Chief of The Administrative Reform Council - Name

Name

The military junta that overthrew the government of Thaksin Shinawatra originally called itself the Council for Democratic Reform under the Constitutional Monarchy. This was originally translated in several ways in news reports, including

• Administrative Reform Council (ARC)
• Democratic Reform Council
• Political Reform Council
• Committee of Political Reformation Under Democracy
• Military Council for Political Reform
• Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy
• Administrative Reform Group under the Democratic System with the King as Head of State.

On Thursday 21 of September, the junta spokesperson asked the local press to report its name in full (with "...under the Constitutional Monarchy"), and noted that "The name is important in relaying a right message and its shortened version might be misleading". Both before and after this, most news reports used a shorter name.

The junta later changed its English name to simply "Council for Democratic Reform" claiming that the change was in order to remove misunderstanding and false interpretation about the role of the monarchy. Actual rationale was debatable.

Article 34 of the 2006 Interim Constitution changed the name of the junta to the Council for National Security. The 2006 coup was followed by increased divisiveness in Thai society, leading to many more lese majeste cases despite the king's expressed wish that these be decreased. By late 2011, the United Nations and United States and other western countries had expressed extreme concerns over the lese majeste laws and lack of protection of human rights in the kingdom.