Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday that his government is willing to amend the constitution but everything has to be in accordance with the legal procedures.
Over 10,000 protestors hit the streets on Sunday in a rally against his administration which was the biggest protest the nation has seen since the coup that was orchestrated by him in 2014.
Their demands include rewriting the constitution, dissolving the government to pave way for a new election, and for Prayut’s administration to stop harassing dissidents.
“In regards to the amendment of the constitution, I do not have any conflict with anyone about that,” he said.
“This is a mutual discussion between each political party and the coalition parties and they will have to prepare for it and…there are procedures in accordance with the constitution to follow,” he added.
The current constitution was written under the rule of the previous junta and put into effect while a referendum was conducted when the military regime was still in power.
The protestors have set a deadline for 250 senators that were all appointed by the previous junta to step down by September 30 or else they will continue to protest.
Pornpetch Witchitcholchai, a senate speaker, said on Monday that this timeline would be difficult to meet as there are various procedures to follow.
Anon Numpha, a human right lawyer and one of the protest leaders, told Thai Enquirer on Sunday that if the government really wants to amend the constitution, the rewritten bill should be able to pass the parliament’s approval within the given deadline.
Prayut said that he can see the purity of the high school students’ disobedience against his government during the morning’s flag-raising ceremony over the past two days.
However, he played down their campaigns by saying that some of the students were being bullied and peer-pressured to show solidarity for the university students who came out to protest against him on Sunday.
“What I have heard from some of the students is that some of them are being bullied into joining and if they do not join, they will be blocked from entering certain clubs and social groups in the school, and this is dangerous,” he said.
Convoy trouble
Prayut said that he has a lot of security to safeguard him following an incident involving his convoy on Tuesday morning.
Local news reported that a middle-aged man, later identified as a former senior prosecutor, was driving at speed and honking his horn after the prime minister’s convoy from Din Daeng expressway all the way to the Government House.
The man later told the police that he was outraged that one of the motorbikes that were part of the convoy cut in front of him while he was driving slowly on the left lane as he needed to go to the toilet.
He also said did not know that it was Prayut’s convoy and he was in a rush to go to a meeting.
“The man said he wanted to go to the toilet and he was in a hurry and if he said so, why wouldn’t I believe him?” the prime minister said when a reporter asked if the incident was related to the ongoing protest against him.
“I have a lot of security, don’t worry,” he added.
New spokesperson
Prayut said Anucha Burapachaisri, the secretary to the Minister of Education, will be the government’s new spokesperson.
Anucha replaced Narumon Pinyosinwat who became the Deputy Minister of Labor.
