HONG KONG — It is not easy to see any way out from the present impasse in Thailand, which has seen successive governments at the mercy of mob rule while the security forces have failed to do their duty.

Much of the international press and media has romanticized the events in Bangkok as some kind of grassroots democracy at work, in which the poor rural masses have come to Bangkok to confront the cruel ruling classes. This is utter nonsense. Thailand is being torn apart by gangs of hoodlums masquerading as democrats and pretending they are embarked on the pure quest for fresh elections. Mobs of "red shirts," proclaiming allegiance to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are in command of a glitzy hotel and shopping district close to Bangkok's main financial area.

Certainly, the enthusiasm and dedication of some of the red shirts has surprised neutral observers, as has fraternization between red shirts and local Bangkok people and ordinary soldiers and Buddhist monks. But 30,000 demonstrating red shirts are fewer than 0.05 percent of Thailand's population, hardly a resounding expression of democratic will.