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Published on December 31, 2007

In a few days, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will go back to where he came from. His "voluntary work" has ended and the Thai public will be relieved, for different reasons, to see him go. But nobody could be more pleased than the man himself and this alone has given the interim prime minister's short but stormy tenure a degree of memorable success. The former Army chief has managed to guard against personal ambition or temptation and stick at all costs to his proclaimed job description: hold an election in about one year, albeit while discrediting his ousted predecessor in the process.

Initially there were flowers. Then bricks followed. His considerable integrity suffered the first day he agreed to represent the military junta, but it took a big plunge after some economic policy howlers. Within months, his management skills were exposed and scepticism came from left and right. Internationally, his government was perceived as sending out xenophobic signals through awkward measures, designed either to deal with external economic factors or get Thailand's corruption-prone business house in order. Domestically, he was considered slow, rigid and simply inefficient.

The deep South continued to burn. And then there were the New Year's Eve bomb attacks in Bangkok and the persistent rumours of another coup. His sour relationship with junta leaders compounded the anxieties of confused and paranoid Thais. All the while, the investigation into Thaksin Shinawatra's alleged corruption cases proceeded at a painfully slow pace, allowing the man the junta and Surayud had vowed to expose in the wake of the September 19, 2006 coup to become more popular overseas while more and more Thais started to miss him.

How will Surayud be remembered? As a passive interim leader who just wanted to save his reputation and get out the door quick, or a man who dared to put a relatively great personal record on the line to make sure something worse didn't happen after the coup? Calling him passive may make his professional background look even more intriguing: here was a son of a prominent communist leader who had climbed up the Army's rank and file and fought against all odds to be widely recognised as one of the most democratically-minded Army chiefs Thailand has ever had. He was a man known for his integrity, constantly praised for lifting the military to a higher level of professionalism; his elevation to the Privy Council after retirement is proof of that.

Surayud, as interim prime minister, inherited a nation greatly divided and virtually in a state of political ruin. He succeeded a highly popular leader who was overthrown by the coup that he came to represent. It was hard for him to do anything, yet critics pointed at his doing "nothing" as his biggest failure. Would it have been better if the likes of Anand Panyarachun had been named interim prime minister? Or worse, if, say, coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin had assumed the premiership himself?

If Surayud has been befuddled as far as economic management is concerned, he has been very focused on what he considered his top priority. And, in the end, we should judge him on the bottom line. An election has been held peacefully with little criticism from the foreign community. Without Surayud being so steadfast on the December 23 time frame, things could have been worse. At this moment, the People Power Party is trying to form a government, and if it finally succeeds, more credit should be given to the man who oversaw Thailand's rocky path back to democracy.

Anti-coup critics have pointed out that this past year has proved Thailand to be a nation too complex for military rule, and they point at Surayud's performance as proof. That may be true, as growth of 4. 5 per cent, healthy exports and some stock market records, things could have been better or much better. But if modern Thailand is too complex for Surayud, a politically divided Thailand with its main forces at one another's throats and a military junta getting confused and restless may require someone like him.

It's up to Thais to thank Surayud or say they can't wait to see his back. The good thing about him is that he will leave the scene quietly and peacefully either way and would never try to influence the aftermath of the bumpy return to democracy, which he surely hopes will be the last irony of his life.