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He will be hailed if he has his way and Prateep Tanprasert rises to the top post. But who are we to tell whether that will actually strengthen or weaken the prime minister. And of course, his "leadership" will be scrutinised inside and out, and plunge to its lowest point if it is Jumpol Manmai who ends up getting the job. But again, that doesn't guarantee an immediate downfall.

We the spectators are still seeing things in black and white, although the political landscape has become thoroughly grey. After all, if political moves over the last 10 years had been based on conscience, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place. It's been all about expediency. Sad but true.

This is not to tell you to lower your expectations. Not least because our expectations are the only thing that still holds together our fragile sense of right and wrong. We expected Abhisit to deal more decisively with the bus project, the investigation into the Sondhi Limthongkul assassination attempt, and the fresh stench of corruption coming from the economic stimulus packages - because we wanted to hold onto the belief that a prime minister can do these things and still survive politically.

On the bright side, Prateep's surname is not Vejjajiva, and all the "indecision" has nothing to do with liberalising an industry that Abhisit or his family dominate. The prime minister's biggest mistake in the eyes of critics has been his failure to purge Thaksin Shinawatra's alleged influences from the top bureaucratic, military and police echelons, but again, if that had been easy, the coup-makers should have cleaned up the mess when they could.

We can argue that if all his actions, or lack thereof, were meant to be reconciliatory, they have amounted to nothing. The red shirts remain as hellbent as before on dislodging him, and his "yellow" friends have been deserting him in droves. Worse still, the inaction that benefited the red movement cannot compensate for the occasional cowboy approach, like the removal of Suriyong Huntasarn as TV Channel 11 director. And the plan to put Dusit district under the Internal Security Act, to counter a red-shirted anti-government rally this Sunday, will likely earn him a "dictator" label.

His anti-red critics hate "Mr Befuddled Nice Guy". If we can't make peace, get the war over with, they say. What they fail to spell out, however, is how Abhisit can survive if he, say, sacks the police chief, the Army chief and the defence minister in one single brazen stroke. How can he execute all that without putting the whole country under martial law first?

One may say the problem is that Abhisit comes at the wrong time, and that if it had been Sondhi Limthongkul it would have been all over by now. This, though, flies in the face of opinion polls showing mass sympathy for suspended police chief Patcharawat Wongsuwan and the fact that at least 5 million Thais want Thaksin to be pardoned and allowed to return home.

Maybe it's not Abhisit who doesn't know what to do. Ours is not a problem for a 46-year-old family man to see through and handle all alone. We may tell him to forget himself and do what's best for the country, but exactly what is best for the country?

The prime minister is no more than a transitional leader caught up amid tumultuous and divisive national soul-searching. And the backdrop of complex intrigues is making the clear-cut polarity suffered by the Samak and Somchai governments look like a small favour from whoever is punishing Thailand.

The "cool factor" that Abhisit is young, smart, good-looking and eloquent has worn off. To give that a fair analysis, it may be because we have fooled ourselves. Thailand's crisis will never go away with a change of guard. A House dissolution will be a "democratic" pill, but whether or not the patient will be cured is another matter. A bulldozing prime minister to replace Abhisit will bring a new kind of problem. Another coup will send us down yet another abyss.

We are on a ship where half the crew wants to go one way and the other half the other. It's easy to blame the captain, but to rely totally on him to get us somewhere won't get us anywhere.