The anti-government demonstration led by Gen Boonlert Kaewprasit has disintegrated after a brief protest two weeks ago.
The demonstration was intended to last throughout that weekend but, as it turned out, ended only a few hours after it started on Saturday morning.
Gen Boonlert forecast that hundreds of thousands of people would join the rally but the media reported that fewer than 20,000 showed up.
It appeared that not many people agreed with his idea of putting the country in a 'deep freeze'.
A censure debate followed the rally. For three long days, MPs and senators grilled the government. In the end, it was not unexpected that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's administration received a large number of votes of confidence.
The interesting figture, however, was that of the Abac poll. According to the survey, 68.6 percent of the respondents still had confidence in PM Yingluck. Also, 24.5 percent believed the information provided by the targeted cabinet members while only 15.23 percent trusted the information presented by the opposition.
The prime minister's leadership and creditability won public confidence.
Unfortunately, leadership is what lacks among Thai sport associations. This is perhaps a main factor behind the overall lacklustre performance in Thai sports.
It has long been a tradition that presidents of certain sport associations are retired high-ranking government officials, or police or military officers. In one case in 1980s, one retired army officer was president of 10 sport associations at the same time!
Managing one sport association to success is already a time-consuming task. So how can one person, let alone a retiree, run 10 associations effectively?
The regulations have since changed and a person can only head one association at a time.
While a person's position and social status are indeed positive attributes, they should not be the main factor in selecting president of a sport association.
The essential requirements for a sport association president should be vision, commitment, management skills and transparency. These are of course components of a good leader.
Setting a vision for a sport association appears to be a trivial undertaking. However, many associations are still 'running on the spot'. Year after year, they make no progress in their performance _ as measured by medals won _ because they have no vision for the future and hence no direction to follow.
Commitment is an important part for success. Too often I see chiefs of sport associations who sit in the positions only because they think it is prestigious. Sometimes they are there simply because they have nothing better to do so they lobbied for votes to get elected.
They appear to have little interest or knowledge in the sport they are in charge of. Or, sometimes the voters just want someone with high status and connections in order to get sponsorship.
Leaders of sport associations need to be committed and passionate about the sports they supervise. A few notable presidents include Sindhu Poonsiriwongse of the Billiard Sports Association of Thailand, Maj Gen Charuek Areerachakaran of the Sepak Takraw Association of Thailand, and Maj Gen Intarat Yodbangtoey of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association of Thailand. These presidents have brought pride and joy to the Thai people through sports.
Taking a sport organisation to international levels requires management skills. For example, you have to know that physical strength is one of the most important factors for athletes in several sports but it may not be in some sports such as archery and shooting.
A sport requires a good manager to take it to another level. Some of the managerial tasks include budget planning and allocation, selection of coaches and athletes, athletes' development and training, nutrition planning, tournament organisation and many more.
Last but not least is the issue of transparency. It cannot go unsaid that a good high performance sport organisation must have good governance, a rare trait among Thai sport associations. Without transparency, an association cannot endure over time.
The benefit of sports goes beyond keeping teenagers away from drugs or simply making the participants fit and healthy.
At the competition levels, winning medals means pride and joy for the nation. Sometimes sports can even unite a country as rugby united South Africa in 1990s.
For a sport to succeed, the governing association plays a crucial role. Therefore, when member clubs vote to elect their association presidents, they should make a decision with relevant criteria in mind, instead of just casting ballots based on personal agenda and self-interest.
Pimol Sirvikorn is president of the Taekwondo Association of Thailand