<p>The Thai junta leader has scolded Amnesty International’s campaign for Thai political dissidents, saying that the organization encourages people who have violated the law.</p> <p>After the abduction of Sirawit Serithiwat, a pro-democracy student activist leader, last week, Amnesty International (AI) started a campaign calling on its members to send letters to Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, and Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to demand that the regime drop charges against Sirawit and other dissidents.</p>

<p><em>‘Gen Prayut said that other countries planned to use genetically modified </em><em>(GM</em><em>) plants during times of war or widespread disease that affected crop cultivation because they could be engineered to endure</em><em>.’</em></p> <p>News report explaining the government decision to withdraw its GMO bill, which had nothing to do with protests from farmers, consumers, exporters, the NESDB and the Ministry of Commerce – in fact just about everyone except the GMO companies whose fingerprints were all over the bill.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai junta leader has said that he cannot guarantee safety for activists who are demanding a probe into Rajabhakti Park corruption scandal while the activists announced that state’s anti-corruption agencies have failed to do their jobs.</p>

<p>The Thai police allege that suspects in a failed terrorist plot around the Bike for Dad event involve certain unnamed overseas anti-monarchy figures. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>As the latest corruption scandal shows, the Thai junta hasn’t rid the country of dodgy politicians; it’s simply taken their place.</p> <p>Anti-corruption has been a poster child of anti-democratic groups in Thailand since 2005.</p> <p>The People’s Alliance for Democracy (2005-2008), the Council for National Security (2006-2007), the People’s Democratic Reform Council (2013-2014), and the National Council of Peace and Order (2014–present) have all used it to drive their agenda.</p>

<p>A year and a half after a military coup in Thailand, Reporters Without Borders is today releasing a report about the Thai military’s skilfully orchestrated crackdown on freedom of information.</p> <p>Lead by the capricious Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Thai junta has been persecuting the media for the past 18 months, imposing a reign of terror that has included interrogations, arbitrary arrests, a spate of prosecutions and barely veiled threats.</p>

<p>The Thai junta leader invoked Section 44 of the Interim Charter, which gives the military government nearly absolute power, to appoint a new Social Security Office committee amid concerns from labour groups.</p> <p>Wilaiwan Saetia, Vice President of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, told Prachatai in an interview that she is concerned about the recent move of the military government to appoint new board members to the Social Security Committee and its subcommittees.</p>

<p>As Thailand’s time under a military regime drags on for a year and a half without any prospect of an election in the near future, an independent writer and democracy activist says that political reform is just an empty promise if the Thai military does not reform itself.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">As the Thai military government starts opening up new Special Economic Zones along the border to provide cheap labour and a deregulated business environment for investors, villagers in the quiet northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom by the Mekong River are to be evicted from their homes.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">Following the controversial<a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4315">&nbsp;12 nationalistic Thai values</a>&nbsp;introduced in the aftermath of the 2014 coup d’état and the construction of a theme park with grandiose monuments of ancient kings, the Thai junta has now published its latest version of Thai history, which many historians view as an attempt to legitimize military rule via a narrow nationalistic history.</p> <p></p>

<p>Thai military officers detained for an ‘attitude adjustment’ session a political activist who accused the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of cronyism.</p> <p>Military officers on at 5:13 pm Thursday 15 October 2015 paid a visit to Srisuwan Janya, Secretary-General of the Thai Constitution Protection Association before taking him to the First Army Region Headquarters on Ratchadamnoen Road in central Bangkok.</p>

<p>People not getting jobs is becoming a regular feature of the news.</p> <p>First ultra-royalist Boworn Yasinthorn failed in his bid to become a National Human Rights Commissioner, where one assumes he would champion the right to file lèse majesté charges against anyone he disagreed with.&nbsp; And now Chitpas Kridakorn, once a Bhirombhakdi but still a Boon Rawd beer heiress, has decided to withdraw her application to join the police force.&nbsp;</p>