Something has to change.
With the Sunday rally drawing thousands of demonstrators followed by news about high-school students flashing the three-finger tribute after paying respect to the national anthem, the anti-government sentiment is evidently catching fire.
What can the government do to stem the "rebellion"?
While the regime seems to be in a strong position, having been in power and extended its influence over administrative mechanisms for more than six years, its ultra-conservative mindset complete with narrow-minded nationalistic worldview and ineptitude could backfire.
Will a hard-line approach work? More arrests, threats of violence and hate-mongering?
The authorities have arrested a few prominent leaders already who were hit with many charges including sedition and violation of the emergency decree.
These include human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa who first raised the issue of keeping the monarchy within the constitutional monarchy tradition, Panupong Chadnok who held a placard against PM Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha when he visited Rayong and university student Parit Chiwarak.
These activists could face up to 15 years of imprisonment if convicted.
The arrests have not seemed to deter the protesters, however. Out on bail, the leaders vowed to join the next rally and maintain their political standpoints.
That the Sunday rally swelled to 10,000-strong, which was probably a surprise to both the rally organisers and authorities, could give the government an indication that suppression does not work.
Branding the youngsters "nation haters" and threatening them with violence seems to have flopped. The generalisation that stems from narrow-minded nationalism does not even make sense to the young generation while the notion of fear and violence only exposed the government's supporters as being backward.
That the protesters were slapped with the serious charges when they were only exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly led to a perception that the police were using trumped-up charges to please the government.
Since there were reports that up to 30 activists could be arrested as well but the police failed to give them clear information even though some of them reportedly showed up to ask about this simply adds to the notion that the government is not playing fair.
At the end of the day, the government must think ahead. Taking it to the extreme, it has to determine if an emergency decree or another coup d'etat would still work if the student protest really catches fire?
A former coup maker, PM Gen Prayut should know how steep the cost will be should it boil down to another coup.
A return to dictatorship does not look like a path the country can afford, not after the economy has been badly beaten by the Covid-19 pandemic and hardship felt widely among the public.
More importantly, further suppression, even an incumbent coup, is not likely to bring back stability. If anything, it will move it more towards an "if we burn, you burn with us" scenario.
How about negotiation -- the so-called dialogue, workshop or forum that PM Gen Prayut mentioned during his televised address last week?
The olive branch appears too little, too late.
For the protesters who demand that the House be dissolved, the constitution redrawn and for the government to stop harassing dissenters, it is obvious the government no longer has any legitimacy.
For this, the government has no-one to blame but itself.
Who would trust a PM who said on national TV that he was willing to listen to the protesters but sat by while police went after them with seemingly disproportionate charges apparently to silence their voices?
The PM can argue that he was letting the officers do their job without him intervening but the apparently unfair treatment of unarmed protesters is still under his watch.
His failure to set fairer guidelines, to follow in on the more inclusive approach he laid down on TV, made him appear like a two-faced impostor only paying lip service to what he preached.
Hypocrisy is becoming the government's major liability. It keeps lecturing about doing good things and being righteous but those values do not seem applicable to people from their own side.
Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon borrowed some 30 million baht worth of luxury watches without declaring them to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and it was ruled to be okay.
The Future Forward Party borrowed some 100 million baht from its leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and declared the debt publicly and it was dissolved, its executives banned from politics for 10 years.
The government boasted that it has done so much for the country and improved everything but the Red Bull scion case came crashing back and it shows how the justice system may be rotten to the core.
A gambling den where a police officer was shot dead among other gamblers? A minister who was convicted of heroin trafficking in Australia who claimed the substance was flour?
All these and the government has not owned up to its flaws or taken action.
With no legitimacy left in the eyes of the protesters, there is not much the government can do that will pacify them. Something has to change. The three demands could be the new minimum. The protests, and their symbolic undertone, could also mark a new beginning.