The army chief was right on the money on Friday morning. And again on Friday night when Thai soap operas are normally in full swing.
In the morning, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha gave a speech to other officers as they joined him in a ceremony to mark the 28th year of the army’s head office on Ratchadamnoen Avenue.
As usual, he went straight to the point about his “Returning Happiness to the People” campaign, which he discusses on air on Friday nights — at prime time.
The military’s leading figure understands well the importance of prime time. It is soap opera time on TV.
But he defends his weekly talk which occupies those precious money hours — and now offers tips to producers of the soapies, and viewers.
“Don’t watch too many soap operas on TV,’’ he told his subordinates last Friday morning.
Most soap operas on TV, he added, are about women fighting over some guy, or about “slap-love” relations.
Gen Prayuth asked producers to look at TV shows from South Korea and Japan.
Those countries add other elements to the plots, like patriotism and history.
They offer examples that Thailand should follow, he said.
Thai producers and scriptwriters should take his advice seriously and show viewers they can do more than what the good general describes.
It is amazing to see the variety of TV series plots imported from South Korea and Japan and how they wisely mix fun and information into the stories while continuing to interest viewers. (Column continues below)
Korean soaps sometimes use history in their story line - a genre of soap opera known in Korea as saeguk and taeha, with many such shows popular on Thai TV and DVD shops.
Several series from South Korea feature Korean history and culture — the country uses them to make viewers proud of being Korean.
Series from Japan are even more interesting despite the fact so many of them are built around the same basic theme.
What they try to say is always the same essential thing: success in life is not a fluke; it comes from hard work and a passion for what you are doing. And the results of hard work show as the series head into the final, exciting episodes.
Gen Prayuth is right about other things he mentioned on his Friday night programme.
The coup-maker urged sceptics to give him time over his decision to install generals in his cabinet.
Call it a military government if you will, but the National Council for Peace and Order chief has a point to make with his decision to mix people in uniform with people in business suits in the interim administration.
Connections are key, as he admits.
And his decision is understandable given the background of a career spent in the army barracks — up until the last five months before his retirement.
The army chief is betting his popularity on the decision, although he said the generals will not be done any favours once they are in the cabinet.
‘’A government can be reshuffled as many times as possible. Those who do not perform will be out.
“Those who are corrupt will go to jail,’’ he said.
Gen Prayuth knows the honeymoon period will be over once his cabinet line-up is announced.
The new government has a mountain to climb as the economy remains in a subdued state and the shadow of martial law still haunts foreign tourists and governments.
Gen Prayuth hopes the civilian-military mixture in the government will be able to soothe the fears of the sceptics and silence critics of the move to have generals run the country from Government House.
Others who should be watching the new administration are career politicians.
It will be a slap in their faces if the military men handpicked by Gen Prayuth outperform the cabinet ministers of past elected governments.
The country has endured many unqualified figures sitting in cabinet positions in the name of political quotas or rewards for their support for political parties.
Too many of them turned out to be disastrous for the country.
A government is judged by its results, not by its looks. The success or failure of Gen Prayuth as prime minister will not be difficult to measure.
Saritdet Marukatat is digital media news editor, Bangkok Post.