{{Thailand’s military tightened its grip on power on Sunday as it moved to douse smoldering protests fuelled by social media and to rally commercial agencies and business to revitalize a battered economy.}}
The military overthrew the government on Thursday after months of debilitating and at times violent confrontation between the populist government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the royalist establishment.
Critics say the coup will not end the conflict between the rival power networks: the Bangkok-based elite dominated by the military, old money families and the bureaucracy, and an upstart clique led by Yingluck’s brother and former telecommunication mogul Thaksin Shinawatra. The Shinawatras draw much of their influence from the provinces.
The military has detained leaders of the ousted government including Yingluck and an unknown number of her ministers, party officials, and supporters. Leaders of six months of anti-government protests against Yingluck have also been held.
The military has thrown out the constitution, censored the media and on Saturday it dismissed the upper house Senate, Thailand’s last functioning legislature, in what amounts to a clean sweep of the political landscape.
Power now lies squarely in the hands of army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha and his junta known as the National Council for Peace and Order, and their priorities appeared to be stamping out dissent and tending to the economy.
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