Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha played first cool but now cute with his four-year-old promise of holding general elections. Since 2015, the prime minister has promised numerous times that a parliamentary election would occur "next year". Most recently, on the anniversary of his coup, he waffled again, stating there will be an election "no earlier than" early next year.
The prime minister has arguably reached the end of public patience. The nation is both anxious and prepared for the proper resumption of normal political life. This requires that Gen Prayut stop teasing and delaying. He now owes the country two forthright and honest deadlines -- not generalities or smoke-and-mirrors, but exact dates especially when the organic laws on elections are in place.
In the first place, he owes the public an actual election date. Just two months ago, he promised an election next February, which would mean -- assuming a traditional Sunday vote -- four possible dates, from Feb 4 to Feb 24. Last Tuesday, he invited even more cynicism about this than usual, backing away from that quite recent February promise. His current position is that an election will be held "according to my schedule ... in early 2019".
Taking him at his word, which is admittedly a tough job on this subject, he has moved the possible election date back, from February to some date before June 30. That's a big difference. Thai people deserve better than this vagueness. And the world, of course, is watching closely and changing its opinion of Thailand and the government every time Gen Prayut pushes the date back once again.
The prime minister managed to even sound somewhat arrogant in his latest pronouncement. "I have said already that [the election] must go according to my schedule." Such a harsh statement seems to clash with his promise to return power to the people. With his "my schedule" proclamation, the prime minister removes his own government and junta from the process, as well as every other Thai citizen. The political careers of military men of the past who have acted on such statements of individual power have never ended well.
In addition to a firm and fixed election date, the entire country needs Gen Prayut and his National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to lift onerous, punitive and unsustainable restrictions on basic freedoms.
Political parties, in particular, must be free to meet and organise. Threatening and intimidating "temporary" orders of the NCPO must be revoked. Most importantly, the military regime must return to every Thai citizen his and her freedom of speech, freedom to petition government and freedom of movement.
Before and during the military regime, a minority expressed that elections should not be held. The standard cry has been "reform before election". This unacceptable opinion, which is incompatible with the general desire for Thailand to strive for democracy, has been encouraged by the same military regime that has imprisoned many for merely espousing the opposite, and correct view -- that Thailand can advance only when it has a democratic election and freedom of speech.
It is not even clear why Gen Prayut is further delaying an election date. It is distressing to the country and damaging to his own standing that he refuses to address this question. His "legal roadmap" explained in early 2015 is complete, with a constitution and key election laws in place.
The prime minister surely knows that arrests of activists, ridiculous charges of sedition against opposition and the stifling of free speech at gunpoint can no longer sustain his regime. From now, with the junta in its fifth year, refusal to set a firm election date makes the regime less stable by the day.