As we have long been saying, The Dictator has ambitious plans to remain in power for a very long time. Running a coup was one blunt strategy. Delaying the junta’s “elections” has been another.
In recent days, we have heard about the possibility of a military political party and there’s been a lot of discussion of a cabinet reshuffle that might see some “civilianization” of the cabinet (but not the junta, which, by definition, is a military junta).
We are not sure that a reshuffle matters for political power as cabinet is a processing terminal for junta decisions. Perhaps there could be some push back to junta if there were more civilians in cabinet, but we doubt that the junta’s will would be overturned.
In any case, The Dictator makes it clear why he’s considering a reshuffle:
Prayut said the reshuffle will match the government’s ongoing work on its 20-year national strategy and national reform, which are expected to be turned into action after the next election [whenever that is].
When asked more about the reshuffle, the ever peevish General Prayuth Chan-ocha yabbered:
“I don’t understand why some people dislike soldiers,” he said, asking reporters who, if not the military, had salvaged Thailand from its political stalemate resulting from a conflict between anti-government and the previous Yingluck Shinawatra administration.
This is Prayuth apparently believing his own propaganda. At the time of the coup, the only ones calling for the military’s intervention were rabid royalists and the anti-democrats who were protesting. Instead of trashing the constitution and throwing out the elected government and banning elections, a constitutional military would have done its duty, not mutinied. But that is the history of Thailand’s military: it is a murderous, lawless force that crave political power.
That last sentence kind of responds to The Dictator’s first lack of understanding.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 