Thai coup gets pretty face
2006-09-21 12:51
Bangkok - In a country obsessed with
style, it was perhaps no surprise that Thailand's military
chiefs chose a former beauty queen to unveil their coup to the
nation.
Along with the weathered visage of retired
Lieutenant-General Prapart Sakuntanak - familiar as the face
of previous military forays into politics - viewers of every
television channel were treated to Miss Asia 1987 Thawinan
Khongkran.
Drawing on a wealth of experience gleaned from her beauty
pageant, modelling and singing days, the 42-year-old admitted
to having to change her normally soft-spoken delivery to add
more authority as she announced details of the military putsch.
"I was confident in my superiors and told myself that we
were trying to bring peace to the country," said Thawinan, head of public relations at army-run Channel 5 Television, as quoted by the Nation newspaper.
But the beauty queen is not just a pretty
face.
The newspaper said she also holds a masters degree -
with a thesis entitled The role of the media in creating the
image of Miss Thailand from 1964 to 1988>/i>.