The Thai junta leader has enacted absolute power to terminate three public agencies and to order gold mining operators to suspend mining activities.
On 13 December 2016, the Royal Gazette website published three new orders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) leader, which are the NCPO Head’s Order No. 71/2016, No. 72/2016, and No. 73/2016.
Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, invoked authorities under Section 44 of the Interim Constitution to enact the orders. Section 44 gives absolute power to the regime.
The NCPO Head’s Order No. 71/2016, terminates the laws on the establishment and functions of three public agencies, which are the Office of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council, the Political Development Council and the Law Reform Commission of Thailand.
In other words, the order was enacted to get rid of the three public agencies.
According to the Thai News Agency, Prayut said that the three organisations have already “served their purposes” and the staff of the three should be transferred to other public organisations.
The NCPO Head’s Order No. 72/2016 in brief dictates that the gold mining operators must suspend all mining activities after 1st January 2016 while the NCPO Head’s Order No. 73/2016 suspends the director of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) and his deputy from the post.
The junta leader said that the two former ONESQA officers will be transferred to other posts in the Prime Minister’s Office.