Thailand's highly revered monarch has endorsed an interim constitution put to him by the ruling military junta.
The news was revealed in a nationally televised announcement that showed coup and junta leader General Prayuth Chan-Ocha meeting with King Bhumibol Adulyadej to receive the endorsement for the charter.
It had initially been revealled during Chan-ocha's weekly TV show - “Bring back happiness to the Thai people” – in June, Chan-ocha saying, “The interim constitution is ready and approved by legal experts. Royal endorsement will be given in July.”
The constitution will mandate the setting up of an appointed government and a reform council that will oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution.
The King is highly revered in Thailand where he enjoys protection by law and social customs, the former of which carries a penalty of 15 years in jail for defamation under the country’s harsh lese-majeste law.
His stamp of endorsement is necessary for the promulgation of any constitution and the military will point to it as a legitimization of its rule.
It will also give the junta time to carry out its reforms, which it says may take upwards of a year.
Already the military has reshuffled senior positions to appoint key allies while cracking down on dissent and critics.
On Friday, the military decreed that media outlets may be shut down for being critical of its rule and mandate - only to reverse course when the Thai Journalist Association voiced its objections.
Since seizing power May 22 - after months of political violence and deadlock that saw protesters take to the streets, voters bullied, elections annulled and 28 people killed - the military has asked for cooperation from the public in order to bring about “reconciliation to a fractured society.”
It has said that it had to act to restore order, in the process overthrowing a government that had won a 2011 landslide election victory.
Chan-ocha appointed himself prime minister, his military dissolving the Thai Senate, shutting down some news outlets and exerting censorship on those permitted to resume.
Thailand's political crisis began in November when then Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faced a wave of opposition protests after her government pushed through an amnesty that would have lifted the 2008 corruption conviction against her brother Thaksin, a divisive figure and ex-premier deposed in a 2006 coup.
Confronted by massive demonstrations, the government withdrew the bill, but the opposition alleged corruption by the government and Shinawatra family.
Yingluck dissolved the parliament December 9 and called February 2 elections, which were disrupted by the People Democratic Reform Committee, who want an unelected "people’s council" to run Thailand until the political system is reformed.
She was then herself removed by the Constitutional Court on May 7 in relation to the transfer of a high-ranking civil servant in 2011. The May 22 coup removed the remaining ministers and dissolved the Senate, the only standing legislative assembly.
The coming week will see the junta host a “return happiness to the people” festival that will feature films, concerts and lessons on harmony and society.
www.aa.com.tr/en
