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What has got into us? We are turning on one another at the snap of a finger, neighbour pitted against neighbour, brother against sister, and friend against friend. What happened to our humanity, the kindness and hospitality the whole world associates us with; the synergy we displayed in the aftermath of the tsunami when Thais reached out to one another not just as countrymen but as human beings? Whatever crises we encountered in the past - and we have seen a number of them - we always succeeded in showing that we have what it takes to pull together and move on as a nation. But at this point in time, we are not sure. The kind of qualities we championed in the past are quickly eroding, especially among the pro-government red shirts and the yellow-clad protesters who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy.

Earlier this week just about every newspaper in the country ran a disturbing photo of a motorbike taxi driver pleading for his life as PAD thugs surrounded him, one holding a knife to his throat. It wasn't clear if he was one of the pro-government taxi drivers about to rumble with PAD guards. But for the PAD guards, the fact that he was there and his vest was bright enough (all motorbike taxi drivers wear red or orange vests) was good enough for them to slap him around and put a knife to his throat.

As he pleaded, his eyes stared out to the world, asking for sympathy. It was disturbing not only because the man might be killed. It was disturbing because it made us feel helpless, unable to do anything about the predicament we are in. Is it because we didn't do enough to ensure the state machinery, the check-and-balance mechanism, remains intact? Could we or should we have been more responsible as citizens by speaking out against irregularity and injustice instead of waiting for everything to fall apart?

We never think there will come a day when Thailand's cities resemble Beirut in the 1980s and Mogadishu today. But violence has erupted in Bangkok and Chiang Mai over recent days, threatening to spread to other parts of the country and dragging innocent bystanders into the fray. Already, checkpoints are being set up by the warring parties. Yesterday, the driver of an official van from the Constitution Court was pulled out of his van and beaten senseless. The red shirts accuse the court of siding with the PAD and therefore the driver had what was coming to him. Ousted premier thaksin Shinawatra, the backer of the current Somchai Wongsawat administration, has been convicted of corruption along with his wife, Pojaman.

Thailand's security apparatus, tasked with keeping law and order, has come to a complete standstill as the street protesters from both sides refuse to heed demands to retreat. This is not to say that the police and the military are crippled. Everything, it seems, is just too costly politically, and so all sides are sitting out the storm for the time being.

The options that Thailand is faced with don't look too good. On the one hand, there is an ineffective government perceived to be a proxy of a grossly corrupt Thaksin. A coup, as an option, is becoming more attractive by the minute, but we shouldn't compromise ourselves by letting some of the top brass run the country. On the other hand, the security apparatus has refused to use force against anti-government protesters on at least two occasions, and has called on the government to step down. This falls short of a coup.

The bottom line is that something has got to give. The country can't afford to go on like this. In an ideal world, Somchai would dissolve Parliament and hand back the mandate to the people. The PAD, on the other hand, would have to be man enough to accept whatever may come of the next election.

If this were a computer game, we could just push the default button and start with a clean slate. Unfortunately, we don't have that kind of luxury.