Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has asked critics to stop criticizing the alleged opaque manner in which the new senators were chosen, claiming that they had been screened and royally endorsed.

He hit back at critics, who claim that many of the senators are old faces, brothers of people in the government or friends of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Interior Minister Anupong Paochida, saying that the critics and media people are also “old faces”.

In a somewhat confusing statement, an apparently irritated prime minister said “Why don’t you separate? The politicians are also old faces. Why can’t old faces work when they come in to carry on with the work? I have to choose people who used to work, but not all the 250 senators.”

Asked by a reporter why most of the old faces are siblings of people in the government, the Prime Minister retorted “Who are not brothers? Is there anybody who does not know me, not knowing Phi Pom (Gen Prawit), not knowing Phi Pok (Gen Anupong)? We have known one another after having worked together for five years. Don’t you know me? You are all old faces.”

Responding to a reporter’s question about the identities of the selection committee members, the Prime Minister was quoted to have said: “Why? You already knew the selection committee chairman. I was not involved in the selection.”

Asked about the criticism of his brother, General Preecha, for his frequent absence from parliamentary meetings, the Prime Minister asked why the media kept asking, claiming that “the case was over”.