What plans does the junta supremo have for Thailand? More than a week into the military’s illegal seizure of power, made “legal” by the king’s official endorsement, the arrests, detentions and threats continue [1].
The notoriously prickly and arrogant General Prayuth Chan-ocha, self-declared leader of the junta, appropriately known as the National Council for Peace and Order, has,” according to the Bangkok Post [2], outlined three stages of national administration during the transitional period as the military junta prepares the country for a new election.”
He must have come up with these plans in the last couple of days, for as readers will recall, just a few days ago, the dictator has a public meltdown when asked about an election and then called in the reporter for a dressing down for having the temerity to ask the boss difficult questions [3].
According to the Post, the dictator’s “first stage on the road back to democracy and elections is to run the normal operations of the civil service…”.
In fact, the first step is actually the eradication of democracy. For that is what the coup has done through the illegal seizure of state power.
In terms of the Post’s statement of the “first step,” it can be noted, as Khaosod astutely points out [4], is to plagiarize the the policies and programs of the previous Yingluck Shinawatra government. Of course, for the royalist elite, the policies of economic stimulus that they previously opposed are now quite appropriate and great loved when implemented by the junta. The elite seems to have no sense of irony at all.
The Post says that the second stage “is to create an environment contributing to national reform, with the establishment of national legislative and reform assemblies.”
That environment begins with a brutal campaign of censorship, repression and threats. Hundreds have been rounded up. It is unknown how many are still locked up. It also involves clamping down on anti-coup protesters [5]. It involves repressing academics, intellectuals, and anyone with a brain and who can think, including school kids [6]. It means closing down all opposition media and blocking international media. It seems to also involve burning down opposition radio stations [7].
As Khaosod reports [8], it also involves transferring and neutering all the officials it deems as not supportive of their activities. Recall that this kind of transfer – just one, not dozens of them – was what had Yingluck chucked out by the legally ridiculous clowns at the Constitutional Court. The elite, its supporters and military functionaries seem to have no sense of irony at all.
The “third stage in which an election will be held to restore full democracy to the country…”. Dictator Prayuth has apparently “stressed the need for quick implementation of the three stages.” There is no definition of Prayuth’s “quick.”
Prayuth is reported to have stated that running the country by the military is akin to tying shoelaces. We doubt that the boss knows much about shoelaces. He wears boots, polished by underlings.
It is a surprise that Prayuth wants “law enforcement to be strict and fair,” for that is not in the military’s playbook, ever. The military brass’s arrogance is born of its impunity before national laws. They literally get away with murder. They get away with illegal acts against elected governments on a regular basis. They are lawless.
It is not a surprise that Dictator Prayuth “has attached importance to a means of communication with the public to inform them of the NCPO’s work.” The arrogance of the military has seen social media come alive with pictures of the military doing its own propaganda. Taking staged photos, putting up banners in support of themselves and more. For the military, this kind of stupid propaganda hasn’t changed since the 1960s. It seems they think that the population is composed of royalist dolts.
They bolster their propaganda with censorship that “targets websites seeking to cause divisions and insult the royal institution…”.
The dictator said that there was no consideration of “appointing an interim prime minister and cabinet for the time being,” and that should not be important for any administration appointed by the military will be a puppet regime.