, or even the One Tablet Per Child, could have been better implemented to come anywhere near their stated aims?

OTPC never came close to OTPC (in One Grade), the revised version, while replacing the hugely popular text and uniform subsidy which had the greatest benefit to the poorest students.

The rice scam was a known failure re-implemented without change to reduce corruption or increase effectiveness, which was never intended to achieve its stated aim to raise the income of the poorest farmers, most of whom were excluded while the rich were not.

BTW you forgot to mention the things which were just plain illegal, and that they thought that they needed an amnesty to cover.

Edited February 21, 2015 by halloween

[tbthailand]

there is no pleasing some people...