The growth of Thaksin Shinawatra's populist regime reflected a failure of Thai politics and the Constitution, the head of the National Human Rights Commission said yesterday.

NHRC chairman Professor Saneh Chamarik said the "Thaksin regime" was not just about Thaksin himself or his Thai Rak Thai Party, but served as a reminder of the decline of Thai politics generally, and how the Constitution had failed to serve its purpose.

"The fact that politicians can claim legitimacy to rule by citing voter support won with populist policies shows a failure of the Constitution," he said in his opening speech to a Thammasat University seminar yesterday.

Saneh noted that violations of the Constitution were rampant under previous Thaksin administrations, although they began before he came to power.

"Violations are more obvious now than ever before. But, in fact, they started even as the new Constitution took effect in 1997."

Saneh described Thaksin's use of his wealth to absorb small political parties and provincial politicians into the Thai Rak Thai as detrimental to the development of grass-roots politics.

"No government in the world can develop local politics without decentralising power to the local level," he said.

He also warned that care must be taken when making political reforms through Constitutional amendment after the next general election. If not, they could provide opportunity for even more evil in Thai politics.

Chulalongkorn University lecturer Pasuk Phongpaijit told the seminar Thaksin had successfully established himself as a populist leader by winning the support of major sectors of society, notably street vendors, labourers and farmers.

"Thai politics have evolved with the world economy and are now part of growing capitalism," she said.

Meanwhile, Thammasat University lecturer Tanet Apornsuwan said despite the success of populist policies, resistance to Thaksin governments' administrative powers was most obviously reflected in their failure to solve the problem in the deep South.

"Governments under Thaksin have totally failed to solve this problem, clearly showing they are not accepted by all sections of society," he said.