Thaksin could win the ballot despite populist policies that are increasingly detrimental to Thai democracy and the economy, Anek said.

"You go and ask the masses. They say they will still vote for Thaksin [and his Thai Rak Thai Party] because they love him. It's not just about what they will get [from him] but also an emotional attachment," said Anek.

But he warned that if Thaksin wins there would be even greater dependency on a man who behaves increasingly like Thailand's patron.

"[Electoral] policies have been turned into products and citizens reduced to customers. And it will lead towards tyranny with majority votes," said Anek, who is a former political scientist.

"The thinking that because you have a majority of the votes you can do anything, including introducing populist policies, is not right."

Anek was presenting his views and research on "Thaksin and Populism", which are the result of eight months of study commissioned by King Prajadhipok's Institute.

The former party leader said that at this stage, even Thaksin's rivals may have to tempt voters with their own version of populism to stand any chance of winning the election.

But a social welfare policy that was different from the top-down patronage-based programmes, which induce dependency, may be a viable alternative and would be beneficial to the country, he said.

"People won't become mere receivers of state policies."

The former Thammasat University lecturer said greater roles for active citizens, aristocrats and the monarchy could strengthen Thailand's fragile democracy.

He said Thaksin's populism has helped him wrest power from local influential people and enabled him to increase his domination of the state to become the new patron in a direct vertical relationship with the masses.

Anek said that eventually, the populist handouts and mega project investments would deplete the national treasury and trigger another national economic crisis.

Though the merits of populist policy are still debatable, noted economist Ammar Siamwalla, who was asked to react to Anek's research, said it was the duty of all concerned citizens to fight against the looming dictatorial system created by Thaksin, who cites the millions of voters as a blank cheque to abuse human rights and threaten freedom of expression.

"It's the duty of all Thai citizens to fight to extinguish [the system]," Ammar said.

"If we let the government grow bigger and bigger we will become increasingly dominated. This is something we must defend against.

"Many rights and liberties are being increasingly curtailed," he said, adding that gross human rights violations were taking place in the deep South and through extrajudicial killings during Thaksin's "war on drugs".

Meanwhile, the broadcast media was "completely dominated" by Thaksin.

"Populism carries with it the hidden danger [for governance] that it will slide into a dictatorial system pretty quickly," said Ammar, adding that politicians who utilised populism were more like "opportunists" who lacked any real ideology beyond seizing power and taking control of the state.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation