As the Prayut Chan-o-cha government focuses on suppressing its critics, it seems to be letting something more serious go astray -- the economy.
Media outlets across the world have been focusing on news about how people, both politicians and normal citizens, are being detained for writing posts on Facebook. Such harsh action hurts the image of Thailand, a country where people used to enjoy freedom of expression and was a good place for doing business.
The government should realise that political crackdowns can have long-term impact, especially if, and when, they erode investor confidence in the already sluggish Thai economy, which will only suffer further.
Umesh Pandey is Asia Focus editor, Bangkok Post.
The government seems to be getting its priorities wrong. Instead of focusing on things that matter, like the economy, it seems to be concentrating on gagging the voices that disagree with its policies.
Many would say that the latest data on exports for the month of March should make me shut my mouth. We have seen positive figures for the country's exports for two consecutive months. With March's rise in exports by 1.3% year-on-year, that was on top of the 10.3% rise year-on-year during the month of February this year.
Let me further break down the numbers for you. The 10.3% rise in February was mainly due to the 1,051% surge in exports of gold, the price of which rose sharply. If we don't count gold and military equipment, then exports in February this year would have been -3.7%.
Gold came to the rescue during the month of March as well when a 262.5% rise year-on-year in the precious metal's value helped put exports in positive territory. This means that if gold, which is not plentiful in Thailand as we produce a mere 5.4 tonnes each year, was not there in March exports again would have fallen back by -1.1%.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak came out to say that if the country's political situation was calm, the economy would get back on track. Does Mr Somkid realise that the economic slowdown is gradually spreading and is starting to take a toll on the corporate sector as well?
If numbers have not bored you so far, let me share a few other figures to make my point here.
We all know that Thailand's household debt-to-GDP ratio stands at just about 80%, and the consumption side of this story of growth has been grinding to a halt amid a lack of funds and servicing of debt. Yet, what surprised me over the past week or so has been the data released by the various banks on their profitability during the first quarter of this year.
If one looks at the figures closely, there are some strange numbers that have started to pop up. Among the key figures is the profitability of the banking sector and the rise of non-performing loans (NPLs) in their portfolios.
The average decline in profits of the key financial institutions in the country during the first three months of this year was nearly 10% year-on-year, and to make matters worse NPLs rose by 18.5% year-on-year and 5.6% quarter-on-quarter.
The rise in NPLs was really not a surprise, given that we are seeing high household debt and falling crop prices as a result of limited subsidies.
These factors have taken a toll on consumers' ability to be live up to their obligations to pay back loans. But if one looks closely at the figures released by the various banks, a strange phenomenon is visible -- the corporate sector is also starting to fall into the NPL trap.
The NPL trap in the larger corporate sector -- the same experienced by the Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) segment -- comes as a shock. It shows that the languishing economy is now beginning to affect every segment of society, not just the working class or SMEs.
It is these numbers that make me fear for the future of the country's economy. And this is the reason why I have always said that we need a leader capable of creating confidence in the our economy, not a grumpy general who tends to vent his anger every now and then at critics. Not to mention put them in custody without solid reasons.
The Prayut government should realise that if it fails to tackle the problems of the economic slowdown, its current support base, whatever that remains among the elite, will evaporate.