In response to recent bomb attacks, the junta will establish a ‘front-line cabinet’ working directly under the junta’s supervision to resolve conflicts in Thailand’s restive Deep South.    The junta is in the process of establishing a ‘front-line cabinet’, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta head and Prime Minister, told the media at Government House on 13 September 2016. This cabinet is expected to work directly under the junta on the peace talks process with Deep South insurgents.

While Thailand’s junta leader has enacted an order halting the trial of civilians in military courts, the deputy junta head has said this order could be nullified if ‘instability’ returns.      On 13 September 2016, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head and Defence Minister, said that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, has shown his commitment to a democratic system of governance by authorising the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Head’s Order No. 55/2016.

The junta head has said insurgents in Thailand’s restive Deep South must stop all violence and merge into one group before initiating peace talks with the Thai government.   On Monday, 29 August 2016, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta head and Prime Minister, spoke to the media about discussions on the Terms of Reference (ToR) for talks between the Thai government and Mara Patani, representing insurgent groups in Thailand’s restive Deep South, which will be held on 2 July in Malaysia.

A military prosecutor has officially charged eight people allegedly involved in a Facebook page mocking the Thai junta leader for crimes against the state. The Military Judge Advocate General’s Office on Tuesday, 23 August 2016 indicted eight people accused of being administrators of a parody Facebook page mocking the junta leader called ‘We Love General Prayut’ of Article 116 of the Criminal Code, the sedition law.

The Treasury Department has announced that it may ask Thailand’s junta leader to use his absolute power to amend laws that prevent investors from renting out lands in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to other businesses. Chakkrit Parapuntakul, Director General of the Treasury Department, told media that the department recently received a letter from the Industrial Estate Authorities of Thailand (IEAT) about laws that obstruct investors from developing industrial estates in SEZs and from renting them out to other businesses.