Over the next 24 hours we all are going to hear the Royal Thai Navy come clean with its procurement procedure for the secretly negotiated deal to procure three submarines -- and I for one am not holding my breath to hear anything earth-shattering.
But to give the benefit of the doubt, I would be more than happy to hear the navy's reasoning. After all, the navy is one of many agencies responsible for the defence of our borders.
But the way the issues were handled from the day the information leaked out that the military junta had secretly approved a purchase of three Yuan-class submarines for 36 billion baht has made the entire nation suspicious of whatever the possible revelations of the procurement process would be.
Using the excuse of "national security" for not revealing any details has only made the general public more suspicious about something fishy behind the scenes.
Umesh Pandey is Editor, Bangkok Post.
To make the unaccountable move more appetising to the people, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has come out to say there are freebies attached to the deal, such as China supplying submarine-launched missiles.
It is yet to be known whether these freebies are going to be available for the entire 11 years that we Thais will be paying for these war machines.
The uproar over the deal has been severe enough for the military regime to go into defensive mode. Calls for accountability and openness have taken a toll on the people's trust of the Prayut Chan-o-cha government.
Gen Prayut, who was the Pied Piper of Hamelin for some Thais when he and his people secretly backed the anti-government movement in 2013-14 that eventually overthrew the elected government, had claimed corruption and lack of transparency in many deals undertaken by the previous administration as justification for seizing power on May 22, 2014.
To make matters worse, the current administration has started to come out and verbally attack individuals who have raised their voices against the deal. In the latest statement Gen Prawit denounced former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, who had said economic conditions were not such that the country could afford to splurge on fancy armaments.
Gen Prawit said the Yingluck government's rice pledging scheme could have been used to buy 50 submarines, arguing that state losses from the scheme were close to 500 billion baht.
But the fact is that the Yingluck government's rice scheme was put through an indirect referendum when Pheu Thai put the policy on its election agenda in 2011.
Yingluck and Pheu Thai won the election with an absolute majority. That in itself was a mandate from the people to go ahead and implement the policy.
People like myself and many others did not agree with the policy, but the voice of the nation was for such a policy, which meant that Ms Yingluck had the people's blessing to undertake the scheme even if it meant that the state coffers suffered.
But where is the mandate for the military government? Did it come with the procurement of the three submarines, not to mention 60-90 Chinese-made tanks that are also in the pipeline? Were these issues even discussed in public? The answer is no.
At a time when all surveys are indicating that the biggest problem for most Thais is the deterioration of economic conditions, a move to splurge on things that are considered to be unnecessary is giving a clear indication of why the military is taking so long to restore a democratic system.
There is no doubt that the next government would most likely review and hopefully cancel the submarine deal because we Thais have yet to have a war that would require the use of submarines.
HTMS Chakri Naruebet, an aircraft carrier procured by the navy in 1997, has become no more than a tourist attraction. In its 20 years docked in Sattahip, it has never gone into any war and, if my memory serves me right, I have not heard in the last decade or so of Asean's first aircraft carrier even making courtesy calls to friendly countries. I guess the reason could be that if the ship goes to other countries, foreigners would see its bad condition.
The submarines may end up with a similar fate but then, under a dictatorial leadership where questioning is taboo, the people who we can blame will be those who continue to have blind faith in the military regime.