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To say that the People's Alliance for Democracy has come a long way would be an understatement, but if the latest plan of the PAD materialises, the journey will be substantially prolonged. According to some PAD insiders, the movement is making preparations to form a new political party, which may be named Thien Hang Tham Party (Candles for Righteousness). And to add spice to that, the new party is likely to be headed by PAD co-leader Chamlong Srimuang.

How we should react to the news depends on the political leanings of each of us. Cynicism may prevail, and understandably so, as the months-long occupation of Government House and seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airport remain very fresh in memory. Yet to sympathisers, there is always this tantalising, controversial question: where would Thailand be without the PAD?

However, a more relevant question, perhaps, is "where would the PAD be?" The movement won considerable support when it came into existence. We remember the peaceful gatherings in the early days that could almost pass as carnivals but the PAD we knew morphed into something totally different last year. This planned political party, therefore, invokes the simple issue of "which PAD will turn up?" when it joins mainstream politics.

The sources talked about a "new-politics" party, one that doesn't care how many Cabinet seats it gets. This envisages a mass movement modelled after the green movement or the labour movement. On the drawing board are ideas like the screening of electoral candidates chosen and endorsed by local voters instead of the party executive board, the nomination of Cabinet members based on job qualifications and not partisan quotas, and a ban on MPs concurrently holding ministerial positions.

Those seem ideologically sound, but people who have closely monitored the PAD's evolution may be tempted to question the movement about its true political values. The idea of election candidates selected by local voters, for example, appears to contradict the PAD's previous stand on parliamentary representation, favouring a "top-down" approach because of the movement's proclaimed disdain for money politics that allows bad, influential politicians to easily win the hearts and minds of rural voters. Why, all of a sudden, is it ready to switch to the opposite extreme of "bottom-up"?

That could be just one minor problem. Bigger things could return to haunt the PAD if it decided to join the mainstream. Always an advocate of unorthodox political struggles featuring absolute disobedience to state power and extreme provocation, the PAD as a political party will almost certainly stand to get a taste of its own medicine. How would it react if that happened? What if protesters surrounded Parliament and prevented Candles for Righteousness MPs from doing their work? What if those protesters blocked main streets for days? After all, the PAD has acquired a sworn enemy in the red-shirt movement, which has shown it is determined and well equipped to be a PAD copycat against a government it considers illegitimate.

The PAD as it is now may not need to address those questions, or at least not as much as PAD the political party. If the movement's leaders have set their hearts on becoming part of conventional politics, they will have to prepare themselves for a number of ironies that will put their consciences to new tests.

The PAD is expected soon to organise a national convention to allow its supporters from across the country to discuss the new party's formation. According to Suriyasai Katasila, the PAD's senior coordinator, it is "highly likely" the PAD will transform itself into a political party, because existing parties, including the ruling Democrats, face too many restraints that shackle them into the old, vicious circle.

How a PAD party can help politics break away from that circle will be interesting for critics and sympathisers alike. A new political party with a firm ideology and solid support base is always welcome, although Chamlong is anything but a new face, and his political strategies are always questionable, but the PAD must brace itself for the fact that its own history will not make things easy. What tactics will the new party and Chamlong employ if things don't go their way? However, we wish the PAD the best of luck and hope that there won't come a day when its leaders look back and regret the decision to form a party because "it used to be easier" fighting outside the mainstream.