Political analyst and lecturer Thirayuth Boonmi has made it a ritual to speak publicly once or twice a year about the government and its performance, and his comments usually leave a deep impact.
His stinging comments are music to the ears of government critics, as his criticisms and assessments about the government's policies are usually spot-on.
In the span of almost two decades, virtually every government leader -- popular or not -- have received their fair share of his review. And the one person the academic has offended the most, is ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
In one of his criticisms, Mr Thirayuth said that Thailand was being "Thaksinised", but indicated that Thaksin was at a crossroads. While he saw Thaksin's potential to reform the country, he believed that the ex-premier was more likely to go down a disastrous path.
However, given the academic's latest comments about the military government, political observers believe Mr Thirayuth might have added another government leader to his "offended" list.
According to Mr Thirayuth -- who, true to form, chose Dec 10, a public holiday, to air his views -- the regime and the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha may be in danger of following in the footsteps of the Thaksin administration.
The military government is accused of weakening public independent organisations and taking advantage of other political parties ahead of the upcoming general election.
In his view, some leading figures in the regime -- including Gen Prayut, which is widely tied to the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) -- are likely to stage their political comebacks after the next poll, because that has been the goal from the very beginning. Mr Thirayuth substantiated the claim by pointing to the rejection of a draft constitution written by a panel led by Borwornsak Uwanno.
He also said the 250-member Senate, which is to be chosen by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), will be instrumental in helping the regime prolong its stay in power.
The senators will join the 500 MPs to select the prime minister. With 250 senators under its belt, the regime needs just another 126 votes from the House to pick the prime minister of its choice.
Mr Thirayuth's criticism also touched on the government's efforts to address social and economic problems, and to sum up his analysis, he believed most of the schemes are misdirected.
While Mr Thirayuth's harsh review of the Prayut administration and the regime has struck a chord with many of the regime's critics, several observers say it is not entirely new. These observers believe that the reason the public takes Mr Thirayuth's criticisms seriously is solely because of his image as a distinguished academic with no apparently political leanings.
While his views are often taken seriously, some politicians disagree with one of his predictions -- that is, Gen Prayut's return as the prime minister. One of these politicians is the deputy leader of the Democrat Party, Nipit Intarasombat, who firmly believes that the job won't be handed to Gen Prayut on a silver platter.
According to the veteran politician, the government is losing its legitimacy by each day because the regime is taking an unfair advantage of politicians.
In his view, the PPRP has a slim chance of winning big. Even if Gen Prayut is chosen as the prime minister after the general election, Mr Nipit said he does not see how the administration will be able to pull through.
He believes that the Senate's vote is not legitimate as its members are not voted in by the people.
Moreover, he said, when political parties are allowed to fully engage in political activities and election campaigns, the regime will face a barrage of criticism, which are almost certain to be more severe than those of Mr Thirayuth.
Voting paper stirs format fracas
The format of the ballot paper for a general election has never been an issue until now, when the constitution requires the use of a single ballot for both the constituency and party-list systems.
The Election Commission (EC) is responsible for the ballot design and while it has yet to be finalised, political parties and critics are turning up the heat on the poll agency.
At this stage, the issue is being handled by the EC Office which will forward the proposed design to the EC, possibly around the middle of next week.
The EC Office has come up with two designs. One includes the names and logos of political parties and the other contains numbers only.
The design at the centre of the dispute is the latter. Dubbed as "universal", the ballot contains just the numbers of election candidates and can be used in any constituency.
According to the EC's Office, the number-only ballot system will be easier to manage especially if ballot papers go missing or are damaged during shipment for overseas voting.
A dispute erupted after the "universal" design was suggested during the recent meeting between the regime, the EC, and representatives from dozens of political parties.
The critics have jumped all over it in part because it was reported Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha proposed it and it was interpreted as the regime's intervention in the EC's work -- a claim which both Gen Prayut and the EC Office have consistently denied.
However, it does not seem to matter much as to who floated the design. The cat is out of the bag and both are taking the heat.
Gen Prayut stands accused of interfering with the EC's work and the EC is under heavy fire for not knowing when to say no and putting poll transparency at risk.
