A political cycle of constitution-election-corruption-coup has run through Thailand's constitutional monarchy since it was set up in 1932. This week saw the army take power once again for the 18th time since then - albeit in the first military coup for 15 years.
Just because it was directed against an authoritarian populist prime minister is no reason to welcome this coup. Although power is to be handed over to an interim prime minister within two weeks, new elections will not be held until next year.
In the meantime, another constitution will be written under the tutelage of the armed forces and the monarchy. It is a step backwards after the political progress made since the army last intervened in 1991. A military coup to promote political reform is a contradiction in terms for a developing democracy.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire telecoms tycoon, was first elected in 2001. He had widespread support from previously-ignored poor rural Thais in the northern part of the country, from which he comes. He delivered on promises to provide them with better healthcare and restructured loans for farmers and villages, as a result of which he was easily returned to power in February 2005. This year he called yet another election after tumultuous protests by urban elites against corruption and restrictions on democratic freedoms. He claimed to have won 57 per cent of the votes cast, but they were three million down on 2005 and opposition parties boycotted the poll.
The coup happened while Mr Thaksin was away at the United Nations in New York and during a period of legal and political uncertainty about when new elections should be held. He has thoroughly alienated the country's urban middle class concentrated in the capital Bangkok by gross acts of corruption to enrich his own family. There has been serial cronyism in administrative and legal appointments, a systematic campaign against media freedoms and extrajudicial killings of drug-dealers.
Thus the intricate system of constitutional checks and balances put in place over recent years to prevent such abuses of power were undermined. For army chief-of -staff General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin the last straw was Mr Thaksin's aggressive approach towards an Islamist rebellion in the Muslim south of the country, in which some 1,500 people have died.
The coup is reported to have the support of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is widely revered and respected. The army takeover has been received calmly in the capital, but is by no means universally acclaimed. Thailand's 65 million people are deeply divided politically and have been ill-served by political institutions which are not strong enough to withstand such pressures. Similar problems face other young democracies in south-east Asia. Any pattern of military intervention to reverse the progress they have made should be resisted, however difficult their political transitions may be.