Even though he has been denied access to his favourite work as a corruption-buster for more than three years, political activist Veera Somkhwamkid says he is ready to pull up his sleeves to help the junta eliminate corruption from the country.
Mr Veera, a Thai Patriots Network coordinator, was also serving as secretary-general of the People's Network Against Corruption when he was arrested along the Thai-Cambodian border near Sa Kaeo province on Dec 29, 2010.
"I'm ready to work on cracking down on corruption again," Mr Veera told the Bangkok Post yesterday, a day after he was released from Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh after receiving a royal pardon from Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni.
Mr Veera was behind bars for three years, six months and three days.
He was sentenced to eight years in jail for illegal entry, spying and entering a restricted military zone without permission.
He was arrested with six other Thais on Dec 29, 2010 while inspecting a disputed border area near Sa Kaeo's Ban Nongchan village.
He said he is gathering news and information on the corruption situation in the country and will meet his anti-corruption network soon.
He said he wished to see a bright future of a corruption-free Thailand.
“I want to see Thai politics without corruption which will bring faith back to the next generation, he said.
Mr Veera said he is pleased to return home and he is now in good health.
"I always hoped that I would be free one day. I did nothing wrong. It is just a political thing that brought me to that jail," Mr Veera said.
Without the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which helped secure his early release, he would not have been able to return home. Senior military officials talked to the Cambodian government and obtained his release.
"Two past governments did not try to help me at all. I am free because of the NCPO and I want to say ‘Thank you’,” he said.
He said life in Cambodia's Prey Sar prison was tough but it gave him some strength and experience. He almost died once when a chronic disease worsened.
“Rheumatoid arthritis makes my immune system weak. When I was staying in prison, it was dirty and had a low quality of life, my health went bad quickly,” he said.
“The first few months in the prison were hell.
''They did not have the specific medicines there I needed and I was not allowed visits. I was almost dead. It was a time of great suffering.”
He also said the food was not nutritious.
The government "tried to drive him crazy" by not allowing him to speak with other prisoners, or read or write anything, he said.
“I survived because I practise dharma. They did not allow me to write or read but I can still think and I thought it was an opportunity to stay with myself practising dharma,” he said. “I stayed with a Cambodian who could speak Thai. He was also ordered to spy on me.
“My routine was to wake up, practise dharma and pray for an hour. When the gate opened at 8am, I went to buy vegetarian ingredients at a market inside the prison, went back to my room, cooked in late morning and rested until 2pm.
"When I was allowed out, I worked out, walked, practised yoga, returned to my room, took a shower, prayed and slept."