Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-Ocha got irritated, then apologized, and then got irritated again today.
He had over the weekend hit back at critics over the triple helicopter accidents, saying that the detractors weren't knowledgeable enough about how the army operates and that they should sympathize with those in uniform who were performing their duties under difficult conditions.
The following day, Gen Prayuth said he might have sounded too aggressive in his rebuttal and he apologized for that. "I am usually a kind-hearted person, though," he added, this time with a little smile.
But his "good mood" didn't last long. This morning when he met reporters before boarding the plane for Singapore, the army chief sounded miffed yet again.
He didn't like the headline in a mass-circulation newspaper this morning which said he was "pleading" with the new government to buy 30 new helicopters.
"I don't have to plead with anyone about anything. The purchase of helicopters has been on the drawing board all along. It wasn't that I took the opportunity of the accidents to try to squeeze in a request. The army does what it has to do, that's all. It doesn't matter who will be the next government. We are ready to follow the orders of the government," he said, before asking the press to be more prudent in the choice of words to use in the headlines.
No comments:
Post a Comment