Well, I'm kidding, of course. A major rule of writing is never say anything like that. I mean, everyone is welcome to read my final rant before the Big Day. (If you're still not bored to death by politics, that is.)

Should we go to the polls? Should we vote "Abstain"? Or, dare I say it, shall we tell ourselves "What the heck? How much worse can it get?" and vote that man back to power?

Each and every one of you have these choices and, in fact, things might not be as complicated as they seem.

Come Sunday there will only Mr A, Mr B, Mr C, Mr D, Mr E and Mr F in Thailand. It's as simple as that. Will these six make a bigger mess of the nation's already gigantic mess? We will worry about that later.

Mr A will vote for Thaksin Shinawatra. He is either a poor farmer whose life has improved over the past five years, or a middle-class man who must have seen something that the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has failed to see. Mr A either thinks the Shin Corp-Temasek deal is clean, or accepts it as a fact of life.

Mr A has always asked "Who's the alternative?" and is a frequent visitor to pantip.com.

He thinks critics are only good at barking and that Thaksin, for better or worse, at least acts.

Mr A, most likely, is cursing me and may have stopped reading at the end of the last paragraph.

Mr B will mark "Abstain". He thinks it's a Thai citizen's duty to vote in every election. Despite fears that the poll will be rigged and exploited, he has strong faith in what he believes is the only "democratic" way of judging Thaksin.

The Temasek deal makes him weep while filing his own tax form. He loves Thai Talk, Overdrive, Hard Talk, Regional Perspective, Off the Bench and Venus' Vision.

Whether he likes Sondhi Limthongkul or Chamlong Srimuang or not, he has probably been to the Royal Plaza or Government House once or twice, and is listening to that song-of-the-moment, "Square Face", for the 10th time.

(In case you missed it, here's the link: www.manager.co.th/Lite/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9490000040970.)

Mr C will be playing golf, or wake up too late to go to the polling booths.

He didn't show up at the last election for the same reasons.

He may love or hate Thaksin, but isn't aware that he, himself, is worse news for Thailand than the current political turmoil. And, oh, he's unlikely to be reading this.

Mr D will grit his teeth and stay home. The election, he thinks, is Thaksin's twisted democracy and he's not going to fall into the trap.

To Mr D, true democracy gives you the right NOT to participate in an election that you think is not legitimate.

But he's not going to walk around encouraging people to do like him. That's against the law.

Thaksin's pledge to defend democracy till the last drop of his blood makes Mr D sick to his stomach.

Mr D doesn't want to have any part in a process that could be exploited and used to whitewash a badly tainted leader.

He believes that joining the election, even through an "Abstain" vote, would play into Thaksin's hands, and allow him to wield figures over genuine democratic principles.

Mr D is the bitterest man, who bemoans the ruin of checks and balances and sees the election as something that will aggravate the problem.

He doesn't know what to do, actually, except to advocate civil disobedience. Surely he's reading this, but is heaving a heavy sigh.

Mr E hates Thaksin but after two days of massive traffic jams and business disruption is pondering a protest vote against the People's Alliance this Sunday.

If you are his girlfriend, dump him before he ditches you. Mr E is the sort of man who deals with misunderstanding by making you jealous while ignoring its root cause.

Mr F is a rabbit in the headlights. He is weighing information and trying to find out which one is the lesser evil.

 Ok, the Temasek deal is dirty, but what deal isn't? As for So ndhi and Chamlong, who are they to judge Thaksin in the first place?

Mr F doesn't know who to blame - Thaksin or the People's Alliance - for an economy that starts to sputter, the traffic snarls at Siam Paragon, or the sorry joke that Thai politics has become.

Who am I? If you have read up to this point, please take a guess. All I can say is we are part of the same big mess, which I hope won't grow much bigger when we meet again next week.

 Tulsathit Taptim