King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Wednesday agreed to a request from the military junta to lift martial law. This has been announced by the royal palace. The lifting of the state of emergency is effective immediately.
The army declared martial law shortly after the coup ten months ago. Despite the international pressure on Thailand, the abolition is mainly due to the poor economic situation. Foreign investors stay away if a country is under martial law. Tourism was also affected by the situation, some nationalities cannot take out travel insurance if they travel to a country where martial law is in force. In addition, martial law hindered integration within the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) framework.
Junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha has now been given absolute power under Article 44 of the temporary constitution. This article is very controversial, especially human rights organizations are very concerned. The article was invented in 1959 by the Thai dictator and field marshal, Sarit Thanasatin, who used it to arrest and execute criminals without trial.
Article 44 gives Prime Minister Prayut unbridled power over the government and he is not answerable to any judge. According to critics, a dangerous and uncontrollable situation to put so much power in the hands of one person.
Although Prayut previously promised not to use Article 44 inappropriately, he will use his power to tackle the problems in aviation and to combat human trafficking.
……..look at this and draw your own conclusion!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-01/what-happens-when-a-foreign-journalist-challenges/6366302
Nice guest.
Someone who wants to demand 5 years in prison for an underboob selfie is not very cool.
He will certainly misuse his power.
Hopefully people will go wild internationally as soon as he starts behaving like a despot.
Is it going to be fun here ...., the investments and sales of real estate will certainly not improve, will nationalizations of your company or others happen to you?.
And just say that Thailand never shoots itself in the foot,….. but with a ruler with absolute power you never know!
However, many people adore this man and believe in him! He protects his people which is something many other countries can learn from!!
How many people 'carry him on their hands' will never be known, after all, in a country ruled by a dictator, elections will never take place…
By the way, you can simply read the history books of the 19th century to find out what 'other countries learned' from a dictator who wanted to protect his people...
Thailand needs a strong man who can bring peace and stability. The so-called democratic parties have not achieved much during their time in government. Yes, the yellow and red shirts slaughter each other and we have seen enough of that. That was good for the economy. This country has also profiled itself with the corruption scandals and are finally being tackled.
It is unfortunate that all this is so necessary, but discipline is hard to find here. PRAYUT himself indicates that he does not do this task for fun and only temporarily wants the best for this country. Give that man a chance. This is a Thai who knows how his people work and what is sometimes needed to restore peace. Democracy is an illusion and will never work, just look at the Netherlands with rulers who listen to the people and do what they think is best.
yes, that's how it is Jacques, I only see improvement in Thailand, What this man has solved in 10 months is miraculous, I hope he continues to retain his power and does not fall back to the old shit (that is what is destroying the country), and anyone who doesn't agree is as corrupt as any Thai,
a few small examples, fishing boats with small mesh nets have been picked up by the police and military (they used to pay under the table to the police)
if new roads are built here that will take 2 months and the road is broken again (no cement in the concrete but in many different government persons pocket), now I checked last week a new road in front of my door with certainly enough cement in !
and many other examples,
Jacques: “Thailand needs a strong man who can bring peace and stability”.
The same reasoning that was used in Germany in the early XNUMXs and we now know the outcome.
People apparently never learn anything…!??
Democracy is a very great luxury, which only works if it makes little difference whether the state cart goes a little to L or to R.
In the case of great poverty / corruption / nepotism, the endless democratic palaver as in Western Europe cannot always be the best remedy, not to mention the "old democracy" as that corrupt upper class that threw the ball to each other in TH was called.
Singapore, South Korea and China would never have reached the current level of prosperity with 15+ parties scavenging each other as we now know in NL and B.
If that man succeeds in helping the Thai over their lack of English fear, he will already have made it into the history books in a positive sense.
Now a government/politics that cares a little about the voting citizen, a proper high water drainage (no, not like in 1942, 1975, 1997, 2011, 2015) and a proper education system, and the man becomes even holier explained as many other Thai of which many photos are in circulation.
That will not be easy Harry, my daughter enrolled in a Thai school yesterday, if you pay 40.000 baht extra per year you will get international lessons (so English), there are only 4 in the class, which is relatively little for a school with more than 1000 students and Ranong a fairly rich city, where the parents can easily afford it, her friend's parents have a large resort and do not speak a word of English, it will be the same for the daughter, we call that Nationalism
Some countries are better off with a dictator, time will tell if that is also the case for Thailand…
View the PM's idolization with some suspicion. Is he really a reincarnation of S'pore's just deceased ex PM? Sorry but I don't see it and won't give him more than the benefit of the doubt. Hope I'm wrong, but the last soldier who brewed something of it was deposed by other soldiers after only a few years. Indeed, the predecessor of the aforementioned general/PM has had a huge and positive influence on the country. Hope that the current PM will regularly seek advice from his distant predecessor. Then there is a chance.
I was just thinking about the junta leader/prime minister. I've actually never really seen a documentary about him in the Netherlands. Who is this man actually? Yes, an army man who was fed up with the mess who sat on the plush and made the streets impassable. But what about now? Is he the frontman of a greater whole than just the military? Or has he been pushed forward by others? No idea. Has there been a good item on Dutch TV (about foreign TV) about him and his …. 'organization'? And if so, can it still be seen somewhere or has Dutch TV not shown it yet? There are probably people on Thailandblog who know exactly or may have already written about it.
By the way, I'm curious if Prayut wants to use his absolute power to, for example, ban all beer bars and a-gogos, to restrict alcohol, to walk bare-chested on the street, to tighten visa regulations even more, just to make something arbitrary. whether the farang supporters of him will continue to stand behind him.
Dare to doubt it… even the lack of beach chairs is a reason for some people not to visit the country anymore.
Bullshit probably but not entirely unimaginable because you often hear it said 'with Thailand you never know, TIT'. 😉
In the early XNUMXs, many Germans also thought it was not too bad. Apparently, a large proportion of Thailand visitors are very flexible in terms of norms and values, which is useful in cities such as Pattaya. Their medal has no downside, see also the complaining about the escaped financial paradise of the Netherlands from which they benefit too little. Liking dictators goes a long way, supporters of dictatorships can be missed in the Netherlands like a toothache.