Prayut Chan-o-cha
Prayut Chan-o-cha is a Thai former politician, military officer who became the 29th prime minister of Thailand after seizing power in the 2014 coup d'état and served until 2023. He was concurrently the minister of defence in his own government from 2019 to 2023. Prayut served as commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army from 2010 to 2014 and led the coup d'état which installed the National Council for Peace and Order, the military junta which governed Thailand between 22 May 2014 and 10 July 2019.
After his appointment as army chief in 2010, Prayut was characterised as a royalist and an opponent of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Considered a hardliner within the military, he was one of the leading proponents of military crackdowns on the Red Shirt demonstrations of April 2009 and April–May 2010. He later sought to moderate his profile, talking to relatives of protesters who were killed in the bloody conflict and cooperating with the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, who won parliamentary elections in July 2011.
During the political crisis that began in November 2013 and involved protests against the caretaker government of Yingluck, Prayut claimed that the army was neutral and would not launch a coup. However, in May 2014, Prayut launched a military coup against the government and assumed control of the country as dictator and leader of the NCPO. He later issued an interim constitution, granting himself sweeping powers and giving himself amnesty for staging the coup. In August 2014, an unelected military-dominated national legislature appointed him Prime Minister of Thailand.
Prayut led an authoritarian regime in Thailand. After seizing power, Prayut's government oversaw a significant crackdown on dissent. He formulated "twelve values" based on traditional Thai values and suggested that these be included in school lessons. Measures were implemented to limit public discussions about democracy and criticism of the government, including increases in Internet and media censorship. Prayut was elected as prime minister following the disputed 2019 general election, after having ruled as an unelected strongman since 2014. Following the results for United Thai Nation which finished third in the 2023 general election, Prayut announced his retirement from politics, serving in a caretaker position until the National Assembly voted for a new prime minister on 22 August. He was succeeded by Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai party, after nine years in power.
After his political retirement, Prayut was appointed a Privy Councilor on 29 November in the same year.
Early life and education
Born to an army Colonel, Prapat Chan-o-cha, native from Bangkok, and a school teacher, Khemphet Chan-o-cha, native from Chaiyaphum province, he was the eldest child of four siblings. He studied at Sahakit School in Lopburi, where his mother taught. For junior highschool, he spent only a year at Phibulwitthayalai Lopburi School because his father, an army officer, moved often. Then at the grade 8, he moved to Wat Nuannoradit School in Phasi Charoen, where he was selected as one of the best students in a student magazine.In 1971, Prayut spent his senior highschool year at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School Class 12, and in 1976, became a cadet at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy Class 23. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree. While in the academy, he finished Infantry Officer Basic Course Class 51 in his first year and Infantry Officer Advanced Course, Class 34 in 1981. Before starting his military career, he graduated from Command and General Staff College Class 63 in 1985.
Military career
Queen's Guards (1986–2010)
After graduating from the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, Prayut started his career as a Major. He was a royal guard under Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda in 1987. Three years later, Prayut served in the 21st Infantry Regiment, which is granted Royal Guard status as the Queen's Guards. In 2001, he served as a deputy commanding general in the 2nd Infantry Division, becoming its commanding general one year later. In 2005, he became a deputy commanding general of the 1st Army, which included the 2nd Infantry Division. He was seen as one of the leaders of the alliance behind the 2006 Thai coup d'état.Like his direct predecessor, Anupong Paochinda, and former defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan, Prayut is a member of the army's "eastern tigers" faction. Most of them, like Prayut, began their military careers in the 2nd Infantry Division, headquartered in eastern Thailand, particularly in the 21st Infantry Regiment.
After the 2006 coup, Prayut was appointed to the National Legislative Assembly. In this capacity, he joined the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Prayut sits on the executive boards of a number of companies including a state electricity utility company, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority. From 2007 to 2010 he was independent director at Thai Oil Public Co, Ltd. Since 7 October 2010 he has been a director of Thai Military Bank and chairman of the Army United Football Club. Prayut attended management course in the National Defence College of Thailand Class 20, in 2007. He was the chief of staff of the Royal Thai Army from 2008 to 2009, and in 2009 he was appointed honorary adjutant to the king.
Army chief (2010–2014)
In 2010, he succeeded Anupong Paochinda as commander in chief. On taking over, Prayut had stated that his mandates would be to maintain Thailand's sovereignty and to protect the monarchy. His uncommon promotion was seen as a revealing of the influence of the Queen's Guards.Amid the 2010 Thai political protests, Prayut was the part of executive of the Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situations, a special government agency that was found by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Deputy-Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. Queen's Guards army general, Anupong Paochinda was the leader of the violent 2010 Thai military crackdown before Prayut stepped up to replace Anupong. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Centre on Democracy, commented that Prayut was seen as more hardline than Anupong, and in April 2009, during the red shirts' uprising, Anupong was nominally in charge but Prayut appeared to be directing the dispersing the red shirt protesters.
Prayut had led the CRES from 5 October to 21 December 2010, in which he used authoritarian methods to control a political situation. The CRES banned symbolic political-dividing products such as Prime Minister Abhisit face on a sandal. After the CRES dissolved, in 2011, Prayut became part of the opposition to Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party in the 2011 Thai general election. He told the media that he stood in the middle, but urged Thai people not to vote for Pheu Thai, saying it would lead to "chaos and violence". He intended to stop a violation of monarchy defamation law by red shirts activists who support Yingluck. He vowed to sacrifice his life to protect the monarchy. Before the election date, he urged the people to vote for the party that would protect the monarchy. Eventually, Pheu Thai Party won the election in a landslide. Pavin Chachavalpongpun called on Yingluck to sack Prayut, in order to remind the military to stay out of politics.
In the late 2011, Prayut heavily criticised the Nitirat group, led by Worachet Pakeerut and Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, who campaigned for constitutional reform and a change of Thailand's lèse majesté law. Prayut warned them that they would violate the rule of law in Thailand.
In July 2012, during the GT200 controversy, a fraudulent "remote substance detector", Prayut opined that soldiers were confident of the effectiveness of the technology, because it performed well in the field. This was contrary to the outcomes of scientific tests by the Department of Special Investigation. Later, in 2013, Prayut asked people to stop criticizing it.
In August 2012, Prayut sued Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer representing the UDD and exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and Amsterdam's translator, who delivered a speech at a Red Shirt rally in Bangkok, on Thai military defamation. Amsterdam alleged the Thai military committed brutality against demonstrators. Prayut also told the DSI to stop implicating soldiers in the killing of Red Shirt demonstrators during the 2010 Thai military crackdown and not to disclose publicly the progress of its investigations. Prayut had denied any army abuses in which at least 98 people died and more than 2,000 were injured, despite on scene witnesses and evidence. Prayut said that soldiers did not kill anyone during the conflicts. He argued that soldiers seen in photos and videos armed with telescopic rifles were not 'snipers,' but were only using them for self-defense. He also adopted a policy that soldiers could be regarded as witnesses in the investigations and protected them from criminal charge.
In May 2013, Prayut sold nine plots of land in a Bangkok suburb to a company called 69 Property for 600 million baht. Reporters subsequently asked him about the land sale, and the prime minister's position was that the media had no business questioning him on the matter, saying: "The land has belonged to me since I was a kid, it belonged to my father. So what's the problem? Please stop criticising me already."