The political confrontation, which was triggered off by allegations ofarbitrary and corrupt governance by Mr. Thaksin and his erratic styleof functioning, was made worse by the divide between Bangkok and ruralThailand. The Bangkok elite, which has always exercised, like theParisian elite of France, a disproportionately large influence overthe country's political landscape despite its numerical minority, haddifficulty in accepting a leader, who owed his political rise andsurvival to the support of the rural poor and not to the elite of thecapital.