In the week the general prime minister saw Trump's Twitter bet and raised him by 400%, he did something even more political. He stopped the march to enactment of the Cybersecurity Act in its tracks.
Gen (Ret) Prayut performed an almost perfect military "advance to the rear" (English translation: retreat). He didn't arrest anyone or even order subordinates to invite opponents of the Act for a 3am cup of coffee. And where Trump has Twitter, the general prime minister has Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and his own website.
Comparisons are never perfect but the way the Cybersecurity Act was introduced and pushed, and the way the Act was suddenly halted in its tracks last Wednesday was more than a little similar to the scary Halloween night of 2013. That's when Pheu Thai's most obstreperous hard core almost pushed through an amnesty bill aimed specifically at whitewashing every fault and felony of The Evil One.
Just as the general prime minister was about to order his personally appointed National Legislative Assembly to rubber-stamp the Act, sanity intruded. In both cases, the prime ministers defended everything that happened -- even though they acted decisively to shut it down.
But as we said, comparisons aren't exact. The red-shirt felonious female former prime minister, after defending the amnesty sneaks, went on to live a life abroad. The present green-shirt general prime minister is going on to live a life at home with his three Mercedes limos, at the top of the political food chain.
Gen (Ret) Prayut has had his eye on the ball of accumulating power since at least the 2013 start of the Bangkok Shutdown. And this has been a successful campaign. Fear has played an essential part to make the press cower, civil society to kowtow and the body politic to say "yes, please" to get rings with which to lead it.
For example. Once upon a time, all of the above people and groups discussed and protested on the streets against the specific punishments meted out by the Criminal Code's Section 112. And for four years, no one has mentioned this.
Not every power grab has been by fear of course -- or at least not directly. Gen (Ret) Prayut's hand-picked author produced a new constitution, approved by the general prime minister's hand-picked legislature and then by a vote. It's guaranteed to keep him in power if he wants that. Even last year's punishing CCA II was obtained in this questionable manner with only a little bit of military intimidation to loudmouthed opponents.
But the Cybersecurity Act 2018 is a whole other level of power accumulation tactic. It's a step up from grabbing power at gunpoint. Thais including activists and big business (and small business) and academic voices and the media are used to military coups. They're not used to a Big Brother government watching and listening as a matter of routine.
And that is what the Cybersecurity Act enables. And surely no person currently suffering sentience would think that any government, any bureaucratic apparatus or any security division authorised to watch anyone and any business will allow that power to go unused "until it is needed".
Horrible governments and manipulative politicians at this point resort to a tired old trope that if you've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. They've been doing it for a long time.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement: "One has nothing to fear if one did not commit any offence."
Royal Thai Army spokesman: "If parties respect the law, then they have nothing to fear."
The current prime minister: "Those who have not committed any wrongdoings have nothing to fear."
Uh-huh.
No reason to fear that the army and/or police can seize your phone, tablet and computers if you claim to be the victim of a crime. No reason for a business that has just been hacked to fear this.
There is no reason for a foreign investor to fear that state economic officials are legally intercepting their financial reports to the head office. No reason for an investor to fear that bureaucrats are hacking their computers, entirely legally, to get the scoop on their latest innovations.
There is certainly no reason to fear just because under current law that any member of the Royal Thai Army can listen to your personal conversations -- and no judge of any court has the power to stop it.
If you haven't done anything wrong, why are you so afraid, Citizen? Have you got something to hide, Citizen? Papers, please.
Thailand never has had a real cybersecurity law, and needs one. If government were willing to start over, it would be possible.