The words uttered by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon Wednesday -- that he would be willing to step down from his position if that is the people's will -- are welcome, and come as something the country and the international community has been waiting for ever since his luxury watch scandal broke in early December of last year.
Gen Prawit and other key leaders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) have been critical of corruption.
The military ousted the Pheu Thai government in 2014 on the battle cry of wiping out graft, so they presumably wanted to set an example.
Umesh Pandey is Editor, Bangkok Post.
But ever since the first luxury watch was spotted on the wrist of Gen Prawit, and the public asked the government to comply with the same battle cry, suddenly the rules of the game changed.
Since Dec 4 last year, Gen Prawit has been seen wearing as many as 25 luxury watches estimated to be worth a total of 39.5 million baht.
But when he was asked why these timepieces were not included in his assets declaration required by law, he simply answered that he borrowed them from friends and one of them has since passed away.
But Wednesday, for the first time since the scandal broke, Gen Prawit came out to say what people have hoped to hear him say from the very beginning.
"Have you every seen me damage the country? I am here (as deputy prime minister) because I want to work for the country, but if the people don't want me, I am ready to leave the post," he told reporters.
These words come as the reputation of the NCPO and Gen Prawit have taken a dive amid the ongoing scandal and the cover-up that Gen Prawit has been trying to undertake.
The so-called "watchgate" scandal has given Gen Prawit the nickname "General Rolex", or the Rolex General.
An online survey undertaken by the Facebook page CSI LA, shows that as many as 99% of nearly 11,000 respondents do not believe Gen Prawit's story.
On the other question of whether the respondents have ever borrowed any watches from friends, only 8% said yes while 92% said no.
If Gen Prawit is really considering quitting the job if that is the will of the people, then he should encourage the National Institution of Development Administration (Nida) to release the results of its poll on the watch scandal which has been withheld as a result of self-censorship (while observers think the government actually exerted pressure on the institute to make sure it would not be released).
Nida president said he withheld the poll because the watchgate scandal is still under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Just as a reminder to the readers, the NACC president Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit was deputy secretary-general to Gen Prawit in 2014.
Following the act of "self-censorship", Arnond Sakworawich, the Nida poll director, on Monday handed in his resignation from the position in protest.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha later came out to say he had not ordered Nida to halt the release of the poll results, despite them being politically damaging.
If General Rolex is really true to his word and wants to resign if the people do not want him to stay on as deputy premier then he should get the poll results and be man enough to openly announce them to the public.
If the results indicate the people want him to stay in office and reflect their faith in the work he is undertaking as he claims, then he can keep the job.
But if the results indicate otherwise, then he should uphold the 50-plus years of service he has rendered to the military and the country and step down.
Gen Prawit should also take some cue from other countries that have in the past transformed from dictatorship to democracy.
Take South Korea as an example. South Korea's late president Roh Moo-hyun took office with the same battle cry as our military -- to wipe out corruption.
But while in office Roh's wife took a few million dollars as a "loan" from a friend, supposedly to buy a house in the United States.
But when investigations started against Roh, and he was called in for questioning by the country's anti-corruption agency, he could not take the shame and one fine day in May of 2009, he jumped off a cliff.
With that suicide, the South Korean politician told the world what he really believed in.
We Thais are not asking for "General Rolex" to do that for us but the least Gen Prawit could do is to step aside till his name is cleared and then perhaps return, if he is so fond of being in power.