Together, Borwornsak and Wissanu, arguably the brightest legal minds of their generation, served Thaksin well, identifying legal loopholes for him to exploit by hook or by crook in gaining political power, while amassing personal gain at the same time. They also put forward a credible legal defence and engaged in some effective spin doctoring whenever the prime minister and his cronies became entangled in corruption scandals that broke out into the open.

They provided a very valuable service to Thaksin, and their departure will probably make him even more vulnerable. One likely explanation for the two legal experts' deserting Thaksin at his most desperate hour may be the realisation that their political master is no longer legally defensible. It is not as if they have suddenly rediscovered their conscience, after having helped Thaksin achieve his devious designs at the expense of the public interest.

Borwornsak and Wissanu may not deserve sympathy, but their abandoning ship at this time is perfectly understandable.

These past five months have seen the most dramatic reversal of fortune for Thaksin, once considered the country's most popular politician and who was poised to take absolute control of Thai politics.

Then the Thaksin family decided to reward itself with the most lucrative of business deals: selling off their controlling stake in telecom giant Shin Corp, which Thaksin had founded, to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for a tax-free Bt73.3 billion on January 22. Thaksin thought he could have the best of both worlds.

But he also could not resist being patronising towards the public he vowed to serve, saying his children had made the decision so that he could focus on politics and avoid criticism about conflicts of interest.

Thaksin's arrogance of power, reinforced in no small part by the false sense of security that came from having two of the cleverest legal experts in his employ, blinded him to the possibility of a public backlash. As it turned out, the Shin sale lifted the veil of deception and exposed Thaksin for who he really was: an overly ambitious politician with a serious lack of scruples who did not bother to hide his deep contempt for the people.

It is interesting to note that Thaksin founded Thai Rak Thai only eight short years ago, in 1998. Through big-budgeted mergers and acquisitions, he managed to fill the party stable with the best politicians money could buy in an attempt to find a short cut to the top political office, all the while wielding a populist platform that pandered to the unprincipled and the gullible.

The Thai Rak Thai Party's meteoric rise in politics over such a brief period could prove to be its undoing. Ever-rising public expectations for the Thaksin government to continue delivering populist goodies like universal healthcare, easy loans and tax breaks - to name just a few - were stopped in their tracks quite a while back by hard economic realities that compelled the government to tighten fiscal discipline. To many, these populist policies, which had been marketed as a gift that would keep on giving, turned out to be nothing but a big hoax.

Increasing numbers of citizens are beginning to see more clearly now. Thaksin, the great manipulator, is getting a taste of his own medicine now, as public expectations exceeded his ability to deliver. But there can be no worse possible scenario than having his lawyers abandon ship just as Thaksin is gearing up to fight for his political survival, which will depend largely on legal technicalities.