Two months ago, the protest against the blanket amnesty bill was a thing of beauty.
It was democracy in action where the people showed the Pheu Thai-led government that their voice mattered, even if it was the voice of the minority.
The minority took on Thailand's most potent political machine, headed by Thaksin Shinawatra, and forced his sister, prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, to shelve the bill that would have granted an amnesty to her brother.
Not a shot was fired. No blood spilled. No bombs thrown. No buildings burnt. The wealthy, the middle class and the poor came out in legions and showed the red-shirt United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship what a civil movement could achieve without violence.