Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday dismissed a claim by an MP accusing him of mapping out the 2014 military coup long in advance.
“I made the decision on that day. I did not plan it in advance,” Gen Prayut told the joint session of MPs and senators on the second day of the debate on his new government’s policies.
He was referring to May 22, 2014, the day he led the military to seize power when he was the army chief. The move came after a meeting with senior government and opposition politicians and protesters, in which he was unable to persuade them to try and find a solution to months of bloody street violence.
Prachachat Party leader Wan Muhammad Nor Matha caused a stir on Thursday when he pressed the prime minister to explain the reasons for planning a power seizure “for three years” before he ordered troops and tanks out onto the streets. Mr Wan was a member of the governing Pheu Thai Party at the time.
A year later, in May 2015, Gen Prayut denied a claim by fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that the Privy Council was behind the coup, saying he made the decision by himself.
Thaksin on Friday repeated his grievances against the military that deposed his government in 2006 and the one led by his sister Yingluck in 2014. The military was guilty of “ungentlemanly” conduct, Thaksin said in an interview held to coincide with his 70th birthday in Dubai