On Tuesday, more than three months after that decisive election, Thailand finally has a new prime minister — but it’s not Mr. Pita. The new parliament chose as prime minister Srettha Thavisin, a 61-year-old real estate tycoon and a new member of Pheu Thai. Mr. Srettha quickly received the royal endorsement of the king, making his selection official.
Pheu Thai was ostensibly part of the same pro-democracy, anti-military camp as Move Forward, and the two parties were allies. That was until Mr. Pita was forced to drop his bid for prime minister in the face of intractable military and conservative opposition. But to get the top job, Mr. Srettha had to engage in backroom dealmaking with two military-backed parties led by the two now-former generals who staged the 2014 coup. This is not just blatantly undemocratic but a betrayal of Pheu Thai leaders’ past pledge — repeated during the campaign — that they would not form any alliance with the coupmakers.
So much for that pledge. Now, the parties of the coupmakers will reportedly get several cabinet positions in Mr. Srettha’s 11-party coalition government. Many Pheu Thai supporters, known broadly as “red shirts,” are rightfully angry, as are the millions of other Thais who voted in record numbers for a clean break from the military-dominated past.
This kind of postelection maneuvering is normal in parliamentary systems, where political dealmaking often means forming unsavory alliances. In this case, it makes a mockery of the democratic process. Many Thais find it particularly offensive that their clear vote for a return to democracy and a reform of the system has been thwarted by the very same forces that Mr. Pita had promised to tackle head-on.
The Move Forward Party has been forced into the opposition. Mr. Pita’s bid to be prime minister was blocked by a provision in the country’s rigged and undemocratic constitution, drafted by the coupmakers, that dilutes the power of the elected parliament by pairing it with an unelected military-appointed senate. Mr. Pita himself has been suspended from parliament — and might face harsher penalties — while the Constitutional Court decides whether he violated election rules by owning a financial stake in a media company.
Pheu Thai is the latest version of the party of billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in an earlier coup and spent the past 15 years in exile rather than face a lengthy prison term for corruption and abuse of power after being tried and convicted in absentia. Mr. Thaksin timed his dramatic return to Thailand for this past week, just before Mr. Srettha was formally named prime minister. Thais rightfully suspect that some secret deal was made between Pheu Thai and the military that will end up seeing Mr. Thaksin receive a royal pardon, perhaps on the grounds of his age and ill health. Suspicions were heightened when Mr. Thaksin was taken to a civilian hospital from prison after a mere 12 hours in detention.
None of this should be a surprise since this is precisely what Thailand’s ruling generals always intended. They wanted to preserve their role in politics and have control over any future civilian government, while creating the fig leaf of democracy in the form of a pseudo-election to placate restive Thais and the country’s Western backers, including the United States.
So far, Thais have shown remarkable restraint in the face of this usurping of the popular will. Protests over the past few years often turned violent as the military responded with repressive tactics. More than 1,400 people, many of them teenagers, were arrested. But without real reform — which is what people voted for — patience could wear thin, and Thailand could again descend into another cycle of protest and repression.
Thailand poses a dilemma for the United States, which counts the country as a “major non-NATO ally.” Ties between the two countries date back to 1833, making Thailand arguably America’s oldest Asian ally. The U.S. and Thai militaries annually hold joint training exercises called Cobra Gold, and the country is seen as one of America’s essential security bulwarks against an expansionist China. Thailand also boasts the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, and its importance as a regional business hub for multinationals, including American companies, has grown as the United States has tried to decouple from China and diversify supply chains.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quick to congratulate Mr. Srettha and said the United States looked forward to strengthening the alliance between the two countries.
But the United States must not turn a blind eye to any country, including (or especially) an ally, sliding further into authoritarianism. The Biden administration needs to let Mr. Srettha and the generals know that relations, strained by the 2014 coup, cannot reach their fullest potential until the expressed will of the people is respected and elections are meaningful. The military needs to allow Mr. Srettha to govern free from pressure. Human rights, including the right to peaceful protests, must be respected. And military coups must become a thing of the past — including a coup by constitution, which is what just happened.
