Former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on the ABC:

What they actually should do is call a fresh election to lance the boil in Thailand. And of course the government there have been very reluctant to call a fresh election and we all know why they’ve been reluctant to call a fresh election because they think they’ll lose it. They think that again what you might call ordinary working people and small holding farmers in Thailand want to vote for the sort of Thaksin movement, which is extremely popular there. And for as long as they’re effectively in practice they’re disenfranchised the tension is simply just going to remain I’m afraid.

Some other interesting comments in this piece about relations between Thailand and Australia and the Thai response to press coverage of the king.