TEN months after seizing power in a coup, Thailand’s junta chafes at still having to defend its record. It will soon start handing out to passers-by in busy parts of Bangkok the first of 10,000 glossy booklets recounting the junta’s glorious achievements. It probably hopes the missive will help to quell creeping discontent in the capital, and save Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general serving as Thailand’s prime minister, from endless questioning. He recently said he had been tempted to punch a journalist in the face.

The army’s propagandists have plenty to scribble about. Unburdened of democratic process, its rubber-stamp parliament, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), has been cranking out new laws—more than 60 since it was set up in September. Among other things it has banned foreigners from paying Thai women to be surrogate mothers. It is mulling economic reforms to help online entrepreneurs (critics warn of more censorship and cyber snooping). It is also legitimising aspects of martial law, including tougher rules on protests and the right to detain civilians for nearly three months without charge.

Just as busy are the bigwigs whom the junta has put in charge of writing a new constitution. Many of the constitutional proposals, which will be published in draft form in mid-April, aim to shrink the power of political parties. They may include reducing the size of the national assembly’s lower house and encouraging the growth of independent candidates. It all seems designed to prevent any party gaining the dominance that was enjoyed by Pheu Thai, a populist outfit abhorred by Bangkok’s coup-backers but which easily won both the general elections it contested.

A new constitution may well allow for an unelected prime minister in times of crisis—a similar rule kept the army in charge throughout the 1980s. Thailand’s half-elected senate will probably be replaced by a fully-appointed one with more powers—a “House of Citizens”, the idea’s supporters call it. The constitution may also create high-level committees to make sure that future governments continue social and economic programmes which the junta is now launching.