Mingkwan Saegsuwan, former deputy prime minister and commerce minister, dropped a bombshell on the very first day that he was presented to the media by Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, leader of the Palang Pracharath Party, as a new member and possibly head of its economic team.
Mr Mingkwan told the media that he decided to join Palang Pracharath because Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is no longer with the party.
But the real reason that he did not disclose is that his newly-founded Okart Thai (Thai Opportunity), like all the micro parties, stands no chance of winning even a single constituency seat at the next election after the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court that found the MPs election bill is constitutional.
Under this bill, the allocation of party-list House seats will be calculated with the use of 100 as the divider instead of 500 which would have given small parties a greater chance of being allocated party-list seats.
Mr Mingkwan is a smart man and marketing guru who knows how to use words and campaigns well. His tale about Prime Minister Prayut's failure to address economic problems and Covid-19, resulting in more than 20,000 fatalities, is well-worn, and he repeated it on the day he was presented to the media.
Then, out of the blue, he dropped the bombshell that caught every core member of the PPRP, including Gen Prawit, by surprise.
Without any preamble, he said that if he is to represent the party in a debate on economic affairs, he must be the party leader or a party's candidate for the prime minister's post.
He claimed he had discussed the issue with Gen Prawit and the latter agreed that he would be one of the party's three prime minister candidates.
Two core party members, including Veerakorn Kamprakob, a long-time MP of Nakhon Sawan, told the media later that Gen Prawit has no authority to nominate a candidate for the prime minister's post without the consent of the party and its executive committee.
It is apparent that Mr Mingkwan is not content with being just the party's economic team leader, but also aspires to be the next prime minister.
But as a loner and a newcomer to the party, it remains doubtful that he will be nominated as one of the party's three candidates for the prime minister's post because there are other veterans in the party who share a similar aspiration.
This issue will pose a headache for Gen Prawit and a problem for Mr Mingkwan. Let's wait and see what Mr Mingkwan's next move will be if most of the MPs are against his proposed candidacy.
Will he switch his party again after having jumped ship from his New Economics Party and then the Okart Thai Party? Earlier, he joined the Pheu Thai Party but quit in 2013 reportedly for a political break. He joined New Economics Party as its leader to contest the 2019 election, but quit following a conflict with other MPs who wanted to join the government of Prime Minister Prayut.
Mr Mingkwan has kept a low profile during Prime Minister Prayut's almost eight years in office. Ask any first-time eligible voters whether they know who Mr Mingkwan is and name his past achievements that tempted the Palang Pracharath Party to choose him as its economic team leader. The probable answer from most would be "Mingkwan Who?"
Whenever Mr Mingkwan is mentioned for his economic acumen, people who know him refer to his achievements at Toyota Thailand when he became the first Thai among tens of thousands of Thai employees to win the trust of the Japanese management to be appointed a director for public relations and assistant managing director as well as secretary to the Toyota Thailand Foundation.
Then his success as director of the state-run Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand or TV Channel 9 for transforming the organisation, known then as a twilight zone, into the country's top and highest-rated TV station during his era, more than two decades ago.
There is scarce mention of his performance while serving as deputy prime minister and commerce minister in the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. Perhaps there is nothing impressive worth mentioning.
There is no doubt that he is reputed to be a guru in marketing and public relations. But whether this talent can be deployed in running a government and managing the economy, which is a much more complex and delicate task, remains to be proven.
If Mr Mingkwan wants to be a part of the Palang Pracharath Party, he may have to swallow his pride and be content with being an economic team leader or its equivalent.
Or he may have to switch his party again and risk being left out in the cold, sitting on the ringside outside parliament like most of the small parties whose political fate seems sealed because of the new method for allocating party-list seats.
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, 'Bangkok Post'.
