One way or another, we're all responsible for helping to create a situation in which the military has deemed it necessary to overthrow the Thaksin regime by force.

Conditions were so bad that no other effective resolution was in sight. Even the ballot box would not lead to an agreeable settlement, it seemed.

So when the military staged its putsch, we should not have been surprised.

Nor should we be upset when we hear sharp criticisms from other democratically minded foreign governments that have come out to condemn the coup. Governments around the world have said coups run counter to the universal principles of a democracy.

At the same time, at least we can say that we learnt something about democracy from all of this political upheaval.

I also wish we could have done much more to stop the Thaksin regime from the outset.

Or I wish we had been able to rely on a more competent and honest Constitution Court, which would have ruled that Thaksin was guilty of concealing his assets back in 2001.

Or I wish Thaksinomics, or particular policies like the Bt30-per-visit healthcare scheme, were not so popular.

Or I wish Thaksin had been a little less shrewd and a lot less ambitious and that he had been content with the number of MPs he won in the first general election in 2001.

If he had been content then, he wouldn't have had to struggle so hard to take advantage of the loopholes in the 1997 Constitution in order to expand his party right after winning his first unprecedented landslide in the polls.

With his initial 250-plus House seats, he still went out of his way to swallow up several smaller parties, namely Seritham, New Aspiration and Chat Pattana.

His Thai Rak Thai party bulged to more than 300 MPs in the 500-seat House as a result of these M&As, as the business world calls mergers and acquisitions.

Again, he would not have been able to do that if our Constitution Court at the time had been more competent and honest.

I also wish he had given more respect to the parliamentary system by seeking a mandate from the House of Representatives before cutting free-trade agreements (FTAs) with several other nations.

Or I wish he had a long time ago happily supported the efforts of Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka, the maverick auditor general, to do her job so that she could have exposed corruption and political scandals.

Or I wish Thaksin had not completely disabled other check-and-balance mechanisms as he did on so many occasions during the past five or six years.

Or I wish he had called it quits politically after closing the Bt73-billion tax-free sale of his family's business empire to Temasek of Singapore back in February.

Or I wish he had resigned from his post as caretaker prime minister soon after dissolving the House later that same month or perhaps after the subsequent series of major demonstration against him.

Or I wish some of the inner circle of his Thai Rak Thai party had jumped ship some time before the military decided to overthrow his regime.

Unfortunately, none of these wishes came true soon enough to stop the events of September 19.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

 nop1122@yahoo.com