It took two "Sonthis" - Sondhi, the media tycoon and Sonthi, the military strongman - to change Thai history for good.

In English the two names are spelled differently but in Thai they are spelled and pronounced the same.

The first, Sondhi Limthongkul, agitated the public with his oratorical skills. Through his ASTV, Manager Media Group and public forums, he incited the middle-class to take to the streets with the single clarion call to boot Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his corrupt regime out of office.

The political tension built up for almost a year, from November 2005 to its boiling point in September.

Sondhi's solo mission from the outset captivated the hearts and minds of the Bangkok middle-class and elite before transforming itself into a broader political movement under the banner of the People's Alliance for Democracy.

It was a strange and unnatural phenomenon. The middle-class and elite might not trust Sondhi - for all of his questionable financial and business dealings in the past - as a messenger. But that was not important because they liked his message.

All the second Sonthi, or General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the Army chief, needed to do was wait for the right timing before finishing it up with a bloodless, Thai-style military coup on September 19. The constitution of 1997 was ditched after a decade of trials and errors in search of the best possible political system for Thailand.

Instead of street protests against the military takeover, Sonthi's tanks were greeted with red roses and cheers from the middle-class and elite. Finally, they felt a great relief that the political conflicts could be brought to a peaceful end.

The Nation has named Sondhi, the media man, and Sonthi, the leader of the National Security Council, as Thailand's Persons of the Year 2006 for their independent roles in influencing and changing the course of Thai politics, for better or worse.

The international community was alarmed by the Thai coup. But the political problems here were so unique that a confrontation between Thaksin and his political opponents could only be resolved by a power play.

The collapse of the Thaksin regime was spectacular, surpassing any political calculations and imagination.

The telecom billionaire had thought that his regime was invincible. Indeed, his government, founded on the Thai Rak Thai Party, looked almost unassailable.

Thaksin led Thai Rak Thai to a landslide victory in 2001 on the back of populist policies and then presided over an economic recovery after the 1997-1998 financial hangover. He became the first prime minister to complete a four-year term. In the February 2005 election, he made a convincing comeback with 377 MPs out of 500 and virtual control of Parliament.

He went on to consolidate his power by subduing all the institutions of checks and balances. It was an era of money politics, artfully crafted with the singular objective of elevating Thaksin to the top of the social pyramid.

The independent organisations created under the 1997 charter became crippled by money politics and cronyism. The police force answered to Thaksin's directive. His classmates dominated the military to help prop up his regime. The bureaucracy followed his policies in earnest.

Bypassing governors, Thaksin built strong support among headmen around the country, who were political canvassers. His family along with 10 other clans held the stock market in their sway. Pork-barrel projects were doled out to reward the Thai Rak Thai cronies staying on in power.

Thaksin had expected that he would stay in power for at least 20 years, long enough to permanently imprint his personality cult on Thai politics. He had in mind Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia and Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore as his models.

Most important, Thaksin enjoyed international recognition, as he was an elected leader who was put in power by a democratic system.

But Thai democracy had already succumbed to money politics on a grand scale. It was carrying on in name only. In the meantime, Thaksin's arrogance knew no boundaries.

Ironically, the man instrumental in bringing down Thaksin was his former friend. Sondhi started the ball rolling in November 2005 when he used his rhetorical skills to attack Thaksin, who had ordered the pulling of his weekly TV talk show, "Muang Thai Rai Sapada". Before that he and his Manager Media Group had only nice words to say about the Thaksin regime.

Sondhi was a nak leng, a combination of Robin Hood and mafioso in English, so he was not afraid of Thaksin. At first, Sondhi attracted a small following. He went on to Thammasat University and used its auditorium to hold his weekly talk show. Before long, his audience expanded to the tens of thousands.

This encouraged him to move his talk show to Lumpini Park, where up to 50,000 people listened to him on Friday evenings in the early part of this year.

Sondhi had never expected that he would become a political force to be reckoned with. At first, he was trying to protest against the injustice suffered by his talk show. But all of a sudden, his followers expected more from him. Soon he took up the torchlight to cleanse politics and restore democracy and the royal institution to their rightful places in Thailand.

When Thaksin sold his family's shares in Shin Corp to Singapore for Bt73.3 billion, the public was shocked. How could a leader sell off his own assets, some of which had national security implications, to a foreign government without any regard for his own country? Even more outrageous, the Shin Corp sale was branded as tax-free.

The Shin Corp deal sealed the political demise of Thaksin. Sondhi rallied for Thaksin's removal and petitioned His Majesty the King to appoint a new prime minister in line with Article 7 of the 1997 constitution. This political movement attracted other allies such as Chamlong Srimuang to jump on board before evolving into the People's Alliance for Democracy. The PAD's rallies at the Royal Plaza and Sanam Luang drew tens of thousands of like-minded citizens.

International observers were still raising their eyebrows: How could a street protest remove a sitting government that came to office through democratic means?

There followed the April 2 election with its disastrous outcome after the opposition parties decided to boycott it. Thaksin still came up victorious, although there were massive dissenting ballots and abuses of election procedures. This led to the Constitution Court nullifying the election results and politics finding itself paralysed.

On September 19, the day before a clash was expected between the PAD and Thaksin's supporters at the Royal Plaza, Sonthi moved his tanks onto Bangkok streets and usurped the country. He was a reluctant coup leader, becoming the country's most powerful Muslim ever in the process.

From his suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, Thaksin tried to fight back.

He sacked Sonthi, but his military backers in Bangkok could not hold off Sonthi's power play.

The coup finished it off in one day, without any spilling of blood or loss of lives. Thaksin had to seek refuge in London.

Sonthi went on to draft an interim constitution and install an interim government headed by Surayud Chulanont. He promised to return democracy to the country within a year.

Thai politics would not have changed radically without Sondhi, the media man, and Sonthi, the military man. Thaksin will remember their names as long as he lives.