Thai junta shoots down proposal to slash defence spending
BANGKOK: Thailand’s junta defended its US$ 7 billion defence budget and annual draft on Monday after political opponents proposed slashing military spending by 10 percent and ending conscription after elections.
The country spends among the most on defence in Southeast Asia and recent big purchases – including submarines and tanks from China – have drawn criticism in a state riddled with inequality and corruption.
Its generals have grabbed power a dozen times since 1932 with defence spending spiking in lockstep with each coup.
Last year the junta-picked National Legislative Assembly proposed a defence budget for 2019 of US$ 7 billion, a $ 1 billion increase since the latest 2014 coup.
But Pheu Thai, linked to expremier Thaksin Shinawatra and the country’s most popular political party, has vowed to end conscription and cut spending by 10 percent if it beats the odds and returns to power after the March 24 poll.
Junta chief Prayut Chan- O- Cha – who hopes to become civilian premier under an army- aligned party after the elections – on Monday justified the increase as necessary to upgrade obsolete gear.
“If we do not have it, our military quality cannot be compared with other countries,” he said.
Chan- O- Cha said the breakout of war was impossible to predict and in peacetime the army “fights against drugs and illegal entry” into the country.
Military conscription, he added, is “a duty of all Thai men”.