Since the 2014 coup, Thailand has changed little. Reform is a long-term and ongoing process. Indeed, Thailand and Thai people tend to deny changes, for example Thais accept a military culture within the democratic process.
There are different areas of reform such as economic, social, and educational reforms. However, for example, we have seen little educational reform under the current government. We have seen too many tutorial schools in Thailand, and it has become a part of Thai-education culture that students must pay for private tuition at such tutorial schools. Indeed, a large number of these school reflects a failure of the Thai education system which must be addressed before the Thai education system can be improved.
The very same metaphor can be applied to the country. When the government cannot properly function, Thailand should restructure its organisations and ministries in order to improve their long term effectiveness, instead of simply establishing a reform council.
I argue that most problems and recommendations, such as income inequality and education issues which have been highlighted by the National Reform Council are not significantly different from what we already heard from the existing governmental organisations such as the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).
Indeed, after the 2014 coup we observed greater centralisation and the expansion of bureaucratic power. Government officials remain unresponsive to the demands of the people.
In addition, prior the 2014 coup government officials were rather submissive towards politicians, and they are now very submissive towards the military. It has been observed that government officials work to please the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), rather than seeking to solve the country’s problems.
