Thailand junta not wearing well

BANGKOK, Thailand – Growing frustration greets Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-O-Cha and his generals even if real defiance is still impossible

Six months into Thailand’s latest experiment with military rule, cracks are starting to show, with irritation rising at the lack of widespread reform and the growing realization that the military won’t give up power any time soon.

Discontent appears to be building slowly. It is not widespread, with most urbanites continuing to support the junta, but there appear to be splits behind the scenes between the military and the Privy Council, King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s council of advisors, as Prayuth moves to concentrate power, sidelining some of the forces aligned with Prem Tinsulanonda, the 94-year-old former army general who heads the powerful Council, and freezing out civilian influence. There is also rising criticism over revelations of the substantial wealth built up by Prayuth and his brother, as well as other members of the military.

The criticism is coming from selected areas of society – students and intellectuals, smallholders who have been evicted from forest land by security forces, and civil society that is worried about environmental and humanitarian abuse, according to a longtime political analyst.

“Whatever hopes originally arose for reform are now being abandoned,” a banker with many years of experience in Thailand told Asia Sentinel. “There is lots of tension as people see that this junta is simply going to try to enforce the status quo ante, allowing the establishment to run the country more tightly than before.”

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