There's a lesson in every coup

This is because soldiers raided his house in Chiang Rai's Mae Chan district two days after the coup - but he was not to be found. Later that very day Yongyuth, then natural resources and environment minister, surrendered and was put in custody at the Army Command with some of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's close aides.

Yongyuth, who is banned from politics for five years over electoral fraud, along with a former executive member of the now-disbanded Thai Rak Thai party, Chaturon Chaisaeng, recently appear to be at the centre of the confusion about who would take over from disqualified PM Samak Sundaravej.

Yongyuth and Chaturon were given the job of asking Samak to pull out from the race for the top post and ensure a happy ending for all.

Reporters tried to reach Yongyuth to ask him about how the talks developed, but he could not be reached.

Recently, he had apologised for being unavailable since he had to change his mobile number every week because he suspected his phone was being tapped.

"I realised this during the last coup. Technology now is very good and any cellphone holder can be tracked down. But no one could find me during the coup because I had turned off my phone," Yongyuth divulged.

And now, since he cannot be sure if there's an impending coup, he chooses to change his number every week for that same reason - to avoid getting caught.

Isn't that a valuable lesson to be learned from a coup?

Samak still lives in a colourful world

It is still hard to believe why Samak has dared to declare that he would take the country's top-most post despite being warned by veteran politicians that it might end up in disaster.

In fact, Samak has realised that some MPs from coalition parties may not even vote for him. But then the former PM is very arrogant and thinks it is okay for some votes from small parties to disappear.

"It is colourful in the political world," he has been known to say.