It’s 19 September, 2009. Three years after the coup - how time flies. Might some want to revel in nostalgic idealization of the past, of the complimentary-flower coup d’etat which ousted Thaksin Shinawatra? Some may at least want to look at things on a bright side and at least thank these generals for their invaluable service to ‘Thai democracy’.

1) Thanks dear generals for waking people up to the reality of coup d’etat and patronage politics.

2) Thanks dear generals for helping us recognize how many self-styled democracy lovers (in the academia, NGOs, mainstream media, politics) really love you.

3) Thanks dear generals for reminding us that staging military coup is still a vibrant part of ‘Thai-democratic’ exercise.

4) Thanks dear generals for making Thai elites a laughing stock of the whole world – at times when coup is becoming a relic of the past or bad political joke elsewhere.

5) Thanks dear generals for reminding us how important having a coup-sponsored constitution is.

6) Thanks dear generals for reminding us what is missing in Thai democracy.

7) Thanks dear generals for enabling us to see the true colour of not just Thaksin Shinawatra but his political opponents as well and how far some people are willing to go to defend their interests.

8) Thanks dear generals for sincerely telling us from day one as to whom you work for.

9) Thanks dear generals for opening up the Pandora’s box of class struggle.

10) And thanks again dear generals for helping us recognize that not all means can justify certain ends and that some ends justify all lies.

Pravit Rojanaphruk is currently a Katherine Fanning Fellow at Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.