Thai Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-Ocha surprised journalists at a recent press conference when he chose an unusual way to deflect their questions.
When asked about a cabinet reshuffle, he picked up a bottle of sanitizer and began spraying reporters.
Journalists present asked a question about the cabinet reshuffle, and he replied with “isn’t this something the prime minister should know first?”, then he took out a bottle of sanitizer and started spraying them, then made an exit.
The retired army general has been in power since a 2014 military coup and has a history of acting controversially at press events.
Prayuth Chan-Ocha is a retired Royal Thai Army general officer serving as Prime Minister of Thailand since 2014 and Minister of Defence since 2019.
After his appointment as army chief in 2010, Prayut was characterized as a royalist and an opponent of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Considered a hardliner within the military, he was one of the leading proponents of military crackdowns on the Red Shirt demonstrations of April 2009 and April–May 2010.
He later sought to moderate his profile, talking to relatives of protesters who were killed in the bloody conflict, and co-operating with the government of Yingluck Shinawatra who won parliamentary elections in July 2011.
