Thaksin Shinawatra, the tycoon and Thai prime minister who prides himself on his decisive, "CEO-style" of government, was happy to bask in public adulation when times were good. Now that he is faced with a more sluggish economy and a host of political challenges, he has become curiously shy, resorting to astrological excuses about the inauspicious alignment of the planet Mercury to explain his low profile.

Mr Thaksin needs to get a grip - not on his country, which he has already tried to do with authoritarian measures to sideline his opponents and curb press freedom - but on himself.