General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who recently took power in Thailand with the coup d'état last May, must not only face the dissent of those who complain about the suspension of democracy, but also that, hidden and invisible, of opposing supernatural powers. Beliefs relating to the intervention of spirits in human affairs are deeply rooted in Thailand and even high exponents of the world of politics or finance have no problem professing them. Where the supernatural is closely intertwined with everyday life, the need to have at one's disposal a space-time grid where one can place one's actions and decisions without running into any obstacle of supersensitive origin is particularly felt.
The date of installation of the new government was therefore established after careful divination and the choice fell on September 9th. The Prime Minister's office thus began its work at 9 in the morning, trusting that all these 9 would bring good luck to the newborn executive (in the Thai language the number "9" is pronounced "gaow", whose sound is very similar to pronunciation of the term "gaow-nah", which means "improve", "progress"). In the previous days, several members of Prayut's entourage were seen carrying and placing statues of the Buddha and other religious symbols in the palace where the government is based to purify the building of evil spirits. Drawing on every possible source to propitiate good luck, the prime minister also resorted to feng-shui, according to which principles the furniture of Prayuht's personal office was arranged.
If it is not unusual in Thailand for politicians and businessmen to consult the stars and have rites of various kinds performed to guide their choices, General Prayuth nonetheless seems to believe in it with a very particular enthusiasm. In fact, on a couple of occasions he said in public that he had bathed himself from head to toe in holy water to neutralize the effect of the curses that his political opponents had hurled at him. All this must have seemed too much even to his collaborators, so much so that Veerachon Sukhontapatipak, spokesman for the army, declared that "General Prayuth has a deep respect for the supernatural world, but his political action is based on criteria of practicality and determined by the needs of the population and not by the spirit world.”
However, Kan Yuenyong, analyst of the think-tank "Siam Intelligence Unit", does not seem very convinced, who commented as follows: "Such an attitude can be very dangerous, because instead of analyzing a situation on the basis of concrete facts, with a free mind from prejudices, a politician can let himself be influenced by elements completely unrelated to the situation itself and take a decision that can significantly worsen things".
