Browbeating won’t win the junta credibility

It doesn’t take much to ruffle the feathers of the current Thai government.
A simple question would suffice, say about the date for next election, or about the undeclared luxury watches of security tsar Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, and last but not least, a claim by fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra.
They usually respond with a silence or snap back loudly at reporters when any sensitive issues are raised with them.
Prawit, the architect of the May 2014 coup, responded with a big dose of sarcasm when asked about his reaction to Thaksin’s prediction made in Tokyo, that the Pheu Thai Party will win another landslide victory in the next election.
It’s not so much about what Prawit said but how he said it that illustrates his weakness as a leader and as a person.
Prawit is a key member of the ruling junta that came to power through a coup, believing they were actually rescuing Thailand from catastrophe. Because he and his associates see themselves as the white knights of Thai politics, they think they should be subjected to a different kind of treatment by the public and the media.
But they have chosen to silence their critics through legal means. Those attempts, however, are now backfiring. More and more people see the junta as having outlived its utility; people are openly calling for the lifting of the ban on political activities.
Thaksin’s prediction of a landslide victory was not the only thing that irked them. The fact that he and his sister Yingluck – two former premiers on the run – are able to attract attention outside Thailand is a source of great angst for the junta.
“Thailand needs a system that allows free speech and guarantees human rights to the people. In this modern economy, you need democracy to allow more creativity to happen in Thailand,” Thaksin told Japanese media. Thaksin and his sister don’t have to say much. He knows the junta’s weakness – that they came to power through a military coup – and that was why he was stressing the return to democracy and the lack of creativity and free speech in a military-run country like Thailand.
The question of extradition of the Shinawatras to Thailand is another sore point for the junta. Foreign governments and police have been indifferent to the Thai government’s case against the two fugitives.
Again, the government is lost for words when such an issue is raised. And when asked about the refusal of foreign allies to extradite the Shinawatras, the junta ends up sounding like a broken record. The problem with the junta is not the political challenges they face, or Thaksin and his sister. They have to understand that they, and the coup they staged are the root of the problem.
They fail to introspect and see the contradiction in their actions – launching a coup to bring back democracy and accountability while operating in ways that are oblivious to the principles they preached.
Moreover, they lack communication skills and strategies to explain to the public and the world about the actions they have taken.
They could have taken a different course, a more inclusive approach, to allow everybody on board, and move on and away from Thaksin’s sphere of influence. Instead, the junta did just enough to get by. One glaring example was the drafting of the Constitution, which barely passed the referendum.
It was an opportunity to create a new beginning for the country. Instead, they used it to cement their place in Thai politics. The fact that it passed was good enough for the junta. After all, they were more interested in getting something, anything, that could be equated to a stamp of approval from the public. This is no salvation. It’s a cheap ploy to keep them in power that much longer.