With anti-corruption and election organisations allegedly being slowly compromised by the appointment of 'pro-government' officials, there is at least one watchdog still barking.
Pasuk Phongpaichit is not your normal breed. The quietly spoken economics and political science professor is not a rabid anti-government activist shouting from the rooftops. She is, however, one of Thailand's best-kept secrets.
Last month, Professor Pasuk barked and the government's ears pricked up. At a political seminar at Chulalongkorn University, she accused Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai Party of giving birth to a new era of democracy, submissive to big business, in which people's participation has been discouraged. In carefully chosen words, she said big business now dominated the political system, and a single party funded by business interests was the key player.
According to Professor Pasuk, under the party's leadership, the country had been turned into a 'development state' where the government supports and props up big business, and where the public has little say.
As usually happens with this government, there was a knee-jerk response, in which a spokesman dismissed the allegations, claiming the professor just wanted to show people how clever she was by taking a contrary stand, according to the Bangkok Post newspaper. He also defended the government's record.
For Professor Pasuk, 57, the nature of the response may have been a relief. The academic, who studies corruption and abuse of power in Thailand, has faced threats, libel suits, nasty phone calls and police on campus since she took up her crusade more than a decade ago. With her colleagues, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nualnoi Treerat, she has run a centre at Chulalongkorn University that has had run-ins with virtually every government in that time. She has also written a number of books that have raised eyebrows.