An angry Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has vowed to intensify the military junta’s grip as a crackdown continues on members of the former ruling political party for sharing “improper opinions” and challenging his leadership, according to a report from state-run MCOT News.
The MCOT report comes after Prayuth launched into a tirade against reporters in which he acknowledged the junta was stepping up its efforts to go after its critics.
“You will be summoned too, if you keep asking many questions like this. You ask unconstructive questions,” he told a reporter, according to Khaosod English. “I want to ask you, is it [the] right thing to do, challenging my full power? Even though I have such full power, these people still challenge it like this. If there’s no martial law, what’s going to happen? You all know the answer. Do you want it to happen?”
Saying he’d “already relaxed [his] power too much already,” Prayuth acknowledged the recent crackdown which has seen a number of Pheu Thai members summoned by the military for comments they made in the wake of last week’s “retroactive impeachment” of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
“So what? So what? In the past, you said I was incompetent. Now that I am intensifying, you are angry. What the hell do you want me to do?”
Word of Prayuth’s intention to tighten its grip via martial law comes as the nation was downgraded today to “Not Free” status by US-based international human rights organization Freedom House due to the roll-back of political rights and civil liberties, according to Thai PBS.
Other than Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, which rank “partly free,” Thailand joins its other neighbors and 50 other nations deemed “not free” in the group’s 2015 index.
For more than 70 years, Freedom House has conducted research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights.
Meanwhile, MCOT reported Prayuth promised to go after more members of the former Shinawatra regime he toppled this past May:
The prime minister said former Pheu Thai energy minister Pichai Naripthaphan would also be summoned for mutual understanding for criticizing the energy policies of the government although he had done nothing during his past tenure as the energy minister.
“If their movements continue, they will be prohibited from leaving the country, have their finances examined and be banned from conducting financial transactions. The imposition of martial law has been relaxed [until now] but from now on it will be intensified to cope with national situations,” the prime minister said.
Reader Interactions