Prayut visited the livestock market for the deep South in Nong Jik district in the morning. He told people there that he had taken a long trip by road as his aircraft had been disrupted by torrential rain and had been forced to land at the airfield of Wing 56 in Songkhla province.

Taking to a stage prepared for him, Prayut said he gave great an importance to the deep South, which comprises three provinces plus five districts of Songkhla. He urged the people to be united, not divisive, and help steer the country forward.

The premier said security efforts had improved and a better economy would follow. He urged people not to hate the military, because things in the South had improved since it stepped in.

It was not just the application of the law that would solve the violence, he said, but economic development. He also said that people should help one another to stop groups from instigating violence.

“I’m here, not to vie for votes, but to create understanding about how we will move the country forward,” he said. “There are a lot of problems, some real, others not. But I insist that we have been working extensively so that you can access the things that are available to people in other regions.”

The premier said there would be a massive investment in a number of infrastructure projects in the region.

As for the plummeting rubber price, he said the government had been doing its best and rubber planters should not hold demonstrations to put pressure on it.

At the end of the speech, the premier had a tense encounter with one fisherman. Because of the noisy atmosphere, there was a minor misunderstanding that prompted Prayut to shout at the man.

When security officers moved in to remove the fisherman, the premier said: “Please be cool, everyone involved is trying to solve the problems and they all cannot be solved at once.”

The premier planned to visit a palm oil processing plant in the same district in the afternoon before having discussions about security and meeting local leaders at the 15th Infantry Division headquarters.

In the evening, Prayut was due to chair a meeting in Songkhla about social and economic development in the South.

Ongart said poor people, the majority of the population, were suffering as the cost of living continued to rise.

“The government has often told the public about the economy expanding, exports recovering, more tourists visiting the country, private investment picking up and consumption rising across social groups,” he said. “But if ministers go to meet ordinary people, they will find their standard of living moving in the opposite direction to the economic indicators.

“If government officials visit street vendors, or those who sell their goods at community outdoor markets, they will find that vendors sell less food than you would expect, so the government needs to act quickly to solve people’s economic hardships.”

He said the price of farm products had dropped, which was proof of failure of the government’s performance. The government might also need to introduce a minimum-income guarantee scheme to support farmers, Ongart added.

If the government could raise the price of farm products, it could help farmers, who make up the majority of the population, he said.

“I hope the new cabinet will work hard to solve the people’s problems. Ministers should not work for their own interests or try to extend the term of the junta-backed government to keep it in power,” he added.

THE NEW Prayut Cabinet will face multiple challenges amid the backdrop of key weaknesses, especially the lack of effective ministerial coordination, a sluggish rural economy and rising income inequality, according to academics and business leaders.

Responding to the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Nipon Poapongsakorn, a distinguished scholar at the Thailand Development Research Institute, yesterday urged the new Cabinet to patch up its weakest link – lack of coordination between national security and economic policies.

“There is no good coordination of security and economic policies, and this will result in a negative impact on small businesses and people’s living standards,” said Nipon.

He pointed to how previous Cabinets had used harsh measures to deal with migrant labour on security grounds without taking into account the impact of their actions on the economy and businesses. Another example was the poor management of labour in fishing industries, which resulted in a labour shortage for small fishing operators. Next were the government’s actions to manage street vendors, which hurt the incomes of grassroots citizens. Also, the Education Ministry is implementing research and development policies that do not take into account relevant economic issues.

“Each minister in the past took his or her own way, so in order to solve it Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has to coordinate their tasks,” Nipon suggested.

Ministers at the Labour and Education ministries have to work closely with the economic ministers, he added.

He warned that investors still lacked much confidence in Thai politics as revealed by sluggish private investment. The government should start to work with politicians in the run up to the general election. It is time to lift the political ban, said Nipon while referring to a slowdown in private investment growth in the third quarter at 2.9 per cent year on year.

“The export recovery may drive Thai economic growth from 3.5 to 4 per cent, but average growth in neighbouring countries is 6-7 per cent,” he said. He pointed to Malaysia, saying the country has a smaller labour force but still its economy grew 6.2 per cent in the third quarter compared to Thailand’s 4.3 per cent.

Regarding the new team of ministers at the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, Nipon said he did not think they could succeed in increasing the price of farm products such as rice and rubber, as the global market decides the price level of those products. He said the former agricuture minister had worked hard but PM Prayut had appointed new ministers only to appease people who were complaining about low price of farm products.

Kalin Sarasin, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade of Thailand, said the private sector considered many new faces in the Cabinet as capable. However, the new Cabinet has to speed up its implementation of economic policies, like investment in infrastructure projects, pushing the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), expanding broadband Internet coverage and promoting the economy at community level.

