Besieged Prayut government has birthday blues

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was invincible. Fresh from an election with a number of MPs in their pockets, faction leaders in the Palang Pracharath Party tried to do some rabble-rousing.

They held press conferences. They demanded that their members be given this and that portfolio or at least a quota in the cabinet lineup.

The wrangling was so public and so noisy that the coalition parties were not able to set up government for a few months after the March 24 election.

What did Gen Prayut, who agreed to be the party’s choice for outsider PM, do?

The strongman who had the backing of the armed forces and conservative elites issued an open letter expressing his uneasiness over the seemingly greedy fight for cabinet positions.

He also hinted he didn’t want to see politics degenerate into the same old conflicts that would warrant the same old solutions that nobody wanted to see.

The next day the faction leaders made an abrupt U-turn. They rescinded all their demands and conditions. Everything would be up to Gen Prayut to decide, they mewed.

Just one year later and the PM seems under siege.

In a rare convergence, the government faces mounting challenges both politically, economically and socially.

The administration has been badly bruised by the Covid-19 outbreak which sent the economy spiralling downward as people lost their jobs and income opportunities.

Worse, the virus has exposed the government’s ineptitude.

Government ministers have not been seen performing their duties.

None of them stands at the forefront battling the disease or making sure that indemand items such as protective equipment and face masks are in supply at reasonable prices.

That an Egyptian airman and nine-year-old diplomat’s daughter who were later found to have been infected were allowed inside the country and out to public places without quarantine made the public lose confidence.

The anger does not stem so much from how the government and Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) had erred in their handling of the outbreak.

Rather, the incidents remind people about preferential treatment — the forbidding ghost of double standards that has launched dozens of political protests and caused far too many upheavals in the past.

Suddenly, the public was made to think how fair it is for them to have suffered lockdown measures, loss of income and all the ensuing hardship when the government allowed VIPs to skirt safety protocol.

PM Gen Prayut’s half-hearted apology turned the anger into disenfranchisement. His gesture enhanced the perception that the government is elitist and uncaring, more willing to protect VIPs and its own well-to-do cliques than to help the general public let alone the poor.

Then came the Free Youth protest. Whether the crowd was hundreds or thousands strong, the bottom line remains that the rally drew more people than expected.

The three demands they made — stop harassing people, dissolve the parliament and redraft the constitution — seemed to resonate as smaller rallies were held in Chiang Mai and Ubon Ratchathani to support the youngsters.

Faced with the economic doldrums and a looming crisis of confidence, the government needs a reboot.

The departure of the economic team led by former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak does not inspire confidence either.

With PM Gen Prayut would capable people who usually don’t want to meddle with party politicking trust that he will be able to protect them?

That is unlikely. That is why we have seen the rather unusual phenomenon of highprofile economists, including former central banker Prasarn Trairatvorakul, reportedly reject an offer to join the Prayut cabinet.

Without the ability to recruit a new economic team better than the one led by Mr Somkid, the prospects of the government saving the economy, as well as its own survival, are not bright.

Looking ahead, challenges are mounting. Next week, the government will have to decide whether to extend the emergency decree. The choice is likely to influence the public mood and how the rallies will pan out.

The government’s further easing of the lockdown and plan to open the doors to foreigners will also be a test of its disease control ability and willingness to restore public faith.

Besieged, with a dented image and waning ability to lure new talent, it will be a tiresome second anniversary for the Prayut government.