Thailand itself was rocked by a military coup in 2014<\/a> when General Prayuth Chan-ocha<\/a> seized power from the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, solidifying his rule with closely-controlled elections five years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the country heading to the polls within the next few weeks, support for Prayuth appears to be slipping, and with it the preferential position of staunch ally Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the man who seized power from Myanmar\u2019s elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Ma Khine Thet, a young researcher from Myanmar, the election offers a glimmer of hope that with different people in charge in Bangkok, Thailand will throw its weight behind the anti-coup movement led by the National Unity Government (NUG) set up by Myanmar\u2019s overthrown legislators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the Thai opposition forms a government, they will likely support Myanmar\u2019s democratic movement, probably in cooperation with the US. But I worry that China, who\u2019s supporting Min Aung Hlaing, will pressure the new Thai administration,\u201d said Ma Thet, who asked to use a pseudonym amid fears for her security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ma Thet fled to Bangkok after her former colleague was thrown in jail by the military last year. Like many other advocates, students, journalists and politicians from Myanmar, she is anxious about being deported back to the country, where she could face prison and even torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Thai military government and the Myanmar junta have a \u2018big brother and younger brother\u2019 relationship,\u201d she said. \u201cThailand is among the very few countries that maintain a strong diplomatic relationship with the Burmese junta, and has considerable economic interests such as the Andaman Sea gas operations. Such interest prompts them to undermine our revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The election offers a chance for Thailand to reset its Myanmar strategy and change course, according to Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor at Chulalongkorn University\u2019s Faculty of Political Science and a prominent expert on Thai-Myanmar relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThailand needs a qualitatively different government under a different leadership to take charge of the Myanmar portfolio because the existing approach is bankrupt,\u201d Pongsudhirak told Al Jazeera in an interview in Bangkok. He argues that the new administration needs to engage with the NUG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThailand\u2019s Myanmar approach damages our country\u2019s international standing. The two countries share a long border and we don\u2019t want to see a Balkanisation of Myanmar. But this doesn\u2019t mean Thailand should kowtow to the State Administration Council [SAC],\u201d Pongsudhirak said, referring to the official name of the generals\u2019 latest regime. \u201cThe anti-coup resistance is gaining more ground and they\u2019re committed and fierce. We should work with them too. Thailand should also provide channels of humanitarian assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Al Jazeera: Bangkok\/Yangon \u2013 Thailand\u2019s elections are important not only for the many Thais seeking the end of quasi-military rule in their country but also for the more than 1.5 million Myanmar refugees and migrants who live in the Southeast Asian nation and hope a new government can put an end to Bangkok\u2019s support for the military regime in Naypyidaw. Thailand itself was rocked by a military coup in 2014 when General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized power from the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, solidifying his rule with closely-controlled elections five years later. With the country heading to the polls within… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30956,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30952\/revisions\/30956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Prayuth](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/AP23079293534929.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")