In its infinite benevolence and wisdom and all-around sacrifice, the exclusive men's club known as the National Council for Peace and Order (Junta) gave back some of the stuff they took from us four and a half years ago.
Turns out they handled our stuff pretty roughly. Some of it, it looks like they put it under one of those tank treads they use to grind DVDs and fake Gucci bags they occasionally seize in order to provide a media moment. So while you can still see "Rule of Law" where we wrote it, it's pretty faded and abused.
We did get one national guffaw, though. In order to override Section 44-magnum orders that banned freedom of speech, freedom to gather, freedom to communicate and so on, the general prime minister had to sign a Section 44-magnum to un-ban them.
Sort of.
The common people are getting a computer security act Ver 3.0. It effectively legalises the military, national security folks, the police and more to listen in when it pleases them. In most cases, because it's far more important to wiretap than to respect the law, there won't be a need for any of that courtroom mumbo-jumbo and judges and such.
Business gets its own special laws. Add to the list of authorised no-warrant tappers the Revenue Department. Add to the list of what they can do, seize all the company's books and accounts and computers and phones and tablets.
The most heavily damaged civil right is the one where people get together to talk, to disagree, to petition their government and, quite importantly, to support and protest. Outdoors.
You can't have freedom at all without the two core freedoms: speech and public gathering. And there still remains a very damaged but usable freedom of speech (freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc).
But when the all-male junta announced in the Royal Gazette its leader had signed a Section 44-magnum order to abolish its infamous anti-speech Order 3/2015, its members and aides must have been sniggering. Because instantly taking full effect was the junta's Public Assembly Act of 2015.
And who saw this coming? On that day of publication, national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda very publicly ordered his deputy Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul to "keep a close watch" on political groups. He did not announce the favourite shirt colour of those who must be watched.
Bottom line. If you and some friends go out this afternoon, peacefully, and speak in public against the government, maybe have a sign or two, you're all felons, just like you were a week ago. Different law, same result. And here's the sad story: No freedom of assembly, no freedom, period.
Because the junta's chosen assemblymen passed the junta-written law on public demonstrations, your peaceful demonstration with just a few people can land you in the Greybar Hotel, and facing serious problems, like 10 years of free room and board. You cannot gather, for any reason, without permission.
Here's the argument for the first Public Assembly Act in the country's existence: 10 years of street-blocking, airport-seizing, mall-occupying, Government House-vandalising, building-burning protests that seriously, sometimes violently interfered with citizens just going about their lives, merchants just trying to serve customers. Red, white, yellow and blue-clad people took over entire city blocks, buildings and businesses.
Something Had to Be Done. Just as the yellow and red (primarily) shirts went way too far, far too long, the junta figured it would also go way, way overboard and swung the pendulum of extremism in the other direction.
This can't end well. A public with legitimate, worrying grievances, with no way to display or to present those grievances, won't be peaceful for long. No right to assemble without government permission, no freedom. No freedom, complaints build up and up and then explode.
The very final, last-page Section 279 of the (actual) constitution legalises all junta orders and acts under Section 44-magnum of the (provisional) constitution. That's not exaggeration. In fact, it does more.
Just as the junta officially legalised the illegal coup of 2014 as its first act of power seizure, and gave amnesty to everyone involved, so Section 279 specifies that every action taken by the junta or any of its subsidiaries since 2014 cannot be challenged.
In the currently unlikely event that someone not named "Prayut" heads the next government, (s)he will be in a very tight cage.
More troubling, though, is that whatever the next prime minister's name, Thai citizens will have quite a difficult time showing mass support, and a thousand little and large booby traps blocking efforts to show opposition.