The general prime minister packed his kit for yet another two-day trip to the provinces, an adoring welcome and ownership of every front page in his country.
Now, before we get to the part of the show you came for, it's vital that we first examine all sides of the week's most vexing, contentious and highly important question. It was so important and so very, very difficult to answer that people were even asking Gen (Ret) Prayut himself, as the fount of all knowledge. And that question was (and still is), was the trip to Buri Ram political?
Yes. Next question.
We were stunned anyone asked this. We were laughing hysterically at the straight-faced Britishesque humour experts who denied it. Who knew until now that the Minister of Truth was such a natural comic? Here's three-star General Sansern Kaewkamnerd himself:
"The objective of the mobile cabinet visit is to interact with locals about the problems they are facing and has nothing to do with politics."
He didn't learn that humour-delivery at boot camp. That's Monty Python-worthy. But look.
The country is deeply immersed in a political campaign that could conceivably result in an election. The government is in it to win it, to even a greater depth than the political parties themselves. And the parties are, after all, under legal restraint and cannot openly campaign.
There is nothing ... May we repeat that? There is no longer anything that the government does and that Gen (Ret) Prayut does that is not political. These men and a couple of non-males want to stay in power and they claim they're going to ask the people to let them. Can it be more political than that?
Are you seriously so lulled by these men (and a couple who aren't) that you honestly and thoughtfully believe that riding a motorcycle on the Grand Prix track and getting a crowd of 30,000 who don't work on Monday and loading yourself down with -- literally -- more pa kao ma than you can carry and telling Buri Ram, "I love you all" -- that this is not political? And getting an arm around Newin Chidchob while doling out populist baht like it's free TP isn't political?
Please stop the "it wasn't political". Thanks.
As the stories and photos flowed into the well-outfitted daily Bangkok Post's Klong Toey headquarters on Monday and Tuesday, we were struck by two different but certainly linked morsels of data. One is a thrice-repeated word, the other a short, three-photo contact sheet.
The word is "personally". As in, when indirectly replying to charges by ex-MP, hardcore red shirt Korkaew Pikulthong of Buri Ram that he was trying to buy the support of Mr Newin, Gen (Ret) Prayut said something really strange.
"I did not sneak out to meet anyone personally."
Well ... yes. In the social media and chatroom parlance of the day, "duh!". No kidding. No one asked him if he had done that, personally. No one accused him of doing that, personally.
As the top man in a nation of 70 million, of whom millions are fans and thousands are in the immediate entourage of his government, his junta, his security commanders and all that, why would Gen (Ret) Prayut do any such thing, personally?
However, the talented photographer Wichan Charoenkiatpakul, perambulating the sweltering football field, had caught a view with something missing. Specifically, bums were missing from chairs immediately behind the general prime minister while he was bloviating to the organised and adulatory Buri Ramians, as ordered.
Three chairs were there, one of them the PM's. Two bums were not on them, apparently the property of two people you'd expect never to skip Gen (Ret) Prayut's speech. Host Newin Chidchob wasn't there. The general prime minister's globally admired coup expert and near-lifetime military pal Gen Prawit "Watchman" Wongsuwon also wasn't there.
Now, stop that, with your conspiracies. There is no possible way those two slipped out at the most exciting time to talk political dealing. Don't even think such a thing. What nasty minds you have, you dear readers. Still...
Monday was the first really serious Day of the Deal for the purchase of politicians, something the general prime minister doesn't do -- personally. He could never duck out and make a deal, personally. But the one thing you can be sure about in the influence-acquisition game that's today's Thai politics, someone certainly did.