It is interesting and revealing that the military’s propaganda is as predictable as it ever was. Sure, there are a number of academics who have commented on similarities and differences with previous military coups and juntas. Often they are revealing their ignorance of previous events in Thailand.
Yet the current dictatorship is showing that in terms of propaganda, it thinks that the stuff it has peddled for years will work again. Take the reports of the miraculous weapons finds. We posted on this previously, yet the reports continue. The most recent “news” is another example of the unbelievable peddled, via a compliant media, as justifying illegal/unconstitutional rule by military dictators.
That anyone believes that neatly packed bags of weapons are suddenly “found” by police and military in obscure places is bizarre. That the military thinks its crude propaganda is effective shows they are thick and unable to advance beyond Cold War understandings of society.
In another Bangkok Post report the grand dictator General Prayuth Chan-ocha appears to believe that he speaks to idiots.
Displaying his dinosaur DNA, Prayuth said he wanted what he called “traditional values” associated with “being Thai” to “be reinforced, especially through the school system…”. The notion that there is a “unified Thai” is a 20th century construction that was manufactured by kings and military. Prayuth apparently listens to music on a gramophone, listening to The Impossibles on vinyl, and drives a Buick Centurion.
He is reported to have “defended the enforcement of martial law, saying it was necessary as normal laws were not being respected…”. He added that “people were not recognising the general law…”.
In fact, a military coup that ditches a constitution is the highest act of illegality. The military has repeatedly murdered civilians with impunity. It engages in torture, illegal and enforced disappearances, kidnap, theft (often of its own weapons), massive corruption, and far more. The military is an organized and uniformed criminal gang that is never subject to any law, military or civil.
We are not providing links for these factual statements because the data for our facts are readily and widely available to anyone who can enter a search term in Google or Bing or even in PPT’s own search box. They constitute general knowledge. Indeed, Prayuth is, by any definition, a criminal at the head of a criminal organization.
His claim that he doesn’t want the “international community to view us as people who use violence to get what we want…” is outlandish when one considers the acts of murder and mayhem conducted by the military in order to get what its leaders and backers want.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 