No change to roadmap and no more coups: Prayut
GENERAL Prayut Chan-o-cha, the National Council for Peace and Order leader and premier, reaffirmed yesterday that there would be no adjustment to the junta's roadmap, saying that related bodies would dissolve if things go well as planned.
The PM responded to a question on whether there would be a change to the roadmap such as an extension of the tenure of the NCPO or National Reform Council (NRC). He said firmly that he was strict to current plans and thus there should be no changes.
“The roadmap won’t be adapted. The time has been set on when we will leave if the draft constitution is passed. If not, we’ll have to figure it out,” he said.
Prayut noted the performance of the NRC, saying Reform Council members had been working hard and had good intentions to help improve the country. However, it was a difficult task because the council was made up of many people from different backgrounds.
“My assignment to them is to think about how we can push the country to move forward. But, it hasn’t worked very well because there are too many people and each of them just has different thoughts [on what to do]. What’s more, reform is a big process. It will probably take 10 years to complete. But, I’m not going to stick around that long. When the new constitution is finalised, I’ll leave,” Prayut said.
He also voiced concern over the reform process, saying there should be a national strategy that governments carry on in addition to policies of each party – so reform can be sustained and not abandoned when governments change.
Regarding rumours about another coup attempt, Prayut said that he didn’t pay much attention to that, adding that there wouldn’t be any more coups and it was not a good thing.
He said seizing power was not fun. It came with huge responsibility. Also, he noted that nobody wanted that sort of duty and thus there wouldn’t be any coup anytime soon.
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