By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE RULING PHEU THAI plans to put forward legislation to thwart the military’s possible attempts to stage coups to overthrow elected governments in the future.
The Pheu Thai under de facto party boss Thaksin Shinawatra will sooner or later introduce legislation to prevent the military top brass from possibly staging coups as otherwise had been the case of the 2006 coup which deposed him from power and the 2014 coup which ousted his sister/former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, according to partisan sources.
The largest ruling party has reportedly planned to amend the Ministry of Defence’s Bureaucratic Act to the extent that soldiers at all ranks and levels be practically free to deny orders from any commanders who might possibly attempt a coup without being subsequently subject to disciplinary or criminal charges, the partisan sources said.
The anti-coup legislation also seeks to empower a cabinet of ministers to give a final approval to the annual promotion of military commanders at the level of army generals, navy admirals and air marshals as well as to name a prime minister as chair of the Defence Council in place of a defence minister.
The Defence Council, currently chaired by Pheu Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, viewed as a right-hand man for the de facto party boss, gave a final say for the latest naming of the army, navy and air force chiefs whilst Thaksin’s daughter-turned-Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and all members of her cabinet were merely obliged to acknowledge it.
The previous naming of high-level military commanders primarily rested with decisions made by the army, navy and air force chiefs who may allegedly have done so largely on the basis of personal nepotism.
Public hearings are currently being held by the ruling party on the anti-coup agenda with as much as 89% of a total 11,230 attendees having so far expressed consent to substantial content of the planned legislation to restrain the powers of the top brass.
CAPTION:
Top and Front Page: Soldiers mounting the 2014 coup that ousted former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Above photo: Matichon, Front Page: Thai Rath
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