Political activists here will pull any stunt to get what they believe is their fair share of the power and the exchequer. Having got there, they are every bit as useless, greedy, vicious and arrogant as those they tried to supplant. Indeed, matters are worse now, because despite their posturing bluster (as above), they don’t actually have either the guts or competence to completely overrule the previous bunch. (So now we are stuck with two competing sets of corrupt parasites – double the trouble.)

This is not and likely never will be even remotely a democratic country. The mechanisms of this supposed democracy have always been little more than fakes. The real face of Thai politics has always been kleptocracy. There are no longer any really committed idealists anywhere in sight – just clownish color-coded goon squads run by the rich with the feckless support of those who never think beyond the next splash of short-term cash. What little real doctrine such factions have has done little other than drive farmers further into debt. This sad fact is largely irrelevant to them anyway – since they have really never set out to do anything other than laud it over and exploit the rest of the population shamelessly.