He said the root causes of all the problems still persisted and would have repercussions in the next couple of years.

He said anti-corruption agencies liked to project an image of being hardworking, but they had achieved no concrete results.

“[The state] has to be determined to overhaul the whole system, not just a little here and there,” he said.

The need for national reform was cited as the main reason for overthrowing the civilian government in 2014. The military-installed government promised to lay out the reform plan before returning power to the people and bringing back democracy.

However, many critics have expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s reform works, saying little progress has been made.

Despite this, a new Nida poll revealed 60.80 per cent of the 1,250 people surveyed nationwide believed General Prayut Chan-o-cha should stay on as PM post after the next election.

They reasoned he was decisive, straightforward, and was able to keep order, including reducing conflicts.

Nearly one-third of respondents (32.89 per cent) said he should become PM as an outsider nominated through a mechanism provided by the new constitution.

Suriyasai Katasila, a scholar at Rangsit University, said that the outsider PM issue was undermining reform efforts and could cause another conflict.

However, he said a growing number of people were discussing the idea of an outsider PM because people still did not trust politicians.

In a related development, legislators have been looking into whether the Interior Ministry should be responsible for staging elections instead of the Election Commission (EC).

However, National Legislative Assembly vice president Peerasak Porjit said he believed the EC as a central agency should continue doing the job.

But he added that the situation should be assessed constantly to determine if the EC was fulfilling its job or whether it required extra authority to work effectively.