PM refuses to join election debates

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha: 'I won’t take part, no matter how anyone challenges me'.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha: 'I won’t take part, no matter how anyone challenges me'.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Tuesday rejected politicians' calls for him to take part in policy debates, saying he is too busy with his work.

Speaking after the weekly cabinet meeting, Gen Prayut said he saw no need to take part in debates, and insisted he was not afraid to face a grilling from other politicians.

"I won't take part, no matter how anyone challenges me. I am not angry and not afraid. But I am busy with my work. It will be a headache and a waste of time to come up with eloquent language for use in debates," Gen Prayut said.

"If you want to know my vision, I already have it -- stability, prosperity and sustainability under King Rama IX's sufficiency economy principle," the prime minister said.

In response to Gen Prayut's refusal to take part in debates, Chaturon Chaisang of the Thai Raksa Chart Party said this was not surprising.

He claimed Gen Prayut was not brave enough to take part in debates as he only wanted to take advantage of other parties by subjecting people to his talks.

Learn from listening

Click play to listen to audio for this story, or download to save the file
: :

Vocabulary

  • afraid (adj): scared -
  • brave (adj): not easily frightened; capable of dealing with danger or pain, without seeming to be frightened - กล้า, กล้าหาญ
  • cabinet: the group of government ministers who make and approve government policy - คณะรัฐมนตรี
  • challenge: an invitation or a suggestion to somebody that they should enter a competition, fight, etc - การท้าทาย
  • debate: a discussion in which people or groups state different opinions about a subject - การอภิปราย, การโต้วาที, การถกเถียง
  • eloquent (adj): fluent and clear in meaning -
  • grilling (noun): asking someone a lot of questions, especially for a long time - การซักถาม
  • surprise (verb): to make somebody feel surprised (a feeling caused by something happening suddenly or unexpectedly) - ทำให้ประหลาดใจ, ทำให้แปลกใจ, ทำให้ตื่นใจ
  • sustainability (noun): can continue doing activity for a long time - ย่างยั่งยืน
  • vision: the ability to imagine how a country, society, industry, etc. could develop in the future and to plan in a suitable way - วิสัยทัศน์

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT
MORE IN SECTION