Drivers on the eastern ring road beware! Keep under 120kph when approaching kilometre 5 in Klong Luang district of Pathum Thani.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, Future Forward Party (FFP) chief, has received a speeding ticket after the van he was riding in was snapped by a police camera trap.
The traffic ticket was one of 26 items that he brought with him when he went to the Election Commission office to answer an allegation about his media stock holdings.
Issued to the van registered in his wife's name, the ticket was time stamped at 2.45pm on Jan 8 this year. This was to be one piece of evidence to refute scepticism that he could not have been back in Bangkok from Buri Ram that day to transfer his media shares to his mother.
Another ticket, time-stamped 11.41am, was issued to the same van on the same day in Buri Ram, confirming that the van had travelled from the province where Mr Thanathorn had made a campaign appearance.
Funnily enough, it takes two speeding tickets to show he was indeed in a hurry to get back to Bangkok to complete the share transfer.
But some critics are still not convinced. "How can we know Thanathorn was in that van?" they ask.
It has been this type of nit-picking that has dogged Mr Thanathorn since the news broke about his media holdings. He has been forced to spend a considerable amount of time and resources trying to answer these questions.
It was the reason he had to cut his European tour short to return to Thailand to answer an EC summons on April 30. He went with a stack of documents that he thought would convince the EC the allegations against him were groundless.
But the meeting was not what he had anticipated.
Emerging from the four-hour meeting, Mr Thanathorn was livid. In press interviews immediately afterward, he was uncharacteristically emotional.
"There's a strong likelihood I will not receive justice," he told journalists.
He said it was apparent to him that the EC has a predetermined political agenda and has no intention of giving him fair treatment.
He warned he would pursue legal action against the EC officials and junta members once the junta is out of power, even if it takes 15 years.
For junta supporters, seeing Mr Thanathorn and his party members squirming must be a gleeful sight to behold. But for others, it's plain to see that the rookie politician and his party are being bullied in a concerted campaign orchestrated by the military regime.
Mr Thanathorn, party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, and several party members are being corralled into a legal trap even if evidence against them is not as clear cut as those from the police traffic cameras.
The pattern of assault points to an obvious intention to bring the rising political star and his party crashing down at any cost. Official apparatuses no longer feel the need to pretend to be fair. The thinking appears to be: Set an objective and do anything possible, with trickery if needs be, to achieve it.
Based on this modus operandi, it's not implausible that Mr Thanathorn and friends could find themselves sidelined on trumped-up charges and his party dissolved.
But people tend to forget that the law has its own dynamics. For better or for worse, the provisions that could bring Mr Thanathorn down could also bring many other politicians of all stripes down as well.
The junta is probably aware now, if not before, of these dynamics. But unusual circumstances demand unusual measures, and the Thanathorn phenomenon is, for the junta, an extremely unusual circumstance that must be dealt with before it spreads far and wide.
And thus the scorched-earth strategy.
For those who see Mr Thanathorn and FFP as the catalyst for much-needed change, the best course of action might be to be philosophical about it and bide their time.
Surely their time will come, so long as they don't forget to get up after a fall. Remember that Mr Thanathorn has said time and again that he is in the game for the long haul and that he understands change takes time and much effort.
Remember as well that people don't like bullies. Many of those who were sceptical of the FFP and its idealistic vision when the party came into being will see the situation for what it is: bullying by a military regime that won't let go of its illegitimate power. They will in time come to stand on the side of those who seek change.
One day the Avengers will rise again and Thanos will fall.
Wasant Techawongtham is former news editor, Bangkok Post.
