Just before his arrival, a police officer was seen spraying paint over abusive anti-Thaksin graffiti discovered on a billboard that featured Thaksin's larger-than-life picture.

With 200,000 "no" votes cast in April against the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party out of 1.1 million eligible voters in the northern province, Thaksin is losing not just support but also respect - and it caught even those opposing him by surprise.

"I was surprised at how people around here could develop such hatred toward Thaksin," admits Somchai Preechasilpa-kul, a law lecturer at Chiang Mai Univer-sity who is known not only for his anti-Thaksin stance but for his critical views of the pro-monarchist anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

Somchai said many lecturers who are not normally politically active have be-come so over the past seven months since the major protests against Thaksin began. "I think the issue about corruption is something the middle class can't tolerate."

Some otherwise inactive lecturers have asked Somchai where to sign a petition denouncing Thaksin for his questionable ethics and his family's sale of Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

The law lecturer believes about 80 per cent of lecturers and students at the

prestigious university oppose Thaksin and he gave a liberal estimate that in the urban parts of Chiang Mai, the divide between the pro and con groups could be split 50-50.

"People have begun to feel that Thaksin has become untouchable and that he will swallow up the whole nation - or sell it off."

The crack is visible not only among intellectuals and the well-to-do, however.

Nattaphol Dechawong, a 28-year-old taxi driver said he and as many as one third of the 3,000 cabbies in the northern city do not like Thaksin, contrary to the image often promoted in the mass media that portrays them as die-hard Thaksin fans.

Many were paid Bt200 to Bt300 plus free food and alcohol to stage a rally supporting Thaksin, claimed Nattaphol, a native of Chiang Mai's San Patong district who works in Chiang Mai city.

"I wanted to tell the media that we're not all for Thaksin but I didn't know what to do. The people running the place are Thai Rak Thai men, and if I were to talk politics with drivers who are pro-Thaksin then we would surely end up boxing each other," he said.

Many banners posted by locally elected administrators saying "We Love Thaksin" are confusing, said Nattaphol, because it mislead people into believing that they refer to everybody in Chiang Mai.

Nattaphol is one of the 200,000 who cast a "no" vote and wore black to the polling booth during the nullified April election.

While Nattaphol is not formally well-educated, he said he placed his trust in the opinions of many senior medical doctors who publicly oppose Thaksin.

"These people can't be bought, and if they can, the whole country would have been bought off."

Nattaphol said although the caretaker premier is a native of Chiang Mai, he feels the man is a disgrace. "Even some San Kamphaeng district people [where Thaksin was born] do not like him, mostly educated elderly people. They told me he fast-tracked all his relatives and underlings into influential positions. Northern people also have a belief that people with a square face can't be trusted and are not sincere."

One of the reasons why Nattaphol said he's well-informed despite only having studied at vocational school, is that he was introduced by a foreign-educated friend to quality newspapers instead of tabloids.

"The tabloids are fun to read but they don't help you to understand politics," he said.

At San Kamphaeng, a 20-minute drive east of Chiang Mai city, not everyone likes Thaksin though saying so out loud could be a risky undertaking with near total support for the caretaker premier.

One such vocal voice against Thaksin is Inthong Sangkha, a biology teacher at San Kampaeng District High School and a native of the area.

Some 10 per cent of people here do not like Thaksin, he claims. "But one has to think first if someone will strike you if you say something against him in public or not."

The teacher said education is a crucial factor in enabling people to keep pace with politics. He said more and more people are learning to weigh the pros and cons of Thaksin's rule.

"The country is falling into the hands of one group of capitalists and inflicting damage on the grassroots [through his populist policies] will be permanent. When you weigh it up, you realise the situation is getting out of control."

The teacher, who's in his 50s, said he opposed the patronage culture, which he thought was growing out of control under Thaksin. "In the future, it will be impossible to separate right from wrong. He also treats people who are not with him as his enemies," said Nattaphol, who regards Thaksin's populist policies as a new form of slavery of the poor.

But national politics is still far removed from rural people in San Kamphaeng, said Piphob Udom-ittipong, a former magazine editor and resident of San Kamphaeng for the past five years.

"It's superficial to think that villagers will take national politics seriously," he said, adding this explains why more than half of the PAD's Chiang Mai branch is not native to the province.

Pakavadi Virapaspong, a Bangkok-born translator who moved to San Kamphaeng two years ago, said the wealth and education divide is still crucial in determining whether one will - or won't - support Thaksin. "However, those with access to information are growing more discontent."

Pravit Rojanaphruk

 The Nation

Chiang Mai