OP-ED: Govt at risk of early demise

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has at long last finalised his cabinet line-up. But the unofficial list of his 36-member cabinet, leaked to the media, neither gives the public a sense of disappointment nor one of hope.

The list speaks volumes about the fact that the abilities of cabinet members and what is in the public interest seem to have taken a backseat to the necessity to unite differing interests of the many coalition allies.

It would be no surprise if the new government is rather short-lived and brings little to no progress to the country.

The line-up is an odd mixture of former ministers who served under the previous governments of both Gen Prayut and ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The cabinet is also dominated by familiar faces who are part of the country’s established political clans.

A sizeable chunk of them did not contest the last poll but served in the military government. They include deputy prime ministers Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, Wissanu Krea-ngam and Somkid Jatusripitak.

Mr Somkid will probably keep his old job and be the government’s economic czar. It looks more than likely that his team will inject similar doses of economic stimuli to those that the military regime used over the past five years, without much success, to try to boost the stuttering economy.

For Gen Prayut who staged the coup back in 2014 and accused the elected government he toppled of corruption, he will face a far bigger challenge on this front. Whether and how he will be able to keep his cabinet clean and transparent are major questions.

Corruption in Thailand usually takes place without the production of receipts, making it potentially very easy for cabinet members to get away with graft or conflicts of interest.

Gen Prayut will have to keep a close watch on the key ministries where megaprojects or attractive investment policies make them vulnerable to corruption and potential conflicts of interests. These are specifically the ministries of transport, energy, agriculture and industry.

But Gen Prayut so far has not demonstrated to the public that he is serious about transparency. When one of his deputies, Gen Prawit, was accused of asset concealment in a luxury wristwatch scandal, Gen Prayut neither reshuffled his cabinet nor moved his deputy to an inactive post while the probe was under way.

Even though the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) later cleared Gen Prawit of the allegations, many people did not buy its explanation that the watches in question belonged to his deceased friend.

The NACC, where Gen Prayut is believed to have maintained his influence through the appointment of its commissioners, is unlikely to give his new government a hard time. Neither will the Senate whose members were handpicked by the premier.

But scrutiny by the opposition and the public will be fierce and Gen Prayut’s choice to seemingly turn a blind eye to serious corruption and conflicts of interest allegations will make his government vulnerable to a no-confidence vote in parliament, and consequently to an early demise.

For now, the premier may have Capt Thammanat Prompao, who is tipped to be the labour minister, as a broker to keep the coalition allies united and to prevent his new government from falling apart.

But the government will still struggle to survive if Gen Prayut runs his new administration in the manner that he did with his previous military government and does not take into account the need for it to be efficient, accountable and transparent.