Making the most of their birthdays

For instance, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is 4,892 kilometres away in Dubai, celebrated his 60th birthday last Sunday with tens of thousands of supporters in Thailand. Though Thaksin was not here in person, he was here in spirit in the form of a life-size cutout, that his fans used for superstitious rituals. Judging by the number of supporters that showed up at celebrations nationwide, Thaksin must have felt adored.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who turns 45 on August 3, will be using the day to publicise his government's achievements over the past six months. Democrat spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks, however, was quick to say that the choice of the date was a mere coincidence.

As chairman of the publicity team, it was PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey who decided to publicise the government's performance on the premier's birthday. In other words, Abhisit will be telling the public what they have gained from his government so far, and what they should expect in the future.

A performance report will be released on August 3 along with the launch of a month-long publicity campaign. One of the highlights of this campaign will be the free 15-year compulsory education that the government has implemented nationwide. The campaign will be publicised on newspapers, billboards, community radio stations and two books that will be distributed widely.

About 10,000 copies of the first book, "Six Months, 100 Measures, 10 Million Happiness", will be handed out to media, MPs and senators. As for the second book - an easy-to-read version titled "Stories from the Fence: Thai People's Happiness is the Government's Goal" - about 200,000 copies will be printed and distributed to the public through village funds, school libraries, universities and government banks.

Satit also boasted about the sufficiency community project, which includes community-initiated, community-run development funds.

During its six months in office, this government has already set up relief programmes for nine groups of people and business affected by the economic downturn, including senior citizens, workers, farmers, the poor and small- and medium-sized enterprises. As part of the five-measure relief package, some 35 million people have benefited from free electricity and 12 million people have been receiving free water supply.

Still, despite all this work, the Democrats may have forgotten that they are part of a coalition. Clearly, all the achievements being advertised seem to have come from Democrats. In fact, a minister from a coalition party was even heard mumbling that maybe this campaign should be called the "Democrat Party's achievements".