Perhaps it's the heat. Maybe the months of hard work has taken its toll. It could be age catching up, the pressure and the stress, the wear and tear of it all. The combination of these things can play tricks with a man's mental state.
Suthep Thaugsuban feeling the heat. (Photo Pornprom Satrabhaya)
Has anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban gone bonkers? Opponents would say he has been bonkers for months, but that isn’t fair.
Neither Suthep nor former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have gone bonkers – power crazy, yes – just not bonkers crazy. But they certainly have turned a lot of people bonkers. Just take a look around, or take a look at yourself.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) or the Constitutional Court might succeed in stripping caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of her position.
To which Suthep declared, "Once we become the sovereign (power), we will seize the assets of the Shinawatra family members. We won't allow them to go abroad. They will need to report to us."
"We will appoint a prime minister of the people and submit the name to His Majesty to be countersigned by me."
Seize assets, ban traveling and personally countersign the King's decree. The sense of self-entitlement is grand in this one.
Theoretically speaking this means he would have the entire power of the parliament, the court and law enforcement in his hand. Quite possibly, this would make him the most powerful man (barring any invisible hand) in the country.
But Suthep is quite used to this role. After all, wasn't he the powerbroker that chose Abhisit Vejjajiva as leader of the Democrat Party and then consequently as prime minister of Thailand between 2009 and 2011?
In case you did not know, Suthep has never been nor does he want to be the Democrat leader, or Thailand's prime minister. However, for a long time now he has been the most powerful figure in the Democrat Party, and looks to be so in Thailand in the near future if his plans are realised.
Would the name he plans to submit to His Majesty then be a "clone" or a "puppet"? It seems he and Thaksin have quite a bit in common.
Suthep has consistently professed that he wants no power for himself, that he will win the fight for the people and then retire, like all good heroes should. His supporters have also insisted in this.
But based on those quotes, he has granted himself near absolute power.
Perhaps we are all overreacting. Suthep is a professional politician. He knows how to play the game. He teases and he toys. He drops an absurd line, and the entire country convulses, while he is chuckling at the deliciousness of all this.
This is not the first, the only, nor will it be the last ridiculous declaration from him. In the big picture, one has to stay relevant, one has to stay in the news and one has to keep one’s opponents on their toes.
One has to keep the game interesting, otherwise audiences may switch channels. Dropping a line or two of the absurd every now and again, well that's just good game play. It’s unsettling, but that’s the intention.
Mind you, simply because it sounds absurd doesn’t mean there isn’t a concerted effort to make it come true.
In any case, just because Suthep could be the one submitting the name of the new prime minister doesn't mean he’s the one who wrote in the name.
In the long term, the Shinawatra political machine is a dangerous power that should be checked, but real life isn’t a classic Japanese Godzilla movie.
We can’t just back a monster to fight another monster, and then expect the "good" monster to hop into Tokyo Bay and swim away at the end of the movie and chill out on some remote island with a glass of piña colada in one claw and Mrs Godzilla in the other.
Really, trust me. It isn't, because that would truly be bonkers.
Has Suthep gone bonkers?(Photo by Seksan Rojjanametakun)