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Thailand lifts martial law 10 months after coup Thailand 'still in the same boat' after martial law lifted
(35 minutes later)
Thailand’s king has approved a request from the country’s junta to lift martial law. The approval was announced in a palace statement broadcast on state media late on Wednesday and takes effect immediately. Thailand lifted martial law in most of the nation on Wednesday, but 10 months after staging a coup, a military junta remains in control, essentially with absolute power.
Thailand’s army imposed martial law two days before staging a coup 10 months ago. Prayuth Chan-ocha, the military-installed prime minister, has said he will invoke a special security measure in its place. The government of coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha had faced growing pressure from foreign governments, human rights groups and particularly its own business community to remove martial law.
Human rights groups, lawyers, political parties and scholars say the new measure – article 44 of a junta-imposed interim constitution – gives Prayuth unchecked authority over all three branches of government. Although it wasn’t generally visible in everyday life – there were few soldiers in the streets – it scared off foreign investors and hurt tourism, which accounts for nearly 10% of Thailand’s GDP. Tour operators called it a tourist deterrent partly because many insurance companies won’t cover travellers to countries under martial law.
Prayuth, a former army commander who led the 22 May 2014 coup that overthrew an elected government, told reporters on Tuesday that he was seeking the approval of the king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, to revoke martial law. The monarch’s approval was considered a formality. Thailand’s king on Wednesday officially approved a request from the junta that martial law be lifted, and the palace issued a statement saying it was “no longer necessary.”
Prayuth has faced growing pressure to scrap martial law, which places the military in charge of public security nationwide and has been criticised as a deterrent to tourists and foreign investors. In its place, Prayuth said he will invoke a special security measure in the junta-imposed interim constitution called Article 44. Critics say it gives Prayuth unchecked authority over all three branches of government and absolves him of any legal responsibility for his actions.
Thai media have referred to article 44 as “the dictator law”. Under a similar law in the 1960s, a Thai dictator carried out summary executions. “From the outside, the lifting of martial law is good news for business and tourism,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist and director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
The measure gives Prayuth power over all aspects of government and law and order, and absolves him of any legal responsibility for his actions. “But from the inside, we’re functionally in the same boat,” he said about Article 44. “Similar restrictions are still in place. And where there are pockets of dissent and political expression it is likely to be more draconian.”
“Article 44 essentially means Prayuth is the law. He can order the detention of anyone without charge, without having to put the person on trial and for as long as he desires,” Pravit Rojanaphruk, an outspoken columnist for the Nation newspaper, wrote on Tuesday. Under Article 44, Prayuth has the power to make any order in the name of national security. Some Thai media have referred to it as “the dictator law”. Under a similar law in the 1960s, a Thai dictator carried out summary executions.
Prayuth sought to play down the concerns, telling reporters he would use article 44 “constructively” to solve security issues. Human Rights Watch said the move marks “Thailand’s deepening descent into dictatorship”.
“Don’t worry,” he said after a cabinet meeting. “If you’re not doing anything wrong, there’s no need to be afraid.” “Thailand’s friends abroad should not be fooled by this obvious sleight of hand by the junta leader to replace martial law with a constitutional provision that effectively provides unlimited and unaccountable powers,” said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director.
The main difference between the two measures is that martial law which remains in place in several southern provinces where the army is fighting a decade-old Islamic insurgency is very specific and Article 44 is very vague.
Martial law puts the military in charge of public security and clearly defines its uses in a seven-page document originally enacted in 1907 and amended over the years. It allows arrests without warrants, trials of suspects in military courts, bans on public gatherings and censorship in the name of preserving order.
Article 44 is a single vaguely worded paragraph in the interim constitution which gives the junta leader the power to override any branch of government in the name of national security.
Thailand’s military has a history of intervening in politics, having seized power 12 times since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
Prayuth imposed martial law on 20 May 2014, when he was the country’s army chief. A few days later, on 22 May, he led a coup that toppled the elected civilian government after months of sometimes-violent street protests.
Stability was restored but at a steep price. Thailand’s democratic institutions were dismantled, and the country’s authoritarian rulers have crushed dissent.
Critics say the coup leaders’ real goal is to eliminate the political influence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in a 2006 coup. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was ousted by a court ruling just days before last year’s coup and later barred from holding office for five years.
The coup was part of a societal schism that in broad terms pits the majority rural poor, who back the Shinawatras, against an urban-based elite that is supported by the army and staunch royalists, who see the Shinawatras as a threat to the traditional structures of power.
Since the coup, the junta has moved to consolidate power. In July, the military adopted the interim 48-article constitution and formed a junta-appointed legislature. In August, the legislature appointed Prayuth as prime minister – a post he said he will retain until elections, though no date has been set. Polls were initially promised for this year, then pushed to sometime in 2016.
Prayuth sought to downplay concerns about Article 44, saying nobody had made much fuss about it until now.
“Article 44 will be exercised constructively,” Prayuth said. “Don’t worry, if you’re not doing anything wrong, there’s no need to be afraid.”