This week was all about democracy in the region, and the biggest news came from one of our Asean member nations, Myanmar, which has finally joined the democratic world after historic elections.
The election results came as a surprise to the world and the ruling military regime in the country that had hoped its reforms and ongoing efforts for the betterment of the people would have paid off in the 2015 polls.
As it turns out, the landslide win of the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi, seems to have put the military regime in an embarrassing position as Ms Suu Kyi's party beat all the forecasts of not being able to get a mandate required to form a government on its own. As of now, she has more than 390 seats in both houses of the parliament, giving her party an absolute majority and repeating the results of the previously held elections that were nullified more than two decades ago.
The resounding victory of Ms Suu Kyi comes despite all the efforts being made to keep her in check by the military regime including not allowing her to become the president, despite her being a citizen of the country. The world today is not raising too many questions in regards to the barriers set up that bar her from taking office because they want Myanmar to move forward on its democratic path after so many hiccups in the past.
But eventually this issue is going to come back to haunt everyone, as there have been indications that reforms of the constitution will most likely be undertaken after the new administration takes office in March 2016.
We in Thailand have been sitting and watching things unfold in Myanmar, not realising that we are in a situation that is pretty much similar to what is happening with our western neighbour.
Today, as we are living under a military-led government, we are drafting a new charter with many clauses that are dubious in terms of democracy.
There are people who are on the panel drafting the charter who have openly been supportive of having a coalition government to keep the so-called "powerful" people from holding on to power.
How much success the new charter will have when it comes to respecting the wishes of the people will be known at the referendum.
Political parties have already come out to voice their opposition to the many clauses that are being contemplated and some have privately warned about how the referendum could fail if the wishes of the political parties are not respected.
The military government of 2006 tried similar tricks that eventually failed to stop the landslide election victory of the party it wanted to get rid of. The same happened with the 2011 election.
This party is not filled with saints. What I am trying to say is that the wishes of the people, no matter what the allegations are of how they won, have shown repeatedly that they outperform others when it comes to elections, and there are forces that are always ready to hack them down whenever it comes to power.
So much frustration has been built into this process of cutting out one particular party that at times, talk about shutting down the country to weed it out has emerged. Despite retractions, it shows that a segment of the regime holds this view.
They need to learn from what has been happening across the world, and most recently Myanmar where the regime has tried every which way it could to keep its hold on power, yet it seems to have failed and its grip is slipping.
With the kind of mandate she has, Aung San Suu Kyi could one day turn out to be a person who exercises absolute control. That could very well be the possibility as the leadership in the party indicates that there are no second-tier leaders to take on the job if the need arises. What she could also do is to take a leading role in showing how the winner can best manage the expectations of the various power groups.
The military in both Thailand and Myanmar are unlikely to head back to the barracks and take a backseat. Risks from hard-core military men who want to retain power cannot be dismissed.
Despite its landslide win, the elected government in Myanmar could learn from Thailand so it can do better in walking the the tightrope of power transition from the old to the new Myanmar, and to prevent democracy from being derailed.
Umesh Pandey is editor of Asia Focus, Bangkok Post.