New Army chief needs to re-examine his priorities
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We expect our top public executives, including soldiers, to focus their time on what matters most in their duties.
But newly appointed Army chief General Theerachai Nakvanich has spent much of his early tenure reversing the orders of his predecessor. Examples include Theerachai’s directive that a wall behind a statue be torn down, telling TV Channel 5 to stop soliciting donations to develop a park and, get this, suspending a camouflage uniform design because it didn’t look “smart” enough.
You and I pay our military chiefs to do more important things – which should include court-martialling commanding officers responsible for the unlawful killings at Tak Bai (73 deaths), Kru Se (32 deaths) and Nong Chik (four deaths). Having those responsible held to account in this way would show that justice was being served, which would in turn aid national reconciliation.
As for the other stuff, we have more generals than all of Nato combined, so give it to them.
Burin Kantabutra
