All Thai people, regardless of their political affiliation, leaning or temperament, should heed this valuable advice coming from their beloved constitutional monarch, who has dedicated himself throughout his life to the betterment of his grateful subjects. Such a dispassionate and disinterested perspective from the King helps clear the storm cloud that has loomed over Thai politics since the controversial April 2 snap election. The election, boycotted by the main opposition parties, not only failed to solve the pre-existing political crisis but appeared to exacerbate it and put a divided Thailand on track to a potentially violent confrontation.

Days after the poll caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced that he would forego his chance to lead the new government. But even this was not enough to dispel doubts held by the People's Alliance for Democracy, which enjoys broad-based support from a wide cross-section of society in its opposition to the prime minister. Thaksin is widely seen as a self-serving leader who has presided over a corruption-prone government for the past five years. Indeed, his self-imposed suspension of his political career is widely seen as a tactical retreat to let off steam and buy time to plot a comeback at a later date.

People have not forgotten that despite Thaksin's temporary self-exile, the Thai Rak Thai leader continues to be the most powerful political figure, fully capable of pulling strings from behind the scenes. After all, Thaksin, in his own cunningly mysterious ways, appears to have subjugated almost all constitutionally mandated independent watchdog agencies, including the Election Commission, Constitution Court and National Counter Corruption Commission, whose job is to pro-vide checks and balances for the administrative branch of govern-ment. That explains why Thailand is finding it virtually impossible to disentangle itself from this political crisis.

The King must have seen through all this when he suggested that the Supreme Court chief justice preside over a crucial consultative meeting, which will be attended by members of the Constitution and Administrative courts, to find the most appropriate legal avenue that both conforms with constitutional rules and offers a practical way out the political deadlock. Throughout Thaksin's five-year rule, the judicial branch has largely retained its independence and can therefore serve as an honest broker to end this national crisis.

His Majesty was perfectly right when he chastised people who, frustrated by Thaksin's alleged misrule and corruption, have been calling for a royally appointed prime minister to serve as the head of a provisional government (by referring to the supposed "royal power" bestowed by Article 7 of the Constitution). The King said that as a constitutional monarch he is not supposed to take the initiative to handpick a prime minister, an action which he said would be both unconstitutional and inappropriate.

Now that a window of opportunity has presented itself, thanks to the King's recommendations, the best approach is to wait for the decision that will emerge from the meeting of the heads of the Supreme Court, Constitution Court and Administrative Court tomorrow. One of the more obvious solutions would be to declare null and void the outcome of the April 2 election, which has turned into a fiasco, and hold a fresh election with the participation of all opposition parties.

A new government could then implement constitutional reforms in coordination with an independent charter-drafting panel and civil society representatives. The King has shown the way; it's time Thai society takes a leap of faith to put the political system back on track and realise a fuller expression of democracy governed by the rule of law, complete with effective checks and balances.