In all, the military regime in just one week came up with four new ways they intend to track people in the coming days and months.
They range from mildly outrageous by today's standards to completely bizarre. And for good measure, the always interesting National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission threw sour grapes at defenceless children.
According to the plans — and they are changeable as we shall see — a new and formal security division is to be formed with the task of tracking people via their mobile phones. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's cabinet is on the verge of completely reversing the nation's laws against wiretaps. Police will probably soon have permission not only to track your location by mobile phone technology but also to listen to what you say.
Adding to the surveillance state, there will be eight new laws on cybersecurity long before New Year's Eve. One of them will add and tighten details of the last military regime's Computer Crimes Act, which apparently hasn't put nearly enough enemies of the state into prison for 15 years per offence. There is no longer even a pretence that the law is to protect consumers and information wonks.
If you think you are going to escape Big Brother by shopping overseas, here is a word of advice for you. Ha! The taxman is already in cahoots with all finance houses to monitor what you do and buy while travelling abroad. Initially, they are investigating 10 people whose purchases seemed out of line with their declared income. The Revenue Department didn't merely announce it is monitoring your credit cards and travel — it bragged about it.
The NBTC was at the centre of the storm, grabbing front-page headlines for days with its twin expeditions on foreign tourists and that horrible imported Pokemon Go.
Of course, attacks by old people on fads is pretty old news in Thailand. But the tsunami wave of special SIM cards that would allow 24/7 tracking of foreigners caught everyone with an unanswered question on their lips and that question was, "Huh?"
In a huge, shock surprise, never-predictable NBTC chief Takorn Tantasith provided a series of fantastical answers to the question. He said the tracking SIMs are needed because some foreigners are criminals and need to be tracked. His explanation of how the SIMs would work was interesting if technically suspect.
Whereas on Tuesday every tourist would have to use trackable SIM cards as a mandatory measure, by Thursday, apparently worn down by hostile scepticism, the NBTC chief was pointing out that he had always said the SIMs were only in the planning stage, and further, Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
Mr Takorn was reduced to saying "we have no right to violate tourists' privacy". The nation's official censor of everything TV, radio, internet and mobile phone has a plan, though, and a Department of Mobile Phone Tracking is clearly part of it. All SIM cards are actually trackable, and almost always have been. The talk about specially altered SIMs for aliens is mostly distraction as surveillance projects are inserted into security agencies.
The NBTC chief's campaign on cuddly Pokemon Go's completely innocent Pikachus and Charmanders was similar. As the broadcast regulator, he was writing an official electronic letter (translation: signed PDF) to those arrogant game developers at Niantic in California. And if they don't agree by this coming Wednesday to take Wartortle and Butterfree out of areas he designated, well, by gosh, you can kiss your Pokemon Go goodbye because he will go full Iran and ban the game.
Those no-go areas are state properties, temples, private zones and dangerous areas such as roads, waterways and railways. Which sounds fairly reasonable except for the thundering "or else" part.
The NBTC has gained a lot of power since the military coup, but it can't ban mobile phone games. Yet. But this is the agency that shut down Peace TV for no stated reason except "it is within our responsibility" and it knows how to get more power.
Pokemon Go has strong, truly adult supporters for its family-friendly ability to get everyone outdoors for a while. And like every fad since that disgusting, hip-shaking hula-hoop craze that was going to destroy every moral fibre of our current grandmothers, Pokemon Go will (a) not destroy anything and (b) fade away.
That's the difference with the other four "security issues" of course. Unlike old soldiers, they will never fade away.