Yes, it's fast becoming a boring political cliche, but if you think carefully, there is much more to it than meets the eye.

Poor Surayud. He can't do anything right at the moment. His enemies find gaping holes in every move he makes. His supporters have been tormented and frustrated by inaction or an overly cautious approach on matters for which the road ahead seems clear, and by the inexplicably foolhardy rush when all political signs are screaming "Stop!" And the neutral group - who must be as rare as that wetland bird found to have escaped extinction in Thailand - sees a befuddled though determined leader beset by the consequences of both his own political naivete and matters that have been beyond his control.

All of these people have only one thing in common: they think he's running out of time. Apart from that, it's a pool of people with different motives and intentions. They either love him or hate him. They either sincerely want him to succeed or wish him total failure at any cost. They have either left no stone unturned to find excuses for him, trying to make sense out of acts as incomprehensible as the Somkid Jatusripitak appointment, or treated his every word as unworthy or a lie. There are those backing him for their own vested interests, and there are those cheering his every mishap only because they can't stand to see a coup as a successful cure to democratic malaise.

And there are the disillusioned. Some businesspeople have made an ideological U-turn and said they would have chosen "efficiency" over "moral authority". They had hailed the coup but now say they wouldn't mind Thaksin Shinawatra's return if it would help boost the Thai economy.

It's debatable what would have happened in regard to the deep South, Suvarnabhumi Airport and iTV if Thaksin had remained in power. But sooner rather than later, many may forget that Surayud inherited those problems from the previous administration. His soft approach towards iTV employees hasn't helped create an image of a compassionate leader, but rather played into the hands of those trying to drum up a perception that an "independent" television station is being harassed by his government.

And to rub salt into his wounds, when Anand Panyarachun stood up to the National Peacekeeping Council, which had appointed him interim prime minister after the 1991 coup, he was lauded as courageous and went on to become one of the best Thai leaders in modern history. Today, news reports that Surayud and the Council for National Security (CNS) are not on good terms have sparked rumours of a new coup or were seen as disruptive.

What sums up Surayud's misery is this week's remarks by Prasong Soonsiri, whose appointment as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) was one of the key developments undermining public faith in the CNS and inadvertently the interim Surayud government. From what Prasong said, there's a strong likelihood the CDC and the government will blame each other if Thailand's new draft charter does not pass a referendum. The CDC chairman suggested that if the government mismanaged the economy, the draft could face a snub vote, a possibility he implied Surayud didn't seem to care about.

Exactly what "time" is running out for Surayud? His time with the CNS? Or with the economy? Or with the Thai public? And what will happen when this "time" is up? Will there be a popular uprising, or even another coup? Everyone has his or her own answer, and Surayud's arguably most defiant stand yet on Monday has gone almost unnoticed.

Giving a speech to the Thai Journalists' Association to mark its 52nd anniversary, he vowed to fight against all odds and hit back at critics zooming in on key alleged shortcomings of his administration. The slow corruption probe, he insisted, was the result of an intention to prove that the rule of law could be applied to political crimes that went unpunished in a "democratic" regime. The Somkid fiasco? If we can't reconcile with the man, or if we let this "trivial" issue divide us, how can we deal with the mammoth, highly delicate problems in the deep South, something that involves extreme religious, cultural and ethnic sensitivities?

And what about the claims, which were supported by Thaksin, that corruption is something deep-rooted in Thailand and cannot be cured by a coup? Surayud said anyone who thinks corruption is incurable probably doesn't care about the country that much.

Amid plunging popularity ratings and the accumulation of complex problems, a formerly pro-Thaksin mass-circulation newspaper indirectly called for a bit more time and patience for Surayud. With Thailand looking more and more like a minefield and with all kinds of lunatics playing on it, the real issue may not be the interim leader running out of time. It may be that all of us are.

Tulsathit Taptim