FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Junta celebrates its birthday while Thailand cowers

Junta celebrates its birthday while Thailand cowers

Five years of self-serving rule has cemented the military’s dominance with a fake parliamentary democracy

Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the coup that brought the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to power under a pretext of restoring order.
In reality, little has changed in the deep-lying disorder that sparked political violence in the run-up to the military takeover. The stated goal of returning the country to democratic civilian rule has not been achieved and the country is still as divided as ever.
The junta NCPO gave us a half-baked Constitution that failed to reflect the sentiment of the populace.
It was hastily pushed through with no input from people with opposing visions for Thailand. This flimsy fig leaf did nothing to hide or legitimise the naked military force by which the NCPO rules.
The Constitution then spawned a general election that was structurally rigged. The result is an extension of de facto military rule along with its host of repressive laws and a Senate stuffed with handpicked generals and cronies. Their first duty will be to vote in Prayut Chan-o-cha as prime minister, regardless of the election results.
Beside sidelining any opposing voices, the past five years of NCPO rule has also seen many who challenged the junta’s policies flee into exile.
The March general election, meanwhile, did nothing to unite the country’s people and heal the social and political wounds. Instead it cemented the military’s place in national politics and the politicisation of key institutions like the Constitutional Court. 
The country may appear to be transitioning to democratic rule, at least in the eyes of uninformed outsiders. But in reality, thanks to ground rules laid down by the NCPO, military rulers are merely exchanging their uniforms for civilian suits.
The past five years are also littered with broken promises. The pledges to enact political reforms never came to fruition, and divisions the junta was supposed to heal are still as painful as ever.
Meanwhile the 250 junta-proxies in the Senate will serve five-year terms, which means they will pick at least the next two prime ministers.
The NCPO tells us that the handpicked Senate is a necessary safeguard if Thailand is to escape its 14-year-old political crisis. In reality, the Senate is a cornerstone of the junta and its cronies’ plan to hold on to power for decades to come.
What junta members cannot acknowledge is that their long-term strategy and so-called achievements will come back to haunt them sooner or later. 
The Election Commission (EC) was supposed to ensure a smooth transition from military to civilian rule, but irregularities on its watch have unmasked the process as a sham. The EC’s failure to respond to legitimate criticism only further erodes the credibility and legitimacy of the incoming government, which will likely be led by the junta’s proxy – the Phalang Pracharat Party.
If proof were needed, the past five years are testimony that a military coup can never be a solution to a corrupt and flawed government. The only legitimate and effective solution is elections.
We may not like the government of the day, but tearing up the Constitution only to write another does nothing to remedy the situation. For evidence we need only look at the vicious cycle of Thai governance since the advent of democracy. 
The past five years was also an opportunity missed. The NCPO could have steered the country back on a democratic course. But instead its members and hangers-on became the key beneficiaries of rules and regulations that were supposed to restore normalcy to Thailand.
      

 

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