Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, said that she knew a coup d’état was imminent when the Constitutional Court dismissed her 15 days before the tanks rolled in.
By May 22, 2014, she was powerless and could not do anything to stop General Prayut Chan-ocha and his National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) from taking over.
The then army chief initiated the bloodless coup by arresting political party leaders and opposition leaders all at once while they were holding talks with the army.
Soldiers then moved onto the Red Shirts’ protest site outside of Bangkok and arrested the remaining co-leaders of the movement there.
Hours after that, a curfew was initiated and all media were made to relay signals only from the army’s TV and radio stations.
It was a well-planned and perfectly executed coup orchestrated by Prayut and his right-hand man, Prawit Wongsuwan.
During his first year as a dictator, Prayut was a ruffian who was willing to take on any criticism. He did not bother having a PR team. Instead, he was going after reporters who asked questions he did not like with an angry and thug-like tone.
But the General Prayut then is different from the Prime Minister Prayut now, who is a politician that is more than willing when it comes to PR moments.
The main difference is the smile. You would hardly see that during his first couple of years, but now, smiling to reporters is a routine.
However, pressure is building and the walls are closing in on him. I wonder if he can see it coming as Yingluck did.
In August, Prayut showed signs of clear frustration as he was smiling less and storming out of press conferences.
Last week’s public outburst was by far the best example.
In an attempt to remind people of his heroic act of conducting a coup, the self-proclaimed savior, who managed to rescue the entire country from collapse, told everyone that they will live in a land covered in flames if he is not in power.
The pressure from the student protesters got him to say that he is willing to amend the constitution, even though we all know that he will never give up the clauses keep him in power.
The pressure also forced him to say that he is willing to listen to protestors, who are mostly university students, but in actuality, he is jailing their leaders instead.
The pressure even got him to say that the high-school students’ disobedience campaign against him is pure and innocent. Even though, he had instructed the Ministry of Education and the police to intimidate high-school students on their own campuses instead.
He said he will not use 112 or the State of Emergency’s orders on protestors, but his government’s use of 116 or the sedition charge is no better. No matter what the law is, he is still abusing it and using it to silence dissidents.
So far, 28 people have been charged by the police for rallying against him, 13 of them are being charged with sedition and could potentially face a jail term of up to seven years.
But the protestors armed with the three-finger pro-democracy salute, white ribbons, and empty papers are still marching against him and they are more relentless than he will ever be.
There are no tanks rolling in this time and nobody is carrying a gun. The submarines that he is insisting on buying will not save him from this. They will only sink him faster.
These brave protestors that are marching against him are the future of this country and there is no way that Prayut and Prawit can round them all up in the same room this time.
The more of them you arrest, the louder their songs are going to be.
I wonder, can he hear them sing?
I wonder, can he see it coming like Yingluck did?
