BANGKOK — "Thailand's future is up for grabs," proclaimed the eminent Thai scholar Thitinan Pongsudhirak last week just before the country's Constitutional Court ruled, in effect, that the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and its two smaller coalition partners are "illegal," and hence must disband because of "election frauds" committed by party executives a year ago.

Party leaders, including Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, are barred from politics for five years. With one stroke, the popularly elected government fell. Parliament must now reconstitute itself without the three parties loyal to Somchai.

History is repeating itself: The PPP under Somchai was the same Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) Party formed by the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a figure much-hated by the country's Bangkok-based elite. The PPP was created because TRT had been outlawed at the time of Thaksin's removal.