Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Thai junta's reach into lives of ordinary Thais continues to grow...

Army Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha presented Thailand’s 2015 budget to his handpicked National Legislative Assembly on Monday, 183 of 197 of whom promptly voted in favor.

“Nobody had any problems. Nobody disagreed,” Prayuth told reporters.

If that sounds like an ironic statement, it should. In fact, disagreement is rapidly disappearing as the junta, which came to power on May 22, continues to spread its tentacles deeper and deeper into Thai life, most recently arresting two university students on charges of insulting the monarchy for appearing in a play almost a year ago.

In fact, the junta is grinding exceedingly fine. Countless irritations that plague daily life in what has traditionally been a fairly permissive society are apparently being pushed upwards through some sort of filtering mechanism, then decided by top leaders, probably Prayuth himself, a Bangkok-based source said.

They don’t have much to do with an overriding national philosophy, but they are extremely popular. The National Council for Peace and Order, as the junta is known, has scored an approval rating of around 88 percent in a recent poll. Some 65 percent want the military to stay in power for good, discarding the country’s traditionally messy and usually corrupt approach to democracy. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. Thai junta unamused by comedian John Oliver's royal jibes...
  3. Thai government strips overseas dissidents of their passports...
  4. Thailand's generals go after exiles and academics...
  5. ‘Hunger Games’ three-finger salute adopted by Thai protesters...
  6. Thailand's junta goes after the press...

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