Prayut counters censure attack as lacking in correct information

Prayut rose to respond after opposition leader and Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew finished his speech at the start of the four-day censure debate. The debate will continue until Friday night and voting will be held on Saturday.

“From what I heard in the debate, not all the information was true. And actually, the debate had no correct information so, I, as the prime minister, must give an explanation,” Prayut said.

The prime minister said the opposition leader should have treated the government leader with due respect instead of trying to slander him.

“Actually, the use of rhetoric to sound satirical against others should not have happened in Parliament,” Prayut said.

In one of many attacks, Cholnan said Prayut should not have assigned the National Security Council, which is in charge of security and stability, to deal with economic issues.

Prayut said Cholnan’s allegation that the economic panel of the NSC was full of generals with no knowledge of economics was wrong. Instead, Prayut said the panel is full of economic experts.

Prayut said the NSC has to monitor economic affairs as well because modern threats involved the economy as well.

“It was necessary to use the military mechanisms and emergency law to run the country,” Prayut said.

He said all military mechanisms can be used to run the country as long as the use would not affect the people’s rights. He said past governments did not use military mechanisms because they did not trust the military.

“Would you be able to sit here now without the soldiers and police taking care of the country?” Prayut replied to Cholnan.

The prime minister said he hoped to see the debate during the next four days be based on academic principle, reason and correct information as well as show an understanding towards each other.

“I can’t say I’m the best prime minister with the best performance, but I can hereby affirm that much of what you’ve said was not true,” Prayut said.

Responding to the attack that the government had failed to tackle the rising prices of consumer goods, Prayut said his government had put in place measures to tackle the issue in a complete loop. He said the government has launched several measures to try to tackle poverty and solve the issue of household debt, teachers’ debt, and students’ debt to the education loan fund.

He said his government has spent a lot of money to launch various projects to take care of Thai citizens. The prime minister admitted that some economic woes continued but many had improved.

“For example, the commerce minister has reported that almost all cash crops have seen rising prices, including sugarcane, tapioca, oil palm, and corns. Farmers are now happy,” Prayut said.

He admitted that his government had used up almost all its borrowings, but the loan money has been spent to help provide compensation to some 55 million people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the government had not spent the money to buy votes in advance but to arrange financial assistance packages for affected people to help them survive the economic crisis.

The prime minister said his government has allocated some 150 billion baht to purchase Covid vaccines and carry out other necessary measures to prevent people from getting severe disease or getting killed because of Covid.

Prayut also said Cholnan had wrongly quoted him as saying he wanted to stay in power for two more years. He said his statement, which Cholnan had cited, instead informed the public which government projects would yield results in the next two years.