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So, Thaksin Shinawatra has mooted it and the People Power Party has immediately jumped for it. Less than a week after his controversial address to his supporters at Rajamangala Stadium, the "amnesty" bandwagon is set to roll, and the campaign has already been extended to cover former executives of the Thai Rak Thai Party, which was dissolved after the 2006 coup. Not surprisingly, political tensions, which barely dropped after the October 7 bloodshed, are rising again.

Thailand's political crisis on many occasions has seen the warring camps try not to "outsmart" but "outdumb" each other. Just as when polls showed support for the People's Alliance for Democracy was decreasing, its opponents opted for the most foolish response to their enemy's setback: Let's try again to amend the Constitution to help Thaksin and the banned TRT executives.

It seems the political turmoil has not only blurred everyone's sense of right and wrong, but also shortened many people's memories. The PPP appears to have completely forgotten that what sent the PAD back on the streets after the party's election triumph was a government vow to amend the Constitution. With the PAD's popularity waning, maybe the renewed charter amendment plan is just what the movement needs to revitalise itself so as to hold on to its ground at Government House.

In other words, the PAD has been helped by its opponents when it comes to justifying its existence. After all, who else will be there to block a charter change that everybody knows will be designed to help controversial individuals rather than promoting real values and principles of democracy?

Maybe it has come to the point where the two adversaries do need each other. Rocked by court verdicts against Thaksin's family and crippled by seizure of his assets and lack of personnel to run a respectable government, the PPP has been helped in no small part by the PAD's belligerence, which has won sympathy for the ruling party from around the world. On the other hand, the PPP's hell-bent effort to rescue Thaksin at the expense of everything has given the PAD justification to act as the last line of defence against his return.

This is just too bad, because if both camps took a few steps back, they might just bring about constructive checks and balances to Thai politics. If any positive can be drawn from the years of extreme confrontation, it is that some kind of rigid morale may have made blatant corruption a bit harder to take place. But as we have come to learn, a war occurs not because one side is right and the other is wrong, but because both believe they are damned right.

Our political deadlock hinges on two factors - the PPP's refusal to give up fighting for Thaksin despite court rulings that should have kept him away from politics, and the PAD's refusal to retreat despite court rulings that should have fulfilled its original objective. And both sides have been giving each other reasons to push ahead, instead of back down.

Charter amendment or amnesty bills designed to haul Thaksin and his banned allies back into politics are unlikely to materialise without the country being pushed back to the brink of new violence. The PAD will put up another furious fight, which is worrisome.

Whereas the PAD has made its own agenda look more complicated and in the process alienated many allies and sympathisers, the PPP has always done a good job in trying to "refocus" the political movement. In other words, the PPP is reminding the PAD members of the real reason they are here. This, however, offers little comfort. The PAD has been galvanised after roller-coaster years and recent months of turbulence. How it will respond to the latest instigation that reminds it of its initial essence is anyone's guess. The days of peaceful gathering are long gone, with gun-toting guards now manning the seized Government House and accused of shooting at provocative passers-by.

Things have come a long way. Or we haven't actually gone anywhere. It's still about one man, violations of the charter(s), how alleged crimes can be whitewashed through charter amendment, and how that can be done without muddying the national conscience or triggering violence.