AT THIS HOUR, former interim prime minister Surayud Chulanont is unlikely to resign as a privy councillor. That is a shame, because if there were ever a real opportunity for troubled and confused Thailand to make sense of it all, this is one of them.
The red shirts are smart to make "double standards" the focal point of their campaign against his luxurious retreat on Yai Thiang Mountain. But they are also like a desperate, badly bruised boxer hurling himself, with his guard down, against his opponent. If Surayud had given up the property and quit the Privy Council, he would have, in effect, unleashed a near-fatal blow.
As things stand, the red shirts' gamble seems to be paying off. They had expected Surayud to take the usual path in dealing with controversy, and he did just that. Let's wait until the authorities rule that I have to return the land, he said. That apparently rules out speculation whether he should step down from the Privy Council.
Surayud's close aides are having a hard time explaining to the public why his acquisition of a plot of land that should have gone to the poor is "not the same" as Thaksin letting his wife buy a state-auctioned piece of land when he was prime minister. Of course, the cases are different in their legal technicality, but the crux of the matter is that Surayud is supposed to be "not the same" as Thaksin.
Thaksin chose to defend himself vehemently. Instead of admitting that he broke the law and deciding to take responsibility, he decried a "conspiracy". Surayud's aides were more careful with their words, saying the campaign to force him to relinquish the land and his Privy Council position may be "politically motivated". The real question in both cases, however, is not whether they are the result of political games, but simply whether the alleged offences did take place.
The red shirts are trying to show that a military-installed prime minister committed a similar offence to Thaksin. Surayud is missing the chance to show that even if he and Thaksin are susceptible to similar failings, he [Surayud] will respond in a more dignified manner.
We deserve better, not least because we have all lowered our expectations to accommodate all the standard-setters. We have, for quite some time, come to accept that nobody in politics can be anywhere near "clean", and that what matters has come down to how one reacts when found with ill-gotten asset, manipulated tax dealings or dubious transactions. Face it like a man, and that's all we're asking.
But our sympathy is in danger of being rewarded with an old-fashioned spitting contest. The red shirts, no matter how clever their strategy is, simply tried to whitewash Thaksin by pointing out that similar wrongdoings were committed by others.
Thaksin's opponents, on the other hand, reply by saying that although they are bad, he is far worse. Both camps, however, are sending the same message to the public: You think you have a choice, but you don't.
It's undeniable that Surayud's house is a dubious structure, as the land on the mountain was originally allocated exclusively for the have-nots - who were not supposed to sell it on. He may have bought the land in the same manner as thousands of others, but the difference is that the others are not the ones supposed to display a better moral standard than Thaksin.
Even if his ownership of the land is totally legitimate, Surayud's status and role require an extraordinary response to the kind of doubts raised by the red shirts and the general public, whether he likes it or not.
He could be feeling hard done by, but to be fair, Thaksin must have felt the same, too. These things come as a package, and Surayud's package is a set of even stricter rules, tougher scrutiny, and an army of enemies ready to pounce on any mistake, past or present.
Thaksin and his apologists have been suggesting all along that nobody could survive such rigid expectations. They may be right. And they may also be right, too, in claiming that such expectations are being applied with a double standard. It's up to Surayud to prove them wrong.
He doesn't have much time. The opportunity for a dignified response to the "red heat" may soon morph into real pressure that could result in the word "disgrace" attached to whatever he chooses to do.
But more importantly, this is not supposed to be about him, or counter-punching the pro-Thaksin movement. It is about making all of us understand, with some real hope, what the past few years have really been about
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