While other armies in our region are gearing up to deal with terrorists or territorial conflict in South China Sea, the Royal Thai Army is engaged in an operation against plastic bowls.

Ranked the third largest in Southeast by the organisation Global Fire Power and 20th in a list of 126 armed forces around the globe, the Thai military has 310,000 troops in service and an annual budget of more than Bt200 billion. It boasts more four-star generals than the United States Army, along with a record for coup-making and political intervention unmatched in Asia.

According to Global Fire Power, in Southeast Asia only Indonesia and Vietnam have larger armies, but neither country poses a security threat to Thailand. Instead it seems the real threat for the Thai military is at home.

Nearly 10,000 bowls were seized from residents and politicians in northern Nan province over the weekend on grounds that they might provoke internal unrest. The authorities are now preparing to charge the bowls’ owners with violating the internal security of the Kingdom, in accordance with Section 116 of the Penal Code.

Better known as the sedition law, Section 116 targets “whoever makes apparent to the public by words, writing or any other means” anything to bring about a change in the laws or the government by the use of coercion or violence, to raise confusion or disaffection among the people to the point of causing unrest, or to have people violate the law.

Under current conditions it is almost certain that those charged will be tried in a military court.

The Nan case follows another late last month in which a Chiang Mai woman paid Bt100,000 to bail herself out after she was charged with sedition for posting a selfie with a red bowl on the Internet.

International media have pounced on the story. The UK’s Telegraph headlined its report, “Thai junta threatens foes with ‘attitude adjustment’ camps for ‘seditious’ red bowls bearing message from ex-PM”.

“The junta has identified a subversive new threat to law and order in the kingdom – red plastic bowls bearing a holiday greeting from the deposed prime minister,” it said.

“The Thai junta’s fears of a red plastic bowl show its intolerance of dissent has reached the point of absolute absurdity,” Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, was quoted by AFP as saying.

Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Prayut ordered that no one could distribute red Songkran bowls adorned with the names of former prime ministers Thaksin or Yingluck Shinawatra.

The colour wasn’t the problem. The bowls are a considered a threat by the military for the printed messages they carry. One reads: “The situation may be hot, but brothers and sisters may gain coolness from the water inside this bucket.” Some also carry the signature of Thaksin, the junta’s political arch-rival.

Prayut declared that Thaksin committed a sinful act by distributing the bowls, adding that he should instead have donated jars – even red ones – to enable drought-hit Thais to collect rainwater.

Thaksin, who recently posted an Instagram pic in which he appears proudly alongside his weapon of mass provocation, could cause an even bigger stir if he took up Prayut‘s suggestion. The military would need to mobilise huge numbers of personnel and equipment for a battle against an army of giant jars each standing 1.5 metres tall. Now that would be a real war.