Will there be an election? Will Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha return to the top seat under an outsider quota? Will a love-all, serve-all ticket win Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul a chance? Or will the country see a second female PM in veteran politician Sudarat Keyuraphan?
If these morsels herald a glimpse of Thailand's post-coup politics, the future looks bleak with nothing for ordinary people to look forward to. The "reform" that many people had called for and which the military junta promised it would implement before the country proceeds to the next election looks like being mere political rhetoric, if it's not been written off already.
It's a pity that at a time when government policies, laws and law enforcement are having a direct effect on people's well-being and therefore in dire need of improvement, the country's politics, the main vehicle for these crucial issues to be upgraded, looks likely to remain a game of power for a small group of people in the circle.
Atiya Achakulwisut is Contributing Editor, Bangkok Post.
The calm political surface enforced by the military regime's authoritarianism recently bubbled with speculation that some members of the top brass were preparing to set up a political party to contest the next poll. The goal would be to support Gen Prayut to become the next premier. There was also a speculation the military party could support a career politician to serve as PM while it controls the game behind the scenes.
Another theory that has popped up time and again is that a form of national reconciliation could be reached if the country's two largest political parties, Pheu Thai and the Democrats, could join hands and form a government after the next election, a possibility that has been denied by both parties. With the election still at least a year away, these political rumours seem to have led to nothing and produced no tangible impacts on the current situation.
If there is anything the sentiments could signal, however, it's a possibility that the military regime's "new politics" will be nothing but a rewinding of the political past. It's highly possible that with or without the military camouflaged as a political party, militarism will take up even deeper roots after the next poll.
It does not help that career politicians, pro-democracy groups, academics and activists have become too weak to stand up to the military's authoritarianism and challenge its ineffectual vision to have an outdated bureaucracy spearhead national reforms. But then again, the junta itself has failed to prepare the ground for a more meaningful body politic or effective reform to take place despite its pledges to deliver both.
Mistaking the silence which results from suppression for peace, and a lack of dissent due to infighting in the liberal camp and fatigue from the general public for order, the regime was led into believing it could hold on to this convenient arrangement after a return to "democracy" with help from its charter, the Senate it will hand pick, and a supposedly mandatory 20-year development plan.
But if the junta cares to look, it will realise its blueprint for a post-coup military-and-bureaucracy-guided Thailand is not working. The attempt is not only ineffectual but also self-harming. The Ministry of Education's release of a video clip of a traditional rendition of an un-rhymed poem to promote the government's Thailand 4.0 vision is a case in point. The clip has invoked so many jeers for being irrelevant and old-fashioned that it seems to have been pulled off the internet altogether.
Criticism that dog the Chinese-Thai high-speed train project after the government used Section 44 to exempt certain laws on state procurement procedure from being applied point to a possible lack of foresight and adequate consultation. The cabinet's approval for a foundation to lease a piece of state land to build the controversial four-billion-baht Bangkok Observation Tower without bidding does not appear well considered.
The latest case of imprudence is the implementation of the new migrant workers law without proper public communication and adequate grace period. Despite its good intention to prevent human trafficking, the government ended up having to resort to Section 44 to delay its own law, a ludicrous move.
The junta's inefficacy is being tolerated because there is no real challenge to its dictatorial authority. If we draw a parallel with leadership, when people are thirsty enough, they will crawl through the desert to find water. When they get there they might find the water is just a mirage, and be forced to drink the sand.
But they won't do so forever.