Why is Seh Daeng untouchable?

On Saturday I blogged about a Maj. General in the Thai army who, press reports indicated, had vowed to wage war against the Thai military.   As I continued updating the post over the weekend, the story kept getting stranger.   

Today the Bangkok Post has an editorial concerning Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol, alias Seh Daeng.  The newspaper believes Seh Daeng may have fired a grenade into the office of the Thai army chief Anupong:

Like a dead elephant which cannot be covered up just by lotus leaves, as an old Thai saying goes, the recent grenade attack on the office of army chief Anupong Paojinda cannot be covered up by the army. The blatant incident took place on the night of Jan 14, but it was a week later before it was made public and confirmed by the army although the prying noses of the press smelled a rat a few days after the attack thanks to the webboard of Maj Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, alias Seh Daeng, an army specialist, in which he bragged, without elaboration, about a recent grenade attack

Why the cover-up? One assumption is that the blatant incident would be too embarrassing to bear for Gen Anupong if it was known to the public because it could be seen as a big slap to the face. Another possible assumption is that the army chief himself might not have wanted to bother with Seh Daeng, who emerged as the prime suspect since the latter had openly made threats against the general. After all, no one was hurt. And the attack might not be meant to cause bodily harm but to intimidate.

The hypothesis offered in the second paragraph above make little sense to me.  As for the main assertion of the first paragraph, PPT's survey of news reports casts doubt on whether this grenade attack actually  occurred.  The editorial refers to Khattiya's confession on a bulletin board, and yet a few paragraphs later we read that Khattiya has denied involvement in the attack.

The only part of the editorial that I feel rings true is the final paragraph:

In hindsight, the fact that a rogue soldier has been able to flout the law for quite a long time with impunity and, lately, to challenge his top commander, is partly attributable to the army's reluctance to restrain or discipline him for unknown reasons. For the time being, he appears to be beyond control.

For some reason, he's untouchable. One possibility is that he's covertly helping the government. Another Bangkok Post article mentions a coup rumor in connection with the alleged grenade attack on army headquarters:

Army chief Anupong Paojinda said on Monday that he would continue to perform his duties as usual and was not living in fear of attempt on his life.

He added that the search of the house of Maj-Gen Khattiya last week was jointly conducted by police and officers from the Judge Advocate General's Department. No troops took part in it.

The army chief then reaffirmed that there will be no military coup, despite fears expressed by the red-shirt movement.

The army chief was responding to claims made by supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship during their protest at Khao Soi Dao in Chanthaburi over the weekend, and widespread rumours of another military take over.

Thaksin put stress on the rumours during his video link address to his supporters at Khao Soi Dao, and said he would set up a government-in-exile if there was a coup.

Chaturon Chaisaeng, a former acting leader of the now-dissolved People Power Party, said at a seminar on Sunday that efforts had been made to justify a plan to quell anti-government protests, and that certain military leaders were blacklisting more than 200 pro-democracy demonstrators and thinking of staging a coup.

The rumours gained momentum after the Jan 14 grenade attack on army headquarters.

Gen Anupong said there would be no coup. He said he still did not know who was behind the grenade attack and that he would leave it to police to investigate it.

Conceivably, various recent developments could serve to justify a future army coup.  To recap, these developments are: 1) the polemic by Chermsak Pinthong, publicized by Prem, arguing that a "civil war" is  already underway; 2) Media reports of Seh Daeng's alleged call to arms; 3) and the alleged grenade attack on Thai army headquarters.   For background on Khattiya Sawasdipol (Seh Daeng) and details about these three recent events see this post.

Concerning the conflict, don't miss this brief photo essay (via there live).