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Published on January 17, 2008

Adam Smith must be turning in his grave now that the term "invisible hand" has become a common term in Thai politics and here bears no semblance to its original meaning - that an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to promote the good of the community as a whole.

The reality here today is that when certain groups of politicians can't successfully pursue their self-interests, they blame the invisible hand for trying to sabotage their chances of forming the next government.

Things get even more intriguing now that the "visible hand" is blaming the invisible hand for what goes wrong.

Thaksin Shinawatra isn't supposed to be officially associated with the People Power Party (PPP) in any way. But it wasn't long ago that the current PPP leader Samak Sundaravej publicly admitted that he was indeed Thaksin's nominee. ("What's wrong with being a nominee?")

That hand is so visible that you would have to be really very naïve not to notice it.

Now, the "right-hand" of the invisible hand is back in town. She is officially here to defend herself against some serious criminal charges. That should have cheered up everyone concerned about the due process of law in this country.

But only a few minutes after her arrival, rumours (that remain deliciously undenied and unconfirmed until today) started to fly that her main mission was in fact to patch up relations with a certain senior person to pave the way for a political compromise.

Now, any political pundit worth his salt would immediately shoot down that kind of speculation. It's simply too far-fetched and legally untenable to imagine a situation in which the "old power" could strike a deal with what Thaksin used to call "the extra-constitutional power that was trying to unseat me".

Of course, it was no coincidence when Samak, in a more recent post-election outburst, declared that an "invisible hand" was launching an all-out effort to block the PPP from leading the new coalition government and undermining his chance of becoming the next prime minister.

For the sake of your own political sanity, you might want to pretend not to take note of the link between Thaksin's "extra-constitutionally powerful man" with Samak's "invisible hand". But then common sense demands that you read between the lines and try to find out who's trying to exploit whom in this fascinating political game - also known as "sleight of hand".

My suspicion is that both sides are more than willing to be "exploited" if they somehow can convince themselves that they end up sharing the spoils.

Unfortunately, the spoils that they might divide up between them happen to be the country's most-treasured asset - called national stability.

If, for some reason best known to the two sides, the deal doesn't come to pass, the visibly invisible will undoubtedly put the blame on a "third hand".

You have to learn a new language to really get an insight into the domestic political scene. The last I heard, the Big Ear from London may think that the Big Nose has an oversized Big Mouth that is hurting the Invisible Hand.

As a result, the Visible Hand will have to either get Big Glasses or a Short Neck to take the premiership to prevent the Third Hand from sabotaging the whole exercise.

For me, though, it's thumbs down for the whole messy scenario.

The Nation