Prayut blames `too much democracy' for political woes
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The head of Thailand's military government Monday blamed the country's previous political problems on "too much-democracy."
"We have too much democracy unlike other countries where governments can restrict freedoms," said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at a conference for the Federation of Thai Industries in Bangkok.
Prayut, an army general who took power after a coup last May, insisted that he did not "overthrow democracy" and that Thailand was still 99 per cent democratic.
He said that if he had complete power he would have imprisoned his critics or "put them before a firing squad," but insisted that he chose instead to work within the framework of the law.
Since coming into power, NGOs and critics have criticised the junta for arbitrary detention of its critics and the suspension of many civil rights.
Last week, Human Rights Watch repeated calls for the junta to lift martial law which it has used to govern the country since the coup, calling it a "rolling crackdown on civil and political rights."
