Reportedly, Abhisit's maid had used his ATM cards to make 121 withdrawals for a combined sum of more than Bt800,000. After a year of withdrawals, she resigned and was caught immediately after Abhisit went to the police on Monday - an event that made headlines yesterday.

On the contrary, we have learned that Thaksin, before becoming prime minister, transferred several billion baht worth of Shin Corp shares to his maid and driver - which later led to the asset-concealment investigation after he became prime minister.

The money involved in these two cases is incomparable - hundreds of thousand against billions of baht. And while Abhisit's maid ran away with the smaller sum of money, Thaksin's maid and driver remained with him for years despite being, on paper, billionaires.

What secret trick did Thaksin use to secure such extraordinary loyalty?

It was not possible that Thaksin transferred the shares to the maid without her knowledge. Then why did she not run away with the booty, an amount she could never hope to earn in her entire life - or indeed in many lives?

This only adds to the puzzle of how, over five-and-a-half years, Thaksin managed to secure the blind loyalty of Thai voters. Populist policies? No way. The new government has indeed maintained most of the populist policies put in play during the Thaksin era, but now it must watch out for "undercurrent" attacks.

Surely, for years to come, wannabe prime ministers should learn from Thaksin how to win the hearts of voters. But they should make sure they apply only methods approved by the military, or else in the end they'll end up like Thaksin, who still has no place to lay his head in the Kingdom despite voter support. (Sigh.)

achara_d@nationgroup.com