Who is the most humiliated man or woman in Asia? Some would suggest Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the Thai military for being a bad man. Which he was, as an egotistical wheeler-dealer, an Asian Berlusconi, who ran roughshod over all sensibilities. But the coup was a bad idea, and it leaves the deposed prime minister with a victim-hero image.
Perhaps Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif could vie for the most humiliated duo, for having run a corrupt and inefficient state at different times, but more so for having been exiled and only being able to bark from a distance while the generalissimo runs the country as though he were born to rule. But the passage of time and the turbulence that has suddenly hit the Musharraf aeroplane has largely wiped away the stain of disgrace on the two.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga perhaps, for the ease with which she has dropped from the headlines after being a mover and shaker for so many years. The rise of Mahinda Rajapakse led to a complete eclipse – and there is probably some story in there – but the humiliation is obviously not complete.
Ahh, Saddam Hussain, perhaps? The dictator of Iraq achieved the pit of disgrace-dom when he was discovered by the hated US Marines in a hole in the ground. The subsequent tape of his medical examination showed us Saddam's unkempt hair, provided us a peek down his throat, and a view of the Y-front undergarment he seems to favour. But today he holds forth on television, suited and manicured, humiliating in turn the string of judges that have come and gone.