This may soon change. Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, chairman of the CNS and one of the coup-makers, hinted recently of the existence of potentially damning evidence that could link a close associate of Thaksin to the abduction by police officers of Muslim lawyer and human rights advocate Somchai Neelapaijit.

Somchai disappeared without trace after being abducted on March 12, 2004. He is presumed dead.

Any emerging new evidence that points to the identity of a mastermind in Somchai's abduction who was close to Thaksin could lead to the re-opening of an investigation into the case and a possible re-trial. It would also afford the Surayud government an opportunity to widen the scope of the investigation to cover all other atrocities and abuses by the police under Thaksin's watch - so that corrupt and criminal elements can be purged from the Royal Thai Police.

In January the Criminal Court found one middle-ranking police officer guilty of abduction and sentenced him to a three-year term of imprisonment for unlawful detention. Four other policemen, who were co-defendants in the case, were acquitted because of a lack of evidence. Somchai's disappearance put Thailand's human rights record in a very negative light in the eyes of the Thai public and the international community. The UN Human Rights Committee, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and several foreign governments had expressed concern about police brutality during the Thaksin regime.

The national police and the Thaksin government were the subject of scandal after Somchai's client told a court that one of the five accused officers had tortured him to extract a confession. The police wanted him to admit he took part in a raid on an Army camp in Narathiwat on January 4, 2004, in which more than 300 weapons were stolen.

Thaksin, a former police lieutenant colonel, was known to have used the police and other law enforcement officials to commit crimes, including blatant human rights violations linked to the controversial "war on drugs" in which at least 2,000 suspected drug traffickers were killed. Investigations into all of these atrocities, which had been suppressed by Thaksin, must be re-opened and the wrongdoers punished. Moreover, many police officers had also been manipulated by the former prime minister to skew the criminal justice process by tampering with evidence, altering investigative findings or watering down cases of corruption involving Thaksin and his cronies to help them escape conviction and punishment for their crimes.

During Thaksin's five and a half years in power, corruption and abuse of authority by officers in the national police force had become even more widespread than it already was. It is time now for the Surayud government to root out corrupt and criminal officers so that a real effort can be made to rebuild the police force. It must be expected to perform its duty honestly, as the enforcer of law, with a high degree of professionalism and public accountability.

It is going to take time to weed out the long-standing corruption in the police force that has been tolerated and even condoned by successive governments and an apathetic Thai public. Its culture, based on the patronage system, must be done away with and, at the same time, a stricter code of conduct must be imposed. Officers found guilty of corruption must be consistently punished.

If done right, the Surayud government will be able to reform the national police force as well as demolish, in one fell swoop, Thaksin's remaining power of patronage, which remains strong among the police rank and file. Any hope of rebuilding a viable and resilient democracy in this country depends to a large extent on this interim government's success in making the police force serve the public and ridding it of manipulation by corrupt politicians.