Stanley Kang, chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand, shared similar views, saying the government had talked and advertised a lot about the EEC but laws and regulations were not yet in place. “As Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak remains in the Cabinet, we expect them to follow the same policy, but ministers have to hurry up with investments in infrastructure projects,” said Kang. He expected the new team of ministers at the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry could improve the rural economy. Kang also voiced concerns over the recent strengthening of the baht in comparison with regional currencies, which could adversely impact Thai exports.

Kobsidthi Silpachai, head of Capital Markets Research at Kasikornbank, said that he wanted the new Cabinet to carry out tax reforms in order to address the issue of inequality of income. He said high tax rates for high-income people led to brain drain while a high tax rate on durable goods imposes a burden on grassroots and middle-income groups, who borrow money to pay for the goods. He also called for prioritisation of reform in education with a focus on quality. The issue of corruption also needs to be addressed, he said.

“We need to seriously deal with corruption, or else much of the allocated budget will be wasted on bogus projects that do society little good,” he added.

Regarding economic portfolios, Deputy PM Somkid Jatusripitak appears to have further consolidated his role in managing the economy to win more support from the grassroots population ahead of the upcoming general election.

As the economic growth rate rose to an annualised 4.3 per cent in the third quarter of this year, the highest in 18 quarters, the new Prayut Cabinet is expected to push for more public-private sector cooperation to uplift small enterprises in rural areas. Local government budgets amounting to billions of baht will likely be used to drive a new round of growth.

The political reform committee, appointed as one of the 13 committees under the new national reform law, this week invited leaders of key parties to share with it their views on Thailand’s future politics and the reform blueprint.

The first day of the week started with Chartthai Pattana’s director Nikorn Chamnong who was first to meet with the committee, before being followed by Bhumjaithai Party’s leader Anutin Charnvirakul, Chart Pattana’s advisor Suwat Liptapanlop and Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Chair Anek Laothamatas presented them in turn with five key political reform issues that the committee has addressed to guide reform in the blueprint.

While wanting to give support to free and fair elections, the committee wished also to promote Dharma-led democracy where compassion and morality wouldbe adopted to lead the regime, introduce mechanisms to address conflict, decentralise power and, last but not least, promote a healthy political culture as a solid foundation for future Thai politics.

Anek later said the invited parties had agreed with all the points, and suggested that political culture, though a long-term process, would be key to helping lay a foundation for strong politics in the country.

Anek said the committee has been developing the plan for transforming political culture, so that it could be put in place, and it’s something “educational” and “time consuming”.

However, he said, concerned parties need to join hands and nurture it following their roles and duties. He added that several requirements for developing a stronger political culture already exists, pending further utilisation, and suggested “compromise” as an example.

During the meeting, Anek noted his observations on that front. The invited leaders agreed that to reduce conflict and division, they would help reduce their stated “conditions” in order to participate in “negotiations” so that the country could move forward. They said if the conflict and division continued, they wished to see peaceful approaches to deal with it.

They also said they agreed with new rules and laws that have been set, and agreed that they would accept the election results. Whether to join the government or not, the “conditions” could be discussed later, Anek quoted Suwat as saying, recounting his mention of popularity as one of the factors in their decisions.

“With such compromise, what we can see now is that the ‘political temperature’ has reduced,” said Anek.

Anek said Democrat leader Abhisit particularly stressed that point, calling for introduction of a set of political ethics standards.

Abhisit had said that the best political reform was not through laws, but through political ethics and guidelines to follow. Anchoring behaviour in ethical norms and standards may take time to develop, and time is the biggest challenge in Thai politics.

Nikorn also agreed. He said while the election was important, political culture, decentralisation and others were no less so, as they were actually fundamental to politics.

The noted political reformer suggested the committee reprioritise its work in the blueprint.

“After listening, I have realised that ‘political reform’ is [implementing] critical changes in the way we do things, with concerned parties taking part based on their roles and duties. People need to take part, and on alert, having not just rights, but duties to perform. The politicians, meanwhile said they didn’t want to see a coup again, and they too should take part,” said Anek.

The committee will meet with Pheu Thai’s heavyweight, Sudarat Keyurapan to hear her views on Tuesday before holding public hearings and submitting the plan to the government next month.

Although the junta has not confirmed that it will contest the coming election, the latest set of questions tossed around by its leader, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, has made people think twice about the issue. One of the questions he asked people was whether it was the junta’s right to support a political party, raising speculation that the junta might even set up its own party.

Prayut has just reshuffled his Cabinet for the fourth time. With the election drawing near, it cannot help but make people think that these changes, especially at the Agriculture Ministry, really have something to do with the election.

The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has long been known among government executives as the “grade A” ministry, not only because of its huge budget, but because it deals with rural masses who could become a good political base.

As a result, major parties have long vied to wield power at the ministry. In recent coalition governments, it has been dominated by major parties.

When Thaksin Shinawatra wielded power a decade ago, the Agriculture Ministry was overseen by his party’s ministers: Somsak Thepsuthin and his vice minister, Newin Chidchob, followed by Sudarat Keyurapan and others.

