That's why the anti-Thaksin camp chose the non-violent path and to exercise the citizenry's constitutional rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to drive home their powerful, unambiguous message: a democratic ruler derives his a legitimacy from the people, and the people can take back that which has been given. Under normal circumstances, such leadership questions should and must be decided at the ballot box.

However, it cannot be emphasised enough that elections are but one of several key features of a democracy. Other important elements of a genuine democracy include functioning check-and-balance mechanisms, independent watchdogs to ensure a level playing field for political parties to compete in free and fair elections, as well as unfettered civil liberties, including freedom of the media and the right to freedom of expression.

Unfortunately, most of these other essential elements of a genuine democracy are sorely lacking in today's Thailand. Through skilful manipulation of populist policies, Thaksin, the richest man in Thai politics, has bankrolled his Thai Rak Thai Party to two consecutive electoral landslides and an unprecedented parliamentary majority.

As the most powerful elected politician wielding virtual absolute power, Thaksin has undermined and subjugated constitutionally-sanctioned watchdog agencies, including the Constitution Court, Election Commission and National Counter Corruption Commission, among others. He came close to muzzling the country's entire mass media in his ruthless quest to bend rules and regulations to advance his anti-democratic agenda and maximise his own selfish gains.

Thaksin's luck took a turn for the worse when his family unloaded its controlling stake in Shin Corp, a conglomerate founded by Thaksin, to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for a tax-free windfall of Bt73.3 billion. Such masterful exploitation of legal loopholes exposed him as an extremely greedy political leader who has been taking the people for a ride the whole time. Having been exposed as a morally-challenged leader, Thaksin dissolved the House of Representatives and called a snap election with the clear intention of winning yet another electoral landslide with his chequebook politics, and attempting to "whitewash" his numerous transgressions against the country and its people, and restart his political career with a clean slate.

That, in essence, is Thaksin's brand of ballot-box democracy, which, he would have us believe, is the most principled approach to resolve the current political crisis. In this context, the main opposition parties' boycott of the general election scheduled for April 2 makes sense, because it will deprive Thaksin of the legitimacy that he would otherwise gain through the country's seriously-flawed ballot-box democracy.

If Thaksin had not been so deviously self-conceited, he would have realised that many people have already seen his true colours, and are prepared to put up a fight to prevent him from ever coming back to a position of power, let alone to perpetuate his repressive, corruption-prone rule.

It is encouraging to see the anti-Thaksin movement adhere strictly to its non-violent struggle against the caretaker prime minister, and in trying to persuade the politically-apathetic and ignorant masses who, it must be understood, have their own reasons for continuing to support Thaksin and looking to his patronage for short-term gains. Only through peaceful demonstration can anti-Thaksin protesters retain their moral high ground in their advocacy of cleaning up politics and putting the country back on track as a fuller and more responsive democracy.