After months of waiting, Thailand's political sector saw light at the end of the tunnel but that ray of hope came in the form of the use of Section 44 with an announcement by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday.
The Section 44 announcement basically was issued to "reset political parties", politicians claim.
Under the order issued by our dear leader, political parties will be able to engage in administrative work but the political ban on parties remains in place, which means that they will not be allowed to meet or hold rallies.
Umesh Pandey is Bangkok Post editor.
It stated that the once the organic laws concerning the election of members of parliament come into effect, the cabinet will ask the National Council for Peace and Order to revoke the remaining ban on political activities.
The order addressed the immediate question on the future of political parties. Under the Political Parties Act, which was promulgated in early October, there were clauses on membership and registration that the parties needed to fulfil by Jan 5. The PM's Section 44 order requires existing parties to begin the registration process from April 1.
Under the order, party executives will be allowed to continue in their positions but existing party members will be given a choice to leave the party.
Political pundits have already started to claim this use of Section 44 is a move aimed at paving the way for the formation of new political parties, possibly parties that have been rumoured to be in the making with the aim of the military transferring its powers if and when elections are held 336 days from today.
What was more surprising was the fact that under our dear leader's abuse of power this time, all party members who want to keep their membership have to submit a letter to confirm their choice of party leader and pay their membership fee within a period of 30 days or lose their membership.
Gen Prayut perhaps did not realise the effect of this herculean task on many of the older parties. The 70-year-old Democrat Party, for instance, may lose the bulk of its nearly three million members. April is a holiday month in Thailand with Chakri Day on April 6 and Songkran around April 13-16.
The Pheu Thai Party, which for the past decade has been the target of many moves by coup-led governments, is likely to be the least affected as it has a membership base of just about 100,000, so would not have as much difficulty as the Democrats in gathering signatures or membership fees.
Moreover, the party law previously exempted members of existing parties from paying a membership fee for four years. But the Section 44 order has nullified that and ordered both old and new parties to collect a membership fee for 2018 from at least 500 qualified members within 180 days, from April 1 to the end of September.
Although it is healthy to have more competition in the political arena, it is important to ensure a level playing field. What Gen Prayut has done with his use of the magic wand is give new political parties a month's head start as they are allowed to start by March 1 against April 1 for existing parties.
This move looks set to help political parties and individuals who support the military, such as the likes of street protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban and Paiboon Nititawan, a former senator appointed by the military.
They have openly professed their support for the military-backed government to remain in power and will be able to get a head start in their sinister moves to keep the coup leaders in power in the future.
Although Gen Prayut has denied that these moves are a "reset" of the political parties, if one looks closely enough at the way things are going, one has no doubts that the military intends to remain in power after the election in November 2018.
If the military government has the intention of remaining in power, then it should let the people know in advance. Giving advantage to some groups and being unfair to others is not going to help.
Thailand's elites should learn from the experience of the past 12 years of internal strife. Information flow today is at a much faster pace than it was a decade ago and any misuse of power to benefit any particular group or help the military remain in power could take the country closer to the already ticking timebomb.