Dozen Thai military commanders become cabinet members
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E-mail Xinhua, August 31, 2014
A dozen military commanders have been named ministers under an interim government headed by non- elected Premier Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The Thai monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, approved on Saturday the naming of those high-ranking military officers, who are either currently active or retired, as members of cabinet in charge of varied portfolios headed by Gen Prayuth, the army strongman who seized power from a civilian government in the May 22 coup.
However, an official list of the cabinet members, handpicked by Gen Prayuth, was only available in the Royal Gazette on Sunday.
Several are among the military junta who joined hands with Gen Prayuth to topple the elected government earlier headed by deposed premier Yingluck Shinawatra and currently sit on the National Council for Peace and Order, the official name of the ruling junta.
They make one-third of a total of 32 members of Gen Prayuth's cabinet with the rest mostly being high-level civil servants, who are as well either currently active or retired.
The military commanders have been invariably viewed as "cronies " of the strongman-turned-premier, who recently called on members of the public and the press to "not pay too much attention on individuals" in his cabinet and admitted that he decided to have them help run the country because he personally trusts them.
They are legally allowed to assume cabinet seats in a concurrent fashion under an interim constitution enforced by the ruling junta.
The military commanders who have become members of Gen Prayuth' s cabinet include
-- Former army chief and former defense minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan: Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Minister of Defense. Gen Prawit, viewed as an influential former superior to Gen Prayuth, earlier assumed the defense portfolio in the time of former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva. -- Supreme commander Gen Tanasak Patimaprakorn: Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Minister of Foreign Affairs. -- Deputy army chief Gen Udomdej Sitaboot, who is tipped to be promoted as army chief in place of Gen Prayuth: Deputy Minister of Defense. -- Air force chief ACM Prajin Juntong: Minister of Transport. -- Navy chief Adm Narong Pipatanasai: Minister of Education. -- Assistant army chief Gen Paiboon Khumchaya: Minister of Justice. -- Assistant army chief Gen Chatchai Sarikalya: Minister of Commerce. -- Former army chief Gen Anupong Paochinda: Minister of Interior. -- Former deputy army chief Gen Davapong Rattanasuwan: Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. -- Defense undersecretary Gen Surasak Kanchanarat: Minister of Labor. -- Deputy army chief-of-staff Lt Gen Surachet Chaiwong: Deputy Minister of Education. -- Former police chief Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew: Minister of Social Development & Human Security.
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