Prayut is taking unfair advantage

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s just-completed “working trip” to Buri Ram has further fuelled speculation about his political ambitions and possible return to power after the election. The atmosphere resembled that of a campaign stop at the 32,000-seat stadium where Buriram United Football Club is based and where General Prayut gave a well-received speech. 
Newin Chidchob, the football team’s chairman who has retained considerable influence in the Bhum Jai Thai Party, reportedly told the crowd before Prayut’s arrival that the louder they cheered him, the more money the Cabinet would allocate to the northeastern province. While he was there, Buri Ram made a pitch for billions of baht in state funds for development projects.
To critics of the ruling junta, Prayut’s visit was no more than his latest attempt to build a political alliance in preparation for possibly forming a coalition government after the election. It seemed to them that Thailand has now entered “election mode”. Requests for more than Bt20 billion in state funds for projects in Buri Ram and three neighbouring provinces were submitted at Tuesday’s mobile Cabinet meeting.
The junta chief and his post-coup government have come under fire for perceived attempts to “suck away” former MPs from established political parties into a new party being formed to keep Prayut on as prime minister after the election now expected in February. Prayut’s initial response to the claim was that wooing former or incumbent MPs ahead of an election was “normal practice” in Thai politics. But government figures later denied there had been any bids to promote defections. Any politicians mulling a move had approached Prayut, they said, not the other way around.
Soon after the 2014 coup in which he seized power, Prayut condemned politicians of questionable backgrounds, blaming them for many of the country’s problems. That stance now seems to be changing. His continuation in power clearly requires the support of as many political elements as possible, perhaps even some of those same “dirty politicians” he once condemned. Government jobs are on offer and state funds are being injected into provinces where the would-be allies wield influence.
It appears that the junta has donned a different guise. In staging the coup, it was the referee, ending the political violence. Now it’s a fully-fledged, game-on political player preparing to contest an election. 
Prayut is certainly within his rights in seeking to hold onto power via the ballot box, but it’s unfair to his rivals to seek support through state mechanisms. He is taking advantage of his status as government head and he is seeking a popularity boost at a time when members of established parties remain gagged by the junta ban on political activity.
Elected people in positions of power routinely take advantage of their status, just as he is, but Prayut is different in that he didn’t come to power through an election. As a non-elected government head, he should be far more careful in spending taxpayers’ money on development projects, financing only the ones that are beneficial to the people, not merely his political future. Tax money is not there to be frittered away on populist schemes or securing political influence.
We need a level playing field for all parties ahead of the election. For Prayut to try and raise his advantage is nothing more than a trick favoured by the dirty politicians he once denigrated.