Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha's defence of his position on the universal healthcare scheme during the budget debate last week was a relatively short, less colourful one by his fiery standards. Yet, it was a speech that deserves our attention.
The statement was baffling, even absurd. But no one seems bothered. And that is all the more reason why the PM's take on healthcare coverage could be a sign of sickness within our society.
Last Thursday, a Pheu Thai MP from Uttaradit, Sarunwut Sarunkate, criticised the PM for taking credit for the universal healthcare coverage (UHC), also known as the 30-baht scheme, at international conferences while bashing it at home.
The UHC was launched in 2002 by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration. In the past, PM Gen Prayut sometimes indicated that the 191-billion-baht scheme was a "burden" on the country's finances.
However, at a United Nations General Assembly session in September, the PM hailed the scheme as Thailand's success story, a model of efficiency and equitable access he is willing to share with other countries to drive the global healthcare agenda.
Following the challenge in parliament, PM Gen Prayut argued that when he spoke at the UN, he never mentioned the 30-baht scheme. He only discussed universal healthcare coverage.
Did the PM not know that the 30-baht scheme and the UHC programme are one and the same?
The gaffe, whether it was intended or not, matters intellectually as well as politically.
Intellectually, it's unthinkable for the PM to put on public display such a complete lack of basic knowledge about healthcare policies.
After all, he was the one who went up on stage at the UN and offered to "teach" other nations how to roll out such a successful universal healthcare scheme.
His take in parliament last week, however, seems to suggest that the PM does not even have a rudimentary understanding of what universal healthcare coverage is.
He does not realise that the Thaksin's so-called 30-baht programme was the mother of the UHC which he told other nations was the cornerstone of Thailand's public health achievements.
Even in parliament last week, PM Gen Prayut still seemed to believe that the 30-baht scheme, which he attributed to an "unknown previous government" and claimed to be debt-ridden, was a different one from the UHC which he seemed to believe was an achievement of his government.
Those in the know would find the PM's assertion absurd. For a national leader, it's downright embarrassing. This is especially so for Gen Prayut who usually carries himself above everyone else, often assuming the role of supreme preacher, dispensing advice to the rest of the population about how to get things done.
But Team Prayut does not seem to care. The 30-baht-UHC blunder could very well go into the ever-growing annals of Prayut's incredible talks -- all that "sell rubber on Mars and raise fish in flooded areas" babble that make no sense but rouse no one to care.
Politically, Gen Prayut's attempt to make a distinction between Thaksin's 30-baht and his government's UHC even though there is none accentuates the worrying trend the truth becoming dispensable as the country's political rifts widen again.
Whether PM Gen Prayut's failure to grasp what the UHC is stems from his own dearth of universal knowledge, or was a shrewd political tactic to put the blame on Thaksin while taking credit for the ex-PM's work, the mistake should not be allowed to hang on and assume a semblance that it was a piece of truthful information.
The truth remains that the 30-baht scheme is the universal healthcare coverage programme. The 30-baht charge was but a gimmick. The programme was audacious for its time, ambitious in its attempt to embrace the entire population in equitable healthcare coverage, imbued and guided by an extra dose of idealism from its early developers.
It was and is the forerunner of the UHC that the Prayut government has carried on. There is no such thing as Thaksin's 30-baht and Prayut's UHC. And no-one should be misled into believing there is.
Politically, PM Gen Prayut's UHC defence might be considered yet another gaffe but it's crucial that we take the premier's words into account.
People often say that truth is the first casualty of war. Seeing how many truths have been slaughtered for propaganda and unfounded rumours created, one has to wonder whether Thailand is teetering yet again on the edge of internal strife.
And that's why PM Gen Prayut's words, whether they are based on facts or his own imagination, matter.