Prayut, junta want 'happiness for Thais'

ON THE FIRST anniversary of the coup that he led as the Army chief, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday said the coup-makers were still determined to “return happiness to the people of the nation”.

However, he also called for the public’s cooperation and moral support to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), as his junta is called.

“The hope is to proceed with all matters in a way that the current peace and order is maintained in Thailand. In order to achieve future prosperity, we are making adjustments to national administration, budget use and the long-term planning of strategies. We need to make the public more happy and satisfied,” Prayut said.

He was addressing the nation in a special television programme broadcast nationwide last night to mark the occasion. 

“I ask that you continue to provide us with your cooperation. I deeply hope for a bright future for our country and happiness for all citizens,” he concluded.

Prayut, who is also the NCPO leader, defended his decision to stage the coup a year ago yesterday. 

“It can be said that Thailand was in a deadlock at the time – a democratic trap,” he said, adding that all normal measures taken under the previous democratically elected administration had failed to break the impasse.

He said the worsening political crisis at that time threatened to bring the country to collapse.

“Each person had his own ideas. State officials could not work. The law could not be enforced. The government could not solve the problem. Thus the NCPO was created to take control of the situation through the use of special laws,” he said.

Prayut urged all sides to help make a better Thailand. 

“This was the past, so let us make sure it does not happen again. Let us not repeat what is not good. We will make improvements to our present situation in order to usher in an improved future, while making sure that history does not repeat itself. We cannot fix the past but we can build for the future and the present,” he said. “I do not want the problems prior to May 22, 2014, to reoccur in the future.”

Meanwhile, a public opinion survey has found that most respondents are satisfied with the NCPO a year after the coup. 

More than 50 per cent of those surveyed said they were “rather satisfied” and another 33 per cent said they were “very satisfied”, according to results of the survey by Rajabhat Suan Dusit University’s Suan Dusit Poll.

A little over 11 per cent of the respondents said they were “rather dissatisfied” and slightly less than 5 per cent said they were “completely dissatisfied”.

The respondents gave an average score of 8.15 out of 10 to the NCPO.

The survey was conducted on 1,969 people between last Friday and yesterday.