The opposition Democrats are closing in. The 27 senators who failed in their first impeachment attempt won’t stop so easily. Neither will university academics, Sondhi Limthongkul and the alliance of NGOs and other parties. Leading social critics have been speaking in unison. Factional trouble in the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party continues to simmer. Meanwhile two major government policies, the privatisation of key state enterprises and the free trade agreement with the United States, are facing a highly uncertain future due to a growing public mistrust of the powers that be.

These are problems that stem largely from Prime Minister Thaksin intertwining his own vested interests with those of the state and the public. It is as sad as it is mystifying that a majority of the Constitution Court’s judges failed to follow the true spirit of the charter last week when they dismissed concerns that he had too much influence over his telecom business to be able to concentrate on doing his job for the public good. But there is much more at stake than a conflict of interest now. The country does not only have to guard against Thaksin’s interests becoming entangled with those of the state: it must also contend with his personal problems getting mixed up with those of the nation.

At a time when tens of thousands of protesters gather every other week to demand his ouster, the academic community has completely lost respect for him, and his personal advisers are having to answer new questions about his dubious business dealings on a daily basis, how can a prime minister, and the country as a whole, concentrate on nation-building? All of this trouble mocks his status as the ultimate decision-maker. And despite the overwhelming command the Thai Rak Thai holds in the House of Representatives, his problems have brought Thailand to a virtual standstill.

Education reform is a good example. We have lost count of how many education ministers have served in the Tha ksin government. How far have we progressed, reform-wise? Teachers have been up in arms over a controversial plan to decentralise state control of provincial schools to rural political bodies, and with his sinking popularity at stake, the prime minister has been unable to deal with this issue with a clear conscience. Left completely untouched are issues concerning the gap between educational opportunities for the rich and the poor and how to best equip Thai children to compete in a fast-evolving world. Political reform has become a shambles, for obvious reasons. The system of checks and balances and all the fundamental principles have not only been compromised: they have been ridiculed and even trampled upon to accommodate just one man and his family.

The Constitution Court has, time and again, spurned the spirit of a charter that seeks to foster transparency and accountability. The Anti-Money Laundering Organisation has ignored numerous blatant signs of serious business irregularities. The Revenue Department, in going out of its way to defend Shin Corp, has virtually issued a 10-point guideline on how to evade taxes. And the more his personal troubles increase, the more he will have to rely on spin.

The recent “reality show” in which his “poverty-eradication” campaign was broadcast around the clock surely is not the worse we shall see, and as his popularity plunges, the country’s coffers are about to be exploited in a new wave of huge spending on populist projects.

How long can the nation go on like this? Taking all potential damage, tangible or not, into account, the Bt20 billion in allegedly evaded tax sounds very trivial indeed.