That Thailand was able to pull back from the brink of anarchy and is now trying to disentangle itself from the worst political crisis in 15 years is remarkable, and thanks to His Majesty the King's even-handed guidance. The middle-class elite which spearheaded the campaign to force Thai Rak Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who they see as a self-serving and anti-democratic political leader, to suspend his political career pending thorough constitutional reform, could only do so much to raise public awareness of the culture of deceit and corruption perpetrated by Thaksin and his cohorts.

The anti-Thaksin campaign, which widened to encompass members of a cross-section of society under the People's Alliance for Democracy, could not dictate a political environment conducive to implementation of genuine reform when faced with rearguard action by still-powerful Thaksin, his Thai Rak Thai Party and their collaborators. These collaborators include some members of the constitutionally mandated "independent" watchdog agencies whose job it is to ensure effective checks and balances against the government.

During the five years under Thaksin's rule, Thailand's democracy was so cynically manipulated that by the time the people were woken up from their apathy, they found that the country's political system was already rotten to the core. Watchdog agencies - from the Constitution Court and the Senate to the Election Commission and National Counter Corruption Commission - could not be expected to uphold democratic principles, safeguard public interest or ensure a level playing field for political parties.

The political confrontation between the People's Alliance for Democracy and Thaksin's loyalists, who count among their members the poor and the disadvantaged, led inevitably to a political stalemate. The outcome of the struggle between the pro-democracy movement pushing genuine political reform and Thaksin loyalists fighting to maintain the status quo remained uncertain.

That was until the country's beloved constitutional monarch brought the divided nation to its senses with his sage advice on how democracy could correct itself through the existing constitutional apparatus - advice that mostly everyone, including the Constitution Court, understood correctly. And that also explained why the Constitution Court, whose integrity had been questioned widely before, eventually found it within itself to do the right thing yesterday.

Certainly, it was an extraordinary measure for the King to have to spell out clearly what needed to be done to resolve the political crisis. It was also extraordinary that such an august body as the Constitution Court needed such prompting from the monarch to do its job the way it should be done - straightforward, unbiased interpretation of the Constitution without fear or favour.

The lesson that the Thai society needs to learn is that these extraordinary measures are meant to be used to deal with such extraordinary circumstances - namely the political climate that enabled Thaksin to dominate Thai politics to the point where he had a stranglehold on the democratic set-up. These extraordinary measures are justified only when our democratic rule finds itself in clear and present danger.

It must be made clear that extraordinary measures must not creep into the fabric of our "normal" politics. Let's hope the planned comprehensive political reform, which can now begin to take shape with broad-based public participation, will proceed smoothly to achieve its intended purpose of weeding out corruption and building a more resilient democracy that serves the people and is fully capable of correcting itself.