As the junta’s Palang Pracharath party maneuvers stealthily toward establishing a “new” government there are several indications that very little is going to change.
We have already seen how the Senate has been packed with junta cronies, including relatives, generals and flunkies from the last junta-selected puppet National Legislative Assembly. Nepotism and cronyism were characteristics of the military dictatorship up until now. That’s only going to deepen and extend.
The senate
Part of the “negotiations” among junta-loving parties has to do with the allocation of cabinet slots. That’s because, as in the past, before the 1997 constitution, coalition governments were a grand buffet, with prime cabinet spots meaning a party could make cartloads of money to prepare for the next election or pay MPs to stay in line or both. That’s happening now.
As that happens, we read that The Dictator, who still hopes to be made premier by all his flunkies in the Senate, wants “the Defence and Interior ministries in the next government to ensure national progress…” to remain with junta figures. So it could well be that the aged watch-man Gen Prawit Wongsuwan remains in that post, to repress and sanction at will, and to use all the military’s resources to ensure the “new” government looks pretty much like the military dictatorship.
But don’t be surprised if its Gen Anupong Paojinda in that slot as the Deputy Dictator is struggling with health. If not defense, then Anupong probably stays at Interior where he’s been responsible for neutralizing the red shirts and helping out with election rigging.
And the repression, opacity and secretiveness of the regime is likely to continue.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 