It is good to see that Thaksin Shinawatra is finally stepping down as Thai PM. His conduct has been pretty disgraceful for a while - particularly his business interests in Burma and the way that he and his family company have manipulated Thai law to silence (and imprison) critics. After everything that he got away with over the last few years, I guess it is not surprising that he thought that he could get away with his latest scheme - selling off Thailand's biggest telecoms operator, Shin Corporation, to Singapore and changing the law in order to avoid paying tax on the enormous profits that he made from the sale.
I am so glad that he was wrong and that the Thai people showed him who was really in charge of their country and demanded that he step down. So often it is the young democracies that really understand how important it is to defend the principles of accountability and transparency - something that those of us that live in more established democracies tend to get very complacent about.
So, congratulations to the Thai people on their victory. We could all learn a few lessons from them.
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