Populist policies

It was also at this time that the ministry became political, with a number of populist projects introduced – from the “million cow” project to the “million rubber tree” project – to win popularity among the many farmers.

As a result of these policies over many years, Thai Rak Thai and its successor Pheu Thai have been able to maintain popularity among the rural masses. This highlights how significant the ministry is in terms of creating a strong political base.

The latest Cabinet reshuffle, if anything, has suggested a renewed effort by the junta to reach these masses. The new ministers and vice ministers, Krisda Boonrat, Luck Wajananawat and Wiwat Salayakamthorn, are all high-profile figures who have long been working with the farmers.

Krisda was a former permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, which works directly towards improving people’s living conditions and security at the grassroots level. Over the past 30 years, Luck has worked as a banker for the poor at the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the largest lender to Thai farmers. Wiwat, meanwhile, for almost all of his life served the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and adopted His Majesty’s self-sufficiency philosophy to initiate self-sufficient agricultural education centres nationwide.

Although the junta has not yet confirmed that it will enter politics, by sending people who have worked closely with the masses it is strongly suggesting that it wants the approval of farmers … if not yet their votes.

The only question that remains is whether the junta would be able to give them back something more sustainable than populist projects, rather than just try to take their votes and use their support for political purposes, as past governments did.

The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases on Friday issued the warrant for Pol Colonel Chairit Anurit, former deputy commander of Metropolitan Police Division 5.

He was accused of malfeasance and violating Article 157 of the Criminal Code.

Chairit has failed to respond to two summons sent to him by the Royal Thai police to answer charges of malfeasance.

The National Council for Peace and Order’s legal department officer early this month filed a complaint accusing Chairit of dereliction of duty for failing to arrest Yingluck despite knowing that she was a defendant in a case over the handling of her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

The NCPO complaint is in addition to a criminal charge against Chairit for using a fake vehicle licence plate, and the disciplinary action taken against him earlier by the police that resulted in his dismissal from service.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha removed General Tanasak Patimapragorn and Admiral Narong Pipatnasai as his deputies, as well Minister attached to Prime Minister’s Office Omsin Chivapruek, Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdej Sitabutr, Tourism And Sport Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, Industry Minister Atchaka Sribunruang, Deputy Transport Minister Pichit Akarathit and Deputy Education Minister ML Panadda Diskul.

Ministers switching portfolios are:

Adul Saengsingkaew, from social development and human security minister to labour minister;

General Chatchai Sarikalya, from agriculture and cooperative minister to deputy premier;

Suvit Maesincee, from minister attached to the PM’s Office’s to science minister;

General Anantaporn Kanjanarat, from energy minister to social development minister;

Chutima Bunyapraphasara, from deputy agriculture minister to deputy commerce minister; and

Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, from justice minister to minister attached to the PM’s Office.

Deputy Prime Minister ACM Prajin Juntong is handed an additional assignment as justice minister and Sontirat Sontijirawong is upgraded from deputy to full commerce minister.

New faces in the Cabinet are:

Former deputy government spokesman Kobsak Pootrakool, who becomes a PM’s Office Minister;

General Chaichan Changmongkol, from Permanent Secretary of Defence to Deputy Defence Minister;

Weerasak Kowsurat as Tourism and Sport Minister,

Former Interior Permanent Secretary Krissada Boonraj, who becomes Agriculture Minister,

Former Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives manager Lak Wajananawatch, who is now Deputy Agriculture Minister;

Scholar Wiwat Salyakamthorn, who becomes Deputy Agriculture Minister;

Former CEO of PTT Pairin Chuchot-taworn, who takes over as Deputy Transport Minister.

Siri Jirapongphan, former executive director of the Petroleum Institute of Thailand, is Energy Minister;

Former Mahidol University president Udom Kachintorn is Deputy Education Minister; and

Former Industry permanent secretary Somchai Hanhiran takes over as Deputy Industry Minister.

Nikorn said the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) had drafted the bill in line with the constitution, which requires current judges to meet new qualifications in order to stay in the office, but the National Legislative Assembly amended the draft, allowing all of them to stay on. Four of the judged have unexpired terms, while the terms have expired for the remaining five, yet all would remain under the NLA amendment until the new House convenes.

Nikorn said the current judges are viewed as having been involved in past political conflict although nobody knows what the extent of the truth of that view. A full reset of the court would therefore be the best choice to get beyond the allegation, he said. Because the NLA decided otherwise, questions about the neutrality of judges would remain in people’s minds and conflict would likely continue.

“What we need is an institution which is non-partisan. But if it’s not, where should we move forward in the future? This is something that we are worried about,” said Nikorn, adding he would like the issue to be publicly discussed for the public to ponder in case there are still ways to fix its.

The bill was passed by the NLA on Thursday, and is pending review by concerned agencies including the CDC within 10 days before it is finalised and promulgated.