A job too far for Thailand's new prime minister

General Prayuth Chan-ocha was supposed to retire in September – but it’s now safe to assume that the gold watch will stay in the box for some time longer. The commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army has selected himself for a new role – that of acting prime minister.

This important piece of news came under the heading of “Announcement No. 10” – one of 19 announcements and two orders made by the junta over the last 24 hours. Each declaration is read out several times on television channels before they fade to black. The stations have been taken over by the military now – an institution not known for its programing nous.

The country’s new prime minister is not going to run the country on his own. We are expecting another announcement soon, listing the new members of an appointed cabinet – and the general will be breathing down their necks. He wants nothing less than the “reform of the political structure, the economy and the society”.

It is unlikely that General Prayuth’s new job at the top will herald some sort of transformational moment, though. Instead, what he’s really got himself is full ownership of Thailand‘s intractable political crisis – a long-running spat between rival elites that will be extraordinarily difficult to solve.

On one side you have Thaksin Shinawatra and family – political juggernauts who have managed to win every single election since 2001. They successfully tapped the political and social aspirations of the country’s majority rural population with popular policies like universal health-care and micro-lending schemes and they remain popular to this day.

Chief among their opponents are Bangkok’s upper and middle classes – the Thai establishment – who accuse the Shinawatras, among other things, of corruption and nepotism. The pro-establishment faction has a big problem, though: it can’t get itself elected. The party which best represents its views – the Democrat party – is impressive only in its political ineptitude.

Perhaps that’s why they have seemed pleased with General Prayuth’s coup. His brand-new “appointed cabinet” sounds a lot like the “council of experts” proposed by pro-establishment protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban  (currently being detained, along with a host of other political leaders, by the military authorities). Furthermore, both the military and the urban elite seem disillusioned with democracy, an awkward political concept which always seems to let wrong team win.

Democracy, however, is the only means of governance going – a process which by its very nature consists of open elections – and behind-doors horse-trading. Thailand’s top military official can’t replace it, nor will he be able to replicate it in the confines of Bangkok’s Army Club. The politicians will have to do it figure out the future for themselves.

Fixing Thailand is a job too far for General Prayuth. The problem is, he’s made himself the man to do it.

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