The phrase "We apologise for any inconvenience" from coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, on the night he staged the September 19 coup, gave the impression of a man who was not a hard-liner.

However, time changes everything. Three months have passed and Sonthi has become a different man. He has a gone from a person who hardly spoke publicly to a man who makes headlines almost every week.

Having become the centre of attention - far more than Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont - Sonthi has recently made the public have doubts about his ambitions.

According to the interim charter, the Council for National Security (CNS) has a duty to keep national order. But some say that Sonthi, as CNS chairman, has acted as though he is the national leader.

The Army chief has been criticised many times since the coup for adopting an inappropriate role.

It started when Sonthi was seen to be getting involved in politics with former Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who launched a strong attack against the CNS for its failure to live up to expectations. Chavalit also criticised the CNS for letting too many generals sit on the boards of state enterprises. If the CNS did not do things right, there might be a counter-coup.

Sonthi hit back at Chavalit with little hesitation, questioning whether he had a hidden agenda by suggesting the possibility of a counter-coup.

In the end, Sonthi and the other CNS members had to go and meet Chavalit at his Pinpraphakhom residence to talk things out. Although the substance of the talks was not reported, the unfolding drama appeared good enough for Chavalit's political agenda - but not Sonthi.

Another controversy has been over whether Sonthi has meddled in moves to draft a new constitution. He offered a guideline for the new charter to limit prime ministerial terms, to end the 90-day membership rule for political party members and make it easier to censure rogue prime ministers.

When Sonthi slammed Thaksin by calling him "a boy who cries wolf" he was criticised for speaking out of place. The CNS chief later made a lame excuse, saying he had read from a prepared script.

Sonthi was also regarded as speaking out of place when he said that the Assets Examination Committee would in the near future charge ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government over corruption scandals.

His latest idea to extend the terms of village headmen and kamnan from five years to 10 in order to ensure continuity has raised more doubts, as it would be contrary to the decentralisation concept. It made Sonthi look as though he was trying to court support from village headmen and kamnan.

Meanwhile, there are some issues Sonthi should make clear but hasn't. He has refused to give any details on how the junta spent a secret fund of Bt1 billion for the coup.

Inevitably, expressing his opinions has led to one question. Is Sonthi doing all this to pave the way to perpetuate military power in Thai politics?

This week there was interesting public feedback. A survey by the Research Institute of Bangkok University found that Sonthi was the most admired Thai person because of his decisiveness. But some think the admiration won't last. Inevitably, it will depend on his performance.

The general needs to be more aware of what he says and the topics he chooses to express opinions on. Otherwise he might follow in footsteps of the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, if he's not careful.

Somroutai Sapsomboon,

Jintana Panyaarvudh

The Nation