Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha Directs Media Questions To His Cardboard Cut-Out

In a bid to avoid answering the questions raised by the media, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, at an event in Bangkok, placed a cut-out of his photograph and asked the media to address questions to it.

Chan-o-cha was attending an event to promote the Children’s day when he sedately placed a life-size cardboard copy of himself in front of a room full of bemused onlookers, Bloomberg reported.

Followed by an awkward laughter and startled looks from the media, Chan-o-cha walked out of the event leaving the cardboard cutout in his stead.

People were left to take shake hands and take pictures with the cut-out instead of Chan-o-cha. However, he did speak to the children amid the handpicked audience in the event, BBC reported.

At the event, Chan-o-cha stressed the importance of engaging with the young people who have the potential to change the 21st-century democracy.

He further said that Thailand should embrace the politics and help create a new set of politicians, according to the BBC report.

Chan-o-cha, who sieged power in 2014 in a military coup, has dodged the press since he took the office. In the past during a news conference, he had fondled the ear of a sound technician for several minutes, threatened, in jest, to execute any journalist who criticized his government and flung a banana peel at cameramen, Bloomberg reported.

A proponent of Lese-Majesty-Law which forbids the insult of the monarchy — Chan-o-cha declared this law in the country quickly after he took siege of the government. According to the law, anybody who expresses discontent with the monarchy can be jailed by the government.

According to BBC report, the law is a devised tool by the government to sustain free speech. Since 2014, the United Nations has appealed to the Thai government several times to amend the law.

The office of United Nations Human Rights (UNHR) issued a press briefing note on Thailand. The brief said that the U.N. was concerned about the rapidly increasing number of prosecutions since 2014. A man was handed a sentence of 75 years for posting 10 photos, videos, and comments on Facebook that were deemed defamatory by the royal family.

The sentence was reduced to 35 years when he confessed to the crimes. In the subsequent years, the prosecution and sentences have increased.

Between 2015- 2016, about 285 people were investigated for insulting the Monarchy. The number has doubled since the declaration of law in 2014 the statement reported.

The U.N. had also expressed concern that most of the trials conducted surrounding the lese-megeste cases is conducted in the military court and the hearing is closed to the public.