History never comes to a halt but snakes its way into the future as it wishes — often in unexpected and sometimes tragic ways.
Whether via revolution or counter-revolution, any abrupt change in citizen participation and political structure will shove nations onto trajectories that, for better or for worse, are difficult to reverse. At the moment no spot on our troubled planet offers a better illustration of this dynamic than Southeast Asia, with triumphant Indonesia and tragic Thailand.
In sum, the former has put its military back into the barracks, and the latter has put it in charge of the country.