Thaksin Shinawatra can be proud of himself. Even though he is out there, he is still doing Thailand favours that he himself might not be able to imagine. My maid is now very keen to learn more about His Majesty the King's sufficiency theory because she feels the prime minister in exile may have attacked it. Football lovers have recently been more interested in the results of the Thailand-Singapore match rather than fixating on the English Premier League and their favourite European teams.

Behind all of these positive changes is the man. And I'm sure many people would like to express gratitude to him.

He is such an inspiration and it will take such a long time before we can completely erase him from our memories. Here are all winners who have gained from his strikes outside of the Kingdom:

The Football Association of Thailand

In an unprecedented first for the Thai national team, Thai fans will throw tremendous support behind them in their second-leg match between Thailand and Singapore final at National Stadium tomorrow. True, we are a football-crazy nation but almost all of this obsession is directed at European, especially English, football.

Who says politics and football don't mix? Think about the World Cup match when Argentina played England during the Falklands dispute. Deep in the fans' hearts, we know that we are all hungry for the victory over Singapore - both to relieve our pain over the ongoing labyrinth of investments that Temasek holdings has in Thailand and to avenge a controversial penalty earlier this week.

To Thai fans, a referee cost us the game, while it was a fine result for Singapore. The controversial penalty added salt to the already wounded Thais. Tomorrow's match sets a record, as tickets for it have already been sold out. Prices have been marked up sky high on the black market as well. Never before has a Thai football match gained the public's attention as much as a European match would.

Sports columnists like Jackie and Bor Boo have allocated space in their columns and put effort into persuading Thai people to fancy the Thai national team for ages but they were hardly able to achieve that goal. Things changed completely after the man came. He simply created an enemy of the state. The Thai team has won the fans it deserves and we will see a sensational match along the lines of the "Red Heat" days when Liverpool played Manchester United.

Sumet Tantivejkul

Many still don't thoroughly understand the sufficiency economy theory and Sumet Tantivejkul, an expert in the theory, is fully booked on the lecture circuit until March. Things could have been worse for him if Thaksin did not touch upon the issue through foreign media. The aftermath of Thaksin's interviews has turned into a very positive trend - the public's awareness is peaking and more experts have risen from the shadows to relieve the burden on Sumet. From the newsroom to my house (my maid was furious the other day, believing Thaksin is against the idea) everybody is very keen on studying and practising this theory.

Academics

Thai and Western academics studying political science will not run out of issues to discuss for the next five years. Should they thank Thaksin for making political science so challenging? Gone are the days when Thailand could simply be grouped alongside Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia as "semi-democracies". Thaksin has opened a new chapter for political scientists. If you want to compare the guy to Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, you could refer to Thaksin's statements to the UN, made in a Mahathir fashion, such as "The UN does not give us rice to eat", and when he called the US an "irritating" and "useless" friend. Despite his similar reaction to human rights, the Malaysian strong man denies strong similarities between himself and Thaksin.

When academics try to follow Thaksin's latest portrayal of himself in the media as the champion of "Western democracy", they will have to go back to the library to look at evidence of his notions of democracy and human rights. After all, he is the same person who, a few years ago, addressed the nation on radio by saying, "Having debates and so many different opinions is just selfishness". He made an even more direct statement concerning his idea of democracy: "Democracy is a good and beautiful thing, but it's not the ultimate goal as far as administering the country is concerned." With twists and turns and blurred stances between being an authoritarian leader on one hand and a champion of democracy on the other, Thaksin has inspired a lot of academics to spend more time in libraries. Mixing and matching his past rhetoric and doctrines has made political science far from dull for academics. And they surely feel grateful.

News media

If there is an abrupt surge in the page views of foreign media outlets like The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and CNN, all Internet editors know who they should say thanks to. As our Website has enjoyed a rise in page views for a similar reason, I'd like to say thanks too. For the Thai public to stay tuned to the news, especially foreign news, is a blessing.

The more I think about it, the more I feel inclined to think that he will continue to do good for the country. All I can say now from the bottom of my heart is: "Thanks for your best wishes for Thailand. And enjoy travelling."

Veena Thoopkrajae