The only weapon that can wipe out the Thaksin regime is not a whistle - nor a tank or political reform. It's education.
On the very first day after Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved the House of Representatives, a phone call from Art Samart district in Roi Et asked this question. ''Are we still receiving benefits from the social welfare scheme after this? Word of mouth in my neighbourhood is that we will no longer receive the money. We are getting worried,'' the female voice said.
The woman on the phone is not a red-shirt member, and she would not have made that call if she had been better informed.
Are the people in Art Samart and other places upcountry stupid?
When the red shirts filled the field at Rajamangala Stadium in November to support Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, they were ridiculed by Ratchadamnoen protesters who said money got them to go to Bangkok and they did not realise that they were betrayed by their favourite party.
Pheu Thai delivered an empty promise to take action against those responsible for the fatal street rallies three years ago and showed its true colours by doing everything to whitewash Thaksin Shinawatra and bring him home ''gracefully''.
Are they stupid, too? Pheu Thai and its predecessors _ whatever the names were _ (and no doubt its successor, if it comes to that) did what no other parties had done before. They know the way to please rural voters with freebies in exchange for their votes to carry the party into parliament. The only thing the people received before Thaksin and his advisers designed a policy to win their hearts when he decided to enter politics probably was relief bags when flooding or bad weather came along. They were otherwise ignored by policy-makers and politicians for a long time.
But the voters out there should not be blamed for their short-sightedness by supporting a political party which can damage the country after seizing political power in a general election.
Their voting behaviour is deeply ingrained in Thaksin's party. But that doesn't mean it could not be uprooted.
Education should be not confined to schooling. It's a way to equip people with knowledge and right information long before they go to the polling station. That takes time, and those bigwigs of the People's Democratic Council for Reform apparently don't seem to appreciate that. For them, reform seems a better solution to the political impasse and a quicker way to excise the influence of the convicted former prime minister.
It is not surprising that many people don't care much about the illegitimacy of this government since Pheu Thai and the politicians it influences defied the Constitution Court's ruling on the charter amendment draft on the Senate. That came after the shameful blanket amnesty bill.
Money can keep red-shirt leaders silent on the betrayal, but many more, including that woman caller and her neighbours in Art Samart, care more about their stomachs than what happens in the chamber.
PDRC backers seem confident that reform is the magic pill to turn politics around. They believe people in Bangkok know best about politics and folk upcountry should follow them. Then the county will be fine and then the Thaksin regime will be laid to rest forever.
Politics in Thailand needs major surgery. There is no argument on that after the country endured so many bad politicians and immoral politics long before Yingluck Shinawatra became the prime minister. But reform will be meaningless if its main purpose is just to end Thaksin's influence. After the reform, nobody can know whether there will be another party with Thaksin pulling the strings.
Reform can only make sense when all groups are equally represented, regardless of their colour code _ or no colour at all. And the voices of the rural people should be taken seriously and treated respectfully instead of the ''reformers'' being dominated by people with a ''we know best'' attitude when the reality on the ground is quite different.
But reform will not go that far as long as the country cannot produce smarter voters in the long run. Whether an elite voter in urban Bangkok or one among the rural poor, each has only one head and one vote. Education, not reform, will make for more smart voters.
Saritdet Marukatat is digital media news editor, Bangkok Post.