Thai Junta to Lift Economy While Keeping Protest in Check
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Thai military leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha threatened to stamp out anti-coup protests and pledged to pay rice farmers $2.8 billion under a state subsidy program to head off a recession in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.
Prayuth made the announcement in a speech in Bangkok yesterday, after he was officially endorsed as the nation’s leader by royal command. In the hours after the ceremony, demonstrators gathered at Victory Monument in central Bangkok to denounce the May 22 coup in defiance of martial law that was imposed two days before the putsch.