Thailand's voters approved a new constitution last weekend. The referendum results were ordained; while the vote was not rigged, the context in which it occurred made approval a virtual certainty. The new charter locks in the role of the military as the guiding force in Thai politics, a development that suits the generals and their allies who profit from the current political and economic order.
Thailand has been run by a military junta, headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general, since it overthrew the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. Yingluck, who took office in 2011, was subsequently charged with corruption in connection with a rice purchasing program designed to lift farmers' incomes.
Officially, the coup was launched to restore order to the country as violence between the government and its opponents threatened to descend to civil war. While positioning itself above politics, the military was acting in ways that protected and advanced the interests of the opposition, which had waged war against Yingluck and her allies for over a decade.