Politicians and critics argue that the number-only design is bad news for political parties campaigning for support for their candidates in different constituencies.
This is because their candidates contesting in different constituencies will be assigned different numbers instead of the same numbers as in the previous elections.
And by dropping party names and logos, things are made worse because it is likely to confuse voters who may end up mistakenly casting votes for someone else. Memory can play tricks sometimes.
Their argument is also that the design of the ballot paper should enable voters to indicate their chosen candidate and party -- especially when the law makes it mandatory that candidates must be contesting the polls under a political party's banner.
Jatuporn Prompan, a key member of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), is among those who find the EC Office's reasoning to use the number-only ballot as unjustified.
The EC's job is to deliver a credible election and to do so it is obliged to design the ballot paper to help voters identify candidates and political parties. That means logos of political parties should be included as a visual aid, according to Mr Jatuporn, who is aligned with the Pheu Chart Party.
In his view, voter understanding and ease of voting should take priority, along with other criteria. Voter confusion may result in an election fiasco like the 2006 election and the 2014 polls.
In 2006, the Constitutional Court voted to invalidate the April 2 elections in that year on the basis that the positioning of ballot booths compromised voter privacy. During the Feb 2 polls in 2014, the court ruled the contest was unconstitutional because it did not take place on the same day across the country.
According to political observers, a military putsch followed both legal hassles in the elections in 2006 and 2014, so the controversy surrounding the ballot paper should not be treated lightly.
Lifting of ban not all rosy
Chaturon Chaisang, chairman of the Thai Raksa Chart Party's strategy committee, is among a number of anti-coup politicians and activists who can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the shackles imposed by the ban on political activities were lifted by the regime on Tuesday.
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) issued a fresh order in which it lifted nine orders and announcements that had prohibited political activities, including political gatherings of five people and more.
The order also mandated a lift on a freeze which had been imposed on financial transactions and bank accounts belonging to those politicians since the regime seized power in the 2014 coup.
A ban on those politicians leaving the country without permission of the regime has also been reversed. The freeze had made life difficult for those politicians as they had not been able to conduct any bank transactions, withdraw money from ATMs, or use their credit cards for four years.
Mr Chaturon told the Bangkok Post that the lifting of the political ban was a load off his chest as it freed him of all the hardship during those years. When his transactions were frozen, he petitioned the Central Administrative Court to revoke the freeze order. But since the political ban has now been lifted, Gen Prayut may now avoid the prospect of getting involved in any legal wrangle in court, said Mr Chaturon, who recently left the Pheu Thai Party to join Thai Raksa Chart, which is known to be the Pheu Thai's political offshoot.
However, Mr Chaturon said that other orders and announcements issued by the NCPO were still being kept in place, particularly an order which authorises soldiers to search, arrest and detain suspects without the need to seek court warrants. Mr Chaturon insisted that the regime should revoke this particular order and have law enforcement officers follow standard procedures outlined under the Criminal Code.
As long as the directive which gives soldiers excessive power remains in place, it is unlikely that the Feb 24 general election will be free and fair because the regime may use it to intimidate political parties which refuse to support it, Mr Chaturon said.
He also voiced concern that Gen Prayut still maintains special powers under the all-powerful Section 44 of the previous interim constitution. Mr Chaturon warned Gen Prayut not to invoke Section 44 in order to interfere with the work of the Election Commission, especially the organising of the Feb 24 poll.
Section 44 existed under the previous interim charter and has been carried over to the present constitution.
The section gives Gen Prayut absolute power in his capacity as NCPO chief to issue orders. However, political observers noted that Mr Chaturon's call may end up falling on deaf ears because the regime would not revoke its other orders and relinquish its special powers under Section 44 too easily.
This is because the regime has to deal with street rallies, which have now begun to re-emerge shortly after the political ban was lifted, observers said. However, laws already in place stipulate that police will need to be informed of any political gatherings 24 hours in advance.
On Tuesday, the NCPO also lifted the ban on allocations of financial support to parties by the Fund for Development of Political Parties, and the use of electronic media to communicate with party members.
