Sinister motive seen in move to empower Isoc

THE JUNTA’S latest move to empower the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), giving it more authority at the provincial and regional levels over other officials, could be a preparation for the coming election and a return to civilian rule, political observers said yesterday. 
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, as the chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on Wednesday exercised his absolute power using Article 44 to amend the security law governing Isoc. 
The amendment cites that various non-military officials from different agencies, including the Justice and the Interior spheres, were included in the structure with the head of Isoc at the national, regional and provincial level as the de facto chief commander in their responsible areas. 
The move was among several other changes, including the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle, amid growing pressure on the regime to be clear about holding an election and restoring democratic rule.
Surachart Bamrungsuk, a prominent security scholar at Chulalongkorn University, said yesterday that the additional authority given to Isoc could be utilised in the political battle against civilian politicians. 
Normally, the military role is expanded during wartime, causing overlapping work with civilian government officials, he explained. 
But the current move is not related to wars. So, it can be viewed that the Army is seeking power to have control over politics, Surachat said. 
“It would group together relevant agencies – military, police, prosecutors and the chief of mitigation agencies – to handle security matters effectively,” he said. 
The regime has initiated a 20-year national strategy and its power to select the future Senate should be taken into consideration alongside this Isoc power in order to understand the big picture, he said.
Since the 2006 and 2014 coups, Isoc had been utilised extensively to serve the Army’s political purpose such as highlighting the military roles in politics. The next government could face more challenges because of Isoc, in addition to those posed by the new charter, he added.
Government Spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday that the amendment aimed to empower state mechanisms to effectively deal with all kinds of security threats, notably natural disasters, rather than controlling the population for political purposes as widely understood.

No change to existing structure
The premier made it clear that the amendments did not make any changes to the existing structure of Isoc, but had only added disaster relief and mitigation work, Sansern said.
Surachart argued that citing internal security including natural disaster as the need to restructure Isoc was merely a “veil”. 
The government already had sufficient tools to deal with the issue. For instance, it could work through the National Security Council, he said. Instead, they went to Isoc to deal with all security issues because Isoc was basically the Army, Surachart explained. 
Another security academic Wanwichit Boonprong said it was possible to view the move as politically motivated. When the military retains its role after the election, Isoc with its new authority could be their sidekick working in provinces and rural areas, he said. 
However, Wanwichit was not certain whether Isoc could be a political tool to help the junta gain advantage over other parties in the election though the agency was rather close to the people in local areas and its intelligence had proved efficient in testing the political temperature. If that was the case, the military could expect a backlash from civil society, he added. 
On an optimistic note, Wanwichit said that it was also possible to see that |adjustment was to meet the new circumstance. Isoc did have a role in easing the people’s suffering in times of national disaster such as floods, he said. Giving it direct authority could make the work easier and reduce unnecessary redundancy, he added.