The reshuffling of bureaucrats through the use of Gen Prayut's Section 44 special power led to dissatisfaction and apathy. Suranand Vejjajiva was secretary-general to the prime minister during the Yingluck Shinawatra government and is now a political analyst. The government was rebuked and branded as "a tyranny of the majority" -- the term which was also later used against the governments of Thaksin Shinawatra more than a decade later. The Thaksin Shinawatra government faced a similar fate even though democracy was supposed to have taken a firmer hold under the 1997 Constitution, the so-called "People's Constitution". The same business oligarchs who once supported elected political parties can change to support a coup and a military government.

Source: Bangkok Post May 15, 2017 21:45 UTC