The show of force by the police on Tuesday makes me wonder: Between the junta and the demonstrators, who is afraid of whom?
Deploying 3,000 police officers to contain a few hundred peaceful demonstrators is, to my eye, a bit of an overreaction.
The demonstrators -- comprising mainly young people, women and older folk -- did not seem to be afraid even when confronted by an overwhelming number of men in black.
The activists managed to move onto the road in front of Thammasat University, having to forcibly break a lock on the gate.
For the police, the large force was meant to intimidate. No officer was seen carrying weapons. Good for them. They have obviously learnt something about professional crowd control.
Their main weapon, aside from their numbers, was a truck from where officers blasted a litany of announcements trying to convince the demonstrators to disperse.
The demonstrators also had a sound truck of their own to keep morale up and beseech the police to let them pass. They also managed to slip in a few taunts in between.
So, it essentially boiled down to a war of words. After a few hours, the demonstrators called it quits and their leaders surrendered themselves to the police.
While they failed to reach the Government House as was their intention, the demonstration was a symbolic victory for the activists. They managed to get their messages out to the world at large, exposing the National Council for Peace and Order as an illegitimate regime that disregards the rule of law.
Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader, has often been quoted telling opponents to respect the law or suffer legal consequences. One has to wonder what he calls people who took state power by force and tore up the charter.
In too many instances to list, the general is fond of saying things that he himself does not believe in or that are incredibly inane.
One moment he said he was no politician, the next he said he had to put on a soft touch because he was now a politician. One moment he called politicians names, the next he held cringe-worthy smooching sessions with some of the most infamous politicians in apparent attempts to lure them to support his quest to be nominated as the next prime minister.
One of the cartoon caricatures used by the demonstrators depicts a drawing of Pinocchio but with a face resembling a certain politician-soldier. Or was that a soldier-politician? I can never be sure.
That was the reason people came out to demand an election be held in November this year as the general earlier promised.
Some junta supporters argued there were no reason for such a show of defiance when the regime had given their word to hold an election next February. To which a simple reply is the regime made similar promises in the past only to come up with excuses to postpone it further, and there is no guarantee we will see an election next February either.
If the junta is true to their word, then it should lift the ban on political gatherings and allow political parties to hold activities in preparation for the election.
What holds them back? Or are they afraid Gen Prayut might not gain enough votes to become the next PM despite all the legislative steps they built to get him there?
Come on, be a man. Be a soldier. If Gen Prayut is so confident of his performance over the past four years as he keeps telling the public, then he should be brave enough to join in the fray and run as a political candidate.
That way, if he wins, he can retort his opponents that he earned the votes on his merit, not by tricks or "the miracle of laws", a term coined by one of his minions.
But I don't think he will take the plunge. He is too afraid, even though a recent Nida opinion poll found over a third of respondents favoured him as the next PM. However, the poll results are suspect because it also showed that a third of the respondents planned to vote for the Pheu Thai Party while the rest went to the Democrat and other minor parties.
Another opinion survey of students from 11 universities found quite a disturbing trend for the general. A vast majority of the students gave the regime a failing grade on all measures.
But the most disconcerting tell-tale sign was a survey conducted by a Facebook fan page which calls itself "Let's Have a Million Likes in Support of Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha as Prime Minister".
The survey puts up a single, simple question: "Today (May 22) is the NCPO's fourth anniversary. Do you still support Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha to continue running the country?"
More than 500,000 votes were cast. Last I checked, the support votes had 10%; the do-not-support votes get …. Well, you do your own calculation.
Wasant Techawongtham is a former news editor, Bangkok Post.