It's time to move Thaksin down the priority list

A brand new international airport with a seemingly major structural flaw.

A stalled economy. A rising insurgency. An absolutely crucial yet fragile political reform process. And, of course, an overthrown leader on the loose outside the country giving stinging interviews to foreign media. A simmering turmoil within, and a negative - if not distorted - image in the eyes of the world.

You have to feel for interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. It has been damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't for him on every single issue that he faces. But something has got to give now, something that not long ago was terribly important.

He has to let Thaksin Shinawatra go. Yes, the former prime minister remains a political threat, but there is little else Surayud can do apart from bringing back full democracy as soon as possible. The international attacks stemming from Thaksin's campaign have damaged Thailand, but that is the price of the September 19 coup. Locally, he can hurt the new government and the military as much as they allow him to. In other words, Thaksin at this moment poses less of a threat to them than they do to themselves.

It's time to revise priorities and move on. The strongest warning that the interim leadership has not been on the right track came on Sunday, when southern insurgents launched their largest set of coordinated attacks since the coup. And, coincidentally, the militants issued their sternest message yet at a time when the country was preoccupied with Surayud's unexpected political gamble. Whether or not it's appropriate to turn Somkid Jatusripitak, a key architect of "Thaksinomics", into the guardian of the sufficiency economy theory shouldn't have been the most important question of the day.

That is unless, of course, Somkid is part of a "Sammakitham-style" political conspiracy. Ironically, political realignment in the wake of the 1991 coup that toppled the government of Chatichai Choonhavan saw the military junta of that time covertly joining hands with politicians, the Sammakitham party among them, who they had publicly denounced. With backing from those politicians, junta leader Suchinda Kraprayoon became prime minister after a general election in early 1992, setting the stage for the bloody May uprising and more ugly consequences.

But we should worry about this later. At present, Surayud should be given the benefit of the doubt, which means we should assume his only motive was to discredit Thaksinomics and protect the reputation of the sufficiency economy model.

Yet while Surayud should be spared "conspiracy" accusations, he can't escape other responsibilities. As Thailand's interim leader, he has yet to tell his compatriots what the nation's biggest problem is. And if this is not corrected, it could fail him.

Thaksin has the right and luxury to play political games, but Surayud doesn't. Hundreds of thousands of Thais - Muslims and Buddhists alike - are living in fear or great confusion about their future. This must overshadow everything including the globetrotting former prime minister. Thais should be more worried by reports that many of the young southern militants comprise the cream of the crop of their societies and are not junkies as initially believed, than Thaksin's purchase of overseas estates or hiring of foreign lobbyists.

Thaksin is gone. It's the interim leaders fighting themselves now. Critics may be right in saying that an unabated national obsession with the former leader could blur real issues. The Suvarnabhumi Airport fiasco is a case in point. Thaksin's looming shadow has obviously complicated how official probes were carried out, how findings were publicised, and what solutions should be considered.

More worrisome is how much Thaksin will influence and thus distort political reforms. Already, the possibility of his return to power has dominated debates such as whether Thailand should do away with the party-list system. Thaksin survived one of the country's best constitutions, and this tells us many things, one of them is that a charter designed specifically to prevent his comeback could be the nation's worst.

Thaksin is no longer "the biggest problem". Let him continue to have the microphone and maybe this problem will take care of itself. There was a need to make sure Thaksin is dead politically, but the interim leaders have gone as far as they can. Having wrestled the country's helm from his hands, they have brought upon themselves far greater tasks and responsibilities than pre-empting his return. Again, the simple trick for Surayud and company is not to become their own enemy, not least because they had vowed to make a difference.

The "coup or Thaksin" debate has been a black and white matter on both sides, and 100 Somkids will not change that. Perhaps it's best for the great divide to remain. When people start saying they can't tell the two sides apart, it's time for the interim leaders to pack up and go home.

Tulsathit Taptim