But to blame the tanks and make them the chief villain is over-simplifying my fate. No matter what their motives, the generals just helped put me out of my misery. Scold them if you will, but if that's the best you can do, here's the news: you will have to do that over and over again for eternity.

Don't cry for me, Thailand, unless you have come to appreciate my true essence. Ignorant tears are just salt to my wounds and insults to my soul. I saw no single teardrop in 2001 when Thaksin Shinawatra was let off the hook, so why bother now? Everybody got excited and overawed by his unprecedented election landslide and everybody shrugged me off. Suddenly I became something "too ideal". Suddenly the notions that "Well, politicians are politicians" or "People make mistakes" won the day.

Read me, your "torn-up" charter, carefully before shedding your tears. I was not created to empower the ballot box. No constitution can empower the ballot box unless it can provide a transparent, accountable leadership, guard against corruption and ensure effective checks and balances.

Most constitutions before me could also claim they were "democratic" if they contained a clause demanding polls and an elected prime minister, but I was designed to give immunity to our vulnerable system.

Read me carefully and you'll know I was doomed the moment Thaksin walked free from the Constitution Court. You may argue that the acquittal was a result of a system I prescribed, but that's exactly what I'm talking about here. You didn't uphold my true spirit or real will. People point to minor rules and treat them as gospel when it suits their interests. And don't only blame the judges who set Thaksin free; blame yourselves also for failing to defend me with the same vigour as you did when the tanks rolled out to dispose of him.

Read me carefully; recall the events of the past five years and you will understand why I tried to disgorge Thaksin from our system from Day One. Shares in servants' accounts. Ample Rich. Bhanapot. Unpaid taxes. Fishy transactions. Executive decrees on telecom excise taxes. Temasek's takeover of Shin Corp. Street protests. And, finally, the September 19 coup.

Conflicts of interest are a dangerous political disease. Combine big ones with corrupt traits and we have a sure-fire recipe for disaster. I spotted the tip of the iceberg and set the alarm bells screaming. But results from the ballot boxes overruled everything.

You gave elections too much importance and by doing so you endangered your democracy's own health. All you have done is call for "democracy", for "freedom", for "empowerment". But what did you do to immunise yourselves?

Don't cry for me if you don't think it was Thaksin who brought Thailand to this precarious juncture. The coup makers, if they have a sinister scheme up their sleeves, simply took advantage of your failure to hold dear my true principles. You can be mad at the tanks, but if you were one of those who thought, back in 2001, that "Well, all politicians are corrupt more or less, and all businessmen have nasty secrets", just take a good look at yourselves in the mirror.

You can't cry for something you don't really care about. You can't cry for me without condemning the man who destroyed your democracy's fragile immunity. Don't cry for me if you have been defending Thaksin on the grounds that, for all his scandals, "Others have been doing the same".

I gave you all the possible shields you needed - transparency, good governance and strong checks and balances - but you gave me none in return. Thanks for the Constitution Day rally, but I'm not something you think of once a year or when soldiers declare me null and void. They couldn't have done that if everyone had understood my truth: empowerment must go hand in hand with immunity.

You say I was "one of the best", which begs the question why the generals managed to abolish me without breaking sweat. Does it have to do with the military's urge to reclaim broadcast frequencies, or do away with the provision on the right to resist a coup? It's sad enough that drastic infringements of my spirit were tolerated, but the passing of the blame for the catastrophic results of such ignorance on a group of generals is incomprehensible.

My true essence defied your concept of democracy. It challenged you to protect something more valuable than a politician who won the biggest election landslide in the country's history - for the sake of immunity and the long-term health of your system. It pitted political morality and ethics against the populism that money can buy.

The generals are just bit players when it comes to me. Either you have failed the test or I was simply too good to be true.

Tulsathit Taptim