Suthep would be better to just lie low

In Thailand’s gutter politics, it takes a scam artist to know a scam artist. In this respect, no two scam artists know each other better then Thaksin Shinawatra and Suthep Thaugsuban.
The two men who possessed the same level of trade-craft allegedly despised each other because they were on opposite sides.
In late 2013 and early 2014, Suthep led the Shutdown Bangkok campaign that was later renamed Start-up Thailand after people in his camp realised the negative connotations that the computer jargon had generated.
Suthep succeeded in setting the stage for the ousting of Yingluck Shinawatra, who he accused of being a proxy for her brother Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and later went into self-imposed exile to escape a jail term for corruption.
In Suthep’s mind, once Yinguck was removed, the plan was to replace the government with an unelected “People’s Council”. Suthep’s camp called themselves the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC). But there wasn’t anything democratic about Suthep or his inner circle because there was no indication they were about to respect democratic norms or principles.
But it wasn’t all about uprooting the Shinawatra clan from national politics. Many protesters were chanting “Reform Before Election”. People wanted to see real and meaningful change but few wanted to discuss in detail what any of this meant.
Then came the coup in May 2014 that ousted Yingluck from power. Suthep didn’t hide his feelings – remember his celebrations and parties after the coup? Not to mention the boasting about how he and the coup leader, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, who would become the prime minister, had regular conversations about to handle the crisis?
Prayut had the common sense to dismiss the statement. Perhaps Suthep should take note of Mark Twain’s famous quote, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
It would not take long before people realised that Suthep didn’t have the people or the country’s interest at heart when he started the Shutdown Bangkok campaign.
But Suthep got what he wanted. The same can’t be said about his supporters on the street, at least those who came out on the streets with him and screamed “Reform before election”.
The military took note of it and was more or less chanting the same thing in the aftermath of the May 2014 coup. But three years after the coup, nobody is talking about reform now, are they?
Now, Suthep has the audacity to rear his head again and urge the public to vote “Yes” in the August 7 referendum. Like his previous boasting about how he and Prayut were tight, he continues to irk his allies with his unabashed public statements.
Constitution Drafting Commission spokesman Udom Rathamarit said that Suthep should be careful when making comments – to avoid violating the Referendum Act on the draft charter.
Udom said regardless of one’s political leaning, people have the right to speak in support of or speak against the draft charter, as long as they did not spread untruths or distort the facts about the draft.
Well, that’s good to know. But then there is the junta’s law that prohibits gathering of more than five people at one place. What are people to do? Yell out their windows about their feelings and what they don’t like about the draft charter and hope for a fruitful chat?
In the days leading up to the August 7 referendum, Thai authorities are once again shooting themselves in the foot.
Cracking down on people who voice their objection to the draft charter has placed the country in a bad light in the eyes of the world; their action also undermines their own campaign, as well as the integrity of the constitution itself.
This past week, seven students from Kasetsart and Ramkhamhaeng universities were arrested for illegal assembly after they were found distributing leaflets against the coup in Bangkok’s Bang Khen area.
Last week, 13 members of another student activist group, the New Democracy Movement, were arrested in Samut Prakan province for illegal assembly after they campaigned for people to vote against the draft charter.
So much for Suthep’s democracy.