The prime minister hit the bull's eye when he said the majority of the people in this country must share the blame for not only turning a blind eye to Thaksin Shinawatra's misrule and corruption, but also for perpetuating the corruption-prone patronage system, cronyism and favouritism, which continue to be endemic to the social and economic life of the country. Surayud told the truth as it is without fear or favour because he harbours no political ambitions beyond his current term, which is expected to end in December.

No professional politician or would-be holder of public office would dare challenge members of the public to look at themselves in the mirror, so to speak, and make an honest assessment of themselves as citizens in this so-called modern democratic society of ours.

If we as a society are honest with ourselves, we must admit that in a way we deserved the Thaksin government because we allowed ourselves to be bought, manipulated and then exploited by the former telecom tycoon and his Thai Rak Thai Party in exchange for instant gratification in the form of his populist policies. As citizens of a democracy, we failed to live up to our duty to exercise judgement, scrutinise politicians' conduct and to collectively bring pressure to bear on politicians to ensure that they serve us honestly.

Most of us were prepared to tolerate Thaksin's self-serving tendencies because he offered us entitlements, most of which were either undeserved or economically unsustainable, and we soon became accustomed to his conflicts of interest and the more blatant forms of corruption during his term. People in this country went so far as to let Thaksin get away with the controversial extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, with more than 2,500 killed on his watch.

Too many Thai citizens, especially the poorly educated and poverty-stricken, saw themselves as helpless victims in a game played by politicians who treated them like dispensable pawns to be manipulated for political power. Highly educated and financially well-off members of the urban middle class were not much better because they tended to be opportunistic and unprincipled.

Ordinary Thais should not be let off the hook too easily. The majority of citizens cannot excuse themselves merely by saying that they were duped by Thaksin.

After all, virtually everybody continued to want a piece of the action or crumbs from the table even after they realised that Thaksin and his cronies had flouted the rule of law, rolled back civil liberties, engaged in corruption and undermined democracy. Let's not forget that the anti-Thaksin sentiment that swept through the rank and file of the urban middle class was a recent phenomenon that only took off early last year when the economy started to show signs of weakness due to political uncertainty. In other words, many members of the middle class abandoned Thaksin only after it became evident that continuing to support him was no longer profitable.

This brings us to the sobering crux of Surayud's speech, when he said that one of the most important prerequisites for a sustainable democracy in this country is "individual citizens' responsibility to participate fully, peacefully and in an informed manner in the political life of our country. This is one of the duties of citizenship in a real democracy.

"We as a nation will not achieve good and honest government if we allow corruption and disregard for the rule of law to continue ... Each of us must choose to say no to corruption, not just in politics but in every part of our lives. Each of us must choose to respect the rule of law as the very foundation of our society."