Updated: Siamese twins

PPT reckons that the intemperate Dictator, General Prayuth Chan-ocha must be livid. At the Bangkok Post the anti-democrat leader Suthep Thaugsuban has either let the cat out of the bag or lied through is teeth. Either way, the Dictator will be steaming mad.

Anti-democrat Suthep tells the media and a bunch from the rich elite that he “has been advising the junta chief on how to unseat the Thaksin regime since 2010…”. He says “he had discussed with the coup-maker Prayuth … strategies to root out the influence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his allies since the 2010 political violence.” Suthep declares that, before martial law was implemented by the now Dictator, Prayuth declared: “Khun Suthep and your masses of PDRC supporters are too exhausted. It’s now the duty of the army to take over the task.”

Suthep went further, saying that “he [still] chats regularly to Gen Prayuth and his team via the Line chat app.”

In concluding his speech, Suthep stated that the “military had adopted several PDRC [anti-democrat] proposals such as measures to help farmers. He called on his supporters to back the military.”

Readers might say that none of this is surprising and that it has long been clear that Prayuth is doing the work of the anti-democrats and those of the royalist elite who backed it. We said it a couple of weeks ago:

A reader asked us a question based on a report PPT missed in the Bangkok Post. Did the military work against Yingluck Shinawatra when she led her elected government?

Our immediate answer was: Of course it did. Junta boss General Prayuth Chan-ocha campaigned against pro-Thaksin Shinawatra parties and red shirts for several years.  Just prior to the 2011 election he grabbed television time on a national feed to tell voters that they should vote for the royalist Democrat Party. It makes sense, then, that the military brass would be constantly scheming and plotting to bring down the government the Army boss hated. Think of all that coup talk and then the support to Suthep Thaugsuban’s anti-democrats.

However, Suthep’s statement is clear, concise and incriminating. Prayuth will want it withdrawn or may even deny it, but the damage is done. Prayuth and Suthep worked together, engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow the elected Yingluck government from a time prior to its election, after it was elected and obviously schemed and plotted  “to bring down former prime minister Yingluck …, including the period leading up to the coup when she was defence minister.” That means Prayuth also engaged in mutiny.

Suthep and Prayuth were the anti-democratic Siamese twins of plotting and rebellion.

Update: As predicted, Prayuth has denied everything. According to Khaosod, the Dictator’s spokesman Colonel Winthai Suwaree “said The Bangkok Post report was false.” He declared: “I insist that there has been no private talk or communication between Mr. Suthep and Gen. Prayuth…. The news report might have been [affected by] some misunderstanding…”. The “misunderstanding” might be that Suthep has a big mouth and was supposed to keep it shut. When he ads that “Gen. Prayuth could not possibly have been plotting a coup against Ms. Yingluck, who was also serving as Minister of Defence, at the time because the army strictly upheld legal framework as the model of their operation,” you know he’s lying.