As vote looms, thai army aims to preserve powerful role

BANGKOK: Thailand will soon vote for a new constitution that aims to subdue political parties and give the generals a permanent role in overseeing the country’s economic development, said senior military officers.

Thailand has a long history of coups. But interviews with officers show that the military’s ambition is to make such interventions unnecessary by weakening political parties and maintaining permanent influence over elected governments.

Future governments, they said, would be legally obliged to follow a 20-year national development plan set by the army.

Under the proposed charter, which would replace one torn up following the May 2014 coup, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers.

“They will be sitting there to make sure all the reforms will be carried out and at the same time make sure the newly elected government does exactly what they're supposed to do,” General Thawip Netniyom, chief of Thailand’s National Security Council, said.

One clause in the draft constitution would allow an unelected prime minister to take power in the event of a political crisis, such as what happened in 2014 when army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha led a coup against the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra and afterward became prime minister.

Thailand’s military has always been powerful, but the 2014 coup established it as the nation’s preeminent institution – arguably more powerful than even the monarchy, which faces uncertain times as the health of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, fades.

It has long been assumed that the military is keeping a tight grip on power to oversee the royal succession. But interviews with the generals disclosed that the new constitution is part of a fundamental political restructuring guaranteeing the military a permanent role in how Thailand is run.

The draft constitution allows the military and its allies to “legally compel” future governments to execute a 20-year plan rather than their own short-sighted populist policies, said Major General Weerachon Sukondhapatipak, the deputy government spokesman.