The next democratically elected government will have to toe an invisible line drawn by the military leaders, who traditionally exercise their extraordinary powers discreetly. That government will have its work cut out for it, because the state bureaucracy is more likely to defer to the military, which wields unparalleled powers of patronage within society, than to take orders from elected politicians who, along with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra, have largely been discredited and discounted as a force to be reckoned with.

Democracy lovers may find such a scenario disheartening, but others will see it as a sort of painful rehabilitation process that Thailand must endure in order to reinvigorate its sickly democracy; in other words, a necessary evil. It remains to be seen how this political transformation engineered by the military will play out and what kind of public reaction it will attract. But it cannot be emphasised enough that a military-led attempt to restore democracy is a high-wire act that carries with it great political risk.

Members of the military junta, led by Army Commander-in-Chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin, have consistently denied entertaining high political ambitions or plotting to hold onto power beyond this year. The coup-makers cited as justification for their power seizure the alleged widespread corruption that occurred on Thaksin's watch and social divisiveness that he had engendered. They have vowed to rid politics of corruption and insisted they did not stage the coup for personal gain.

But some of their actions glaringly suggest otherwise. Less than two months after toppling the Thaksin government last September 19, General Sonthi appointed several senior military officers to chair or serve as directors on the boards of certain state enterprises. These included TOT, CAT Telecom, Thailand Post, the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority and the Port Authority of Thailand. This smacks of cronyism, one of the charges that Thaksin himself was accused of.

In the past, having military men on the boards of state enterprises neither reduced corruption nor guaranteed that the public interest would be upheld. Besides, professional soldiers are not supposed to be put in positions where they might be tempted by monetary rewards and the trappings of power.

For the time being, people are prepared to give the top military officers the benefit of the doubt, partly because they feel they owe them a debt of gratitude for removing Thaksin, widely considered an evil despot, from power and for volunteering to restore full democracy. But such a cosy relationship can sometimes change dramatically.

The military junta must be reminded that the citizens completely expect them to honour their promise to deliver full democracy - not a half-measured one. And those who took to the streets to demand Thaksin's ouster do not want to see his crony capitalism simply replaced by military cronyism. The military, which now wields absolute power, must not allow itself to be lulled into a grandiose sense of self-importance. Above all, it must never take for granted people's democratic aspirations, which remain strong.

The Kingdom's struggle for fuller democracy may have thus far led us along a winding road riddled with potholes and stumbling blocks. But freedom-loving Thais, for all their national character flaws and shortcomings, never give up hope. No matter how powerful he is to begin with, any military strongman who thinks he can stand in the way of the people's quest for true democracy, can be - and has been - relegated to the scrap heap of history.