![After the junta in Thailand in May, all posters showing former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra were taken down, except this one in a market in his home town near Chiang Mai. Image by Richard Bernstein. Thailand, 2014. Media file: img_0069.jpg](/sites/default/files/07-29-14/img_0069.jpg)
Ever since 1991, when a Chinese-Thai billionaire named Thaksin Shinawatra was elected the country's prime minister, Thailand has been in a state of intractable stalemate, divided into two large camps neither of which will allow the other to take, or hold, power. Now, for the 13th time in the past 80 years, the country is being ruled by a military junta, one that, like its predecessors, promises to restore democratic ways—eventually. Journalist Richard Bernstein talks about the junta and the prospects for democracy in Thailand.