All the parties game the system. It's how politics in Thailand works. The new guy is just as, if not more, corrupt than the old one. The whole thing is a joke. Thaksin's replacement was removed after being convicted of a conflict of interest (he was moonlighting as a chef on a television cooking show â" that's so pathetic that words fail me).

The difference is that Thaksin's lot were voted in with a majority, and he'd more or less kept most of his campaign promises. Hell, he'd even completed a previous term, and his party had been voted an absolute majority (both almost unheard of there). That's not to say he wasn't bent. They're all bent. But it's better to have a bent leader who represents the will of the majority than a bent leader who doesn't and who is more or less installed as the result of a coup, eh?

The antics of the current government have set democracy in Thailand back 40 years. For that, they should hang.

He should have been honest and said: "Hi, I'm your new Prime Minister who was installed by the military and the middle classes, because the poor majority of our country finally got it into their stupid heads to get together and vote for a party that more or less represented their interests. This is not allowed. Democracy is not about having a government that gets the most votes, but about serving the interests of the middle class and wealthy."

It's the same old sad story.

This guy and his supporters deserve something more than a reply to a text message.