Thaksin, a telecom tycoon turned politician, led the Thai Rak Thai Party to a landslide victory in 2001, only three short years after it was established. The party's meteoric rise was made possible by a series of mergers, even straight buy-outs, of other political parties.

Unprincipled politicians of every ideological hue and stripe imaginable flocked to join the new party, hoping they could ride Thaksin's coattails to high political office and avail themselves of all sorts of opportunities to make a quick buck through influence-peddling.

Or failing that, these politicians would docilely fawn on and obey every whim of Thaksin, their political master, in exchange for generous handouts at his leisure. With virtually unlimited power of patronage, Thaksin was able to bypass conventional channels to dominate politics in such a very short time.

Even most of the key members of the People's Alliance for Democracy, which led the successful campaign to oust Thaksin, plus the large cross-section of the middle class who only recently turned against him, had at one time or another been manipulated and deceived by the Thai Rak Thai leader.

In the five years since he came to power, citizens were willing to turn a blind eye to Thaksin's numerous transgressions. Such political apathy explains why Thailand's democracy could degenerate so badly. Political reform was reversed, the previously vibrant media gagged, the Kingdom's human-rights record tarnished, civil society cowed and sound governance abandoned.

Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party were allowed to monopolise political power through strong-arm tactics, intimidation, manipulation and even at times outright deception.

And the Thai Rak Thai leader could achieve all of this through a much-hyped perception that he was a decisive leader who could get things done. Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai cohorts had expertly wielded populist policies to win over both naive and unprincipled voters and worked hard to ensure that they remained captive to the kinds of policies that offered quick fixes and instant gratification.

The Thai Rak Thai Party found that such clever political marketing and ruthless power-grabbing served it well, at least until recently. But the anti-Thaksin backlash of late is proof positive that even the man who used to be considered the most popular politician ever in modern Thai history is not invincible.

And so, all Thais must remain vigilant. A cunning political animal like Thaksin is unlikely to roll over and die simply because a large section of the population, mainly the urban middle class, has proclaimed his credibility to be tarnished beyond salvation.

Let us not forget that the poor and disadvantaged - in short, the majority in Thailand - remain enamoured with Thaksin and his populist policies that pander to their every want and need.

One challenge facing our now-polarised society is how to do away with the corruption-prone legacy of Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party. This can be achieved by a constitutional revision that ensures a level playing field for all political parties competing in elections and an effective system of checks and balances against the government, a system that is accountable to the people and which lives up to their democratic aspirations.

But an even bigger challenge is how to eliminate the debilitating trap of poverty and ignorance that makes too many people easy prey to the likes of Thaksin and other predatory political frauds, regardless of how they present themselves.