Until now, Thailand has managed to sustain an image as a relatively stable, law-abiding country. This is despite the fact that it has adopted 17 constitutions and suffered umpteen coups in its 76-year history as a constitutional monarchy. But who is counting? That is partly because there has often been an almost ritualistic element to Thai military interventions in which men in neatly pressed uniforms ushered in one set of civilians and waved out another without a whole lot of bloodshed. I was in Thailand for the coup of 1985 (was there only one that year?) and failed to notice it.
It is also because, almost oblivious to who is in power, Thailand's economy has trundled along fairly merrily, growing quickly for decades and then bouncing back from the Asian financial crisis of 1997. In the past eight years, it has posted a respectable average annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent. Certainly, it has failed to live up to once common expectations that it could be the next Taiwan or South Korea. It now tends to be benchmarked against the likes of Vietnam and Malaysia. But companies have generally regarded Thailand as a safe place to do business and tourists have seen it as a comfortable spot to lounge around on the beach.
That era may be drawing to a close. If Thais are not careful, the country could become the next Asian basket case. Thailand's ability to ignore the obvious flaws in its institutions is being threatened by the stand-off between Bangkok's middle class and the rural voters of the poor north-east who helped elect telecoms entrepreneur-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra to the premiership in 2001. Mr Thaksin, deposed in a 2006 coup, has recently disappeared from view.