A new GPS looks as if it is needed urgently.
After only a few months in the driving seat, the ruling generals appear to be in dire need of an early course correction.
To say that the government, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the National Reform Assembly are all over the map is an understatement.
Who has any idea what kind of country this will be at the end of this military experimentation? Is there a list of results we can expect next year?
To be fair, ideas, plans and aspirations are there in abundance. It is just difficult to imagine how these, often piecemeal, projects will fit together to form a big picture of, say, a more equitable, more transparent, fairer Thailand.
The bigger problem is I am not even sure a fairer Thailand is the goal of the junta's much-touted reforms.
Sometimes, quite often actually, I am led to believe that what coup leaders want is an obedient Thailand.
It does not matter what kind of governing system, infrastructure or economic model we pursue, just so long as people in the country are kept under strict control. No showing of opinions; especially dissenting voices. No public rallies and absolutely no acts of defiance against the authorities.
Sometimes, I believe these are the real goals of the so-called reforms.
As long as the citizens are kept down with their heads bowed, the country will remain in peace, according to the junta. All other grandiose projects, reform plans and assemblies could well just be distractions to help people survive this year-long journey towards total submission.
Otherwise, how can we explain why the government's work and reform projects appear to be incoherent, impractical, overly ambitious and hard to achieve in a short period of time?
Example 1: The Transport Ministry is looking at ways to raise the height of three bridges over the Chao Phraya River so passenger and freight boats can pass under them more easily during the rainy season. How could this plan shoot to the top of the agenda for the country's transport sector?
Transport Minister Prajin Juntong specified three bridges for this seemingly ambitious modification: Memorial, Krung Thon and Nonthaburi.
He did not specify how many freight or passenger boats have had difficulty passing beneath these low-hanging bridges; how much economic damage their failure has caused; how much money must be invested in raising them; nor did he say how much revenue the country will gain from these bridge-raising projects.
More importantly, how will this project fit with the ministry's plan to invest more than two trillion baht to upgrade the country's transport infrastructure, which includes navigational routes, trade distribution centres and piers?
Example II: How does the bridge-raising plan connect with the highlight of the government's economic reform agenda — the digital economy?
If the government is keen to build roads and rail links then it should probably continue with having manufacturing, logistics and exports as the lynchpin of the economy.
But the government through Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula has sent a clear message that it wants to digitise the economy as a way to move away from low-end manufacturing and towards more value-added creativity and innovation.
It's understandable that not all transport projects can be integrated into the economic upgrade idea but there should be a blueprint somewhere that links every project and scheme together, so that we can make sense of what is going on.
Otherwise, it would appear, as it does now, as if each minister is coming up with what he or she wants to do on his or her own without any regard for a master plan that I'm no longer sure exists.
It is hard to see how the digital economy proposal can complement an attempt by the Education Ministry to have students reciting 12 desirable values in school.
The goal of a digital economy is to foster innovation and creativity so that people can create products and services that fuel economic growth. Innovation and creativity can't be bred by forcing children to recite what adults want them to memorise.
Besides, what is the point of having a digital economy or for every household to have total access to broadband at low cost when we also have martial law that slaps down free, honest speech?
The regime needs to set a new direction for its government or risk adding to Thailand's lost years.
Atiya Achakulwisut is Contributing Editor, Bangkok Post.