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"At the moment Thailand is more divided than ever before. Whoever becomes prime minister will not help stop the crisis. Samak's disqualification is not a big deal because the problem goes far beyond that," said Chaturon, who spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand on Tuesday evening.

The foreseeable trend, said Chaturon, is a "prolonged conflict" with a high risk of violence, coup d'etat or both, "similar to some neighbouring countries". Chaturon also said he feared more damage would be caused before people learn to resolve it.

The choice, said Chaturon, is between upholding electoral democracy and elected government "or allowing a tiny group of people, self-selected amongst themselves, to run the country".

He said that since the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leaders are facing treason charges, one way out for them was to be given an amnesty after a military coup.

"We don't know what will happen," he said, adding that he really could not see any easy or quick solution. "It is going to be a prolonged problem, for years at least."

The former communist rebel turned politician attributed the conflict to a lack of belief in the foundation of electoral democracy reflected in the PAD's proposed "New Politics", wherein 70 per cent of the members of the House of Representatives should be appointed instead of elected. This, he said, had been greeted with approval by a number of academics.

"Many academics are proposing a dictatorial system. Many of them do not believe in elections. They do not believe people can make decisions through voting."

He added however that New Politics could not be introduced without a coup and warned that any future coup-makers would face strong resistance from the start. "People who stage any coup will definitely be in trouble from day one."

Chaturon also claimed that more than half the Thai media were pro-PAD and that what people were saying about the current conflict in rural areas was "very different" from Thai media reports.

"Solving the problem will require not finding out who is behind the PAD but helping people to understand the principle of democracy. Otherwise the crisis will end when a majority of the people voice their opposition to the PAD."

Meanwhile, Samak had been disqualified by the Constitution Court along with the whole Cabinet because he staged a cooking show on television, while PAD leaders facing treason charges continue to occupy Government House.

"Do you really want to see this kind of society?" he said.