Army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong said last week that the nation is facing a "proxy crisis" where the instigators cannot face the government directly so they have created agents to do so.
It's not clear why the army commander would comment about politics to reporters when he was inspecting soldiers' fitness tests at the army's Command and General Staff College.
Wasn't his business about the army personnel's capabilities? He could have talked about how prepared the army is for new security threats. He could have briefed the press about how efficient the new tests are. Instead, he talked politics.
If we didn't know that the army is supposed to be independent, we might have thought that Gen Apirat was acting as a proxy himself. The assumption would be ironic but not at all impossible.
As political conflicts return to the fore and political groups dig in to maintain their positions, Thailand has become a kingdom of magical realism.
Things happen in the country which seem otherworldly but people seem to accept them as part of life.
How else would we describe the petition to have the Future Forward Party (FFP) disbanded because it allegedly harbours links with the Illuminati secret society?
The petition, pending at the Constitution Court, was lodged by lawyer and former adviser to the chief Ombudsman Natthaporn Toprayoon. It accused the party of being a threat to the constitutional monarchy, citing the FFP's policies and the philosophies of party members.
Among the accusations was that the FFP's logo -- an upside-down triangle -- bears a close resemblance to the Illuminati's triangle sign.
The complainant claimed that since the Illuminati is widely known for trying to bring down traditional orders, "with evidence that it was behind movements to overthrow many monarchies in Europe", the FFP's use of the logo showed the party's hidden agenda.
One of the opinions expressed by a party executive that Mr Natthaporn claimed in the petition showed an anti-monarchy stance was that the "Thai smile" has no logic. Mr Natthaporn claimed the comment was an "insult" to the country and caused dissatisfaction among many people.
The Constitutional Court last week rejected the FFP's request for an inquiry to be held into the sedition charge. The court said that it had enough evidence to make a ruling.
The FFP has denied the allegations and said it wouldn't know how to contact the Illuminati even it wanted to.
It might seem bizarre but it's also real. The same was true with Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha declaring a war on drugs the other day. The PM insisted he would get tough with anyone found to be associated with the drug trade, especially if they are state officials.
It was a surreal scene as people wondered if the PM has forgotten that Deputy Agriculture Minister Thamanat Prompow was shown by Australian media as having spent four years in a Sydney jail after pleading guilty for conspiring to import heroin there.
Mr Thamanat has continued to deny the media reports despite court documents corroborating his sentencing. The PM also seems content to look the other way and keep Mr Thamanat in his cabinet post.
The surrealism does not end there. Last week, Mr Thamanat proposed a project to help rubber farmers by spending 18 billion baht to produce 30 million rubber pillows to be distributed to people for free.
Under the scheme, the Marketing for Farmers Organisation will borrow the 18 billion baht from the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) which will raise funds for the budget through charity lotteries.
Doesn't that sound fantastic? Except a rubber pillow retails for about 200 to 300 baht while under this scheme the free rubber pillows will cost about 600 baht each to procure. That will definitely ensure sweet dreams for someone.
This magical reality keeps on popping up. With the land tax coming into force, there was a report that a large empty plot of land in Ratchadaphisek worth about 10 billion baht has suddenly become a lemon grove. Apparently, the tax rate for agricultural land is much lower than that for idle plots.
It's a strange sight to see 4,000 lemon trees in the middle of the city but when the law can be bent for loopholes to be found, anything is possible.
The wealth gap sounds like a fairy tale too. A recent study of bank depositors by the Bank of Thailand found that the top 10% of depositors own as much as 93% of all the deposits in commercial banks while 32%, or about 12.2 million people, have less than 500 baht in their accounts.
As many as 4.7 million depositors have less than 50 baht in their bank accounts.
The army chief was not wrong when he said the country is in the midst of a proxy crisis, except this problem is not as pertinent as governance that prolongs injustice while enriching a few. Besides, it's none of his business anyway.