Today is the D-Day set by anti-government protesters in launching the "final battle" to uproot the so-called "Thaksin regime". Also today, red-shirt leaders plan to mobilise their supporters to protect the Yingluck Shinawatra government, and that, again, risks escalating the current political conflict into violence.
During the past few days, there have been reports of clashes between supporters of both camps. Although they were only minor scuffles, they have the potential to trigger a much larger confrontation and start a major clash.
Some academics and leading political observers suggest that the conflict needs to be brought to the negotiating table, and Prime Minister Yingluck has offered publicly to hold talks with the anti-government groups. However, anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has flatly rejected her offer and firmly declared: "No talks, no negotiations."
While some observers still believe talks are the only way to resolve the crisis, some think otherwise.
We also agree that under the current situation, talks would not be able to find any resolution to the problem. Think back to three years ago - the then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and red-shirt leaders, including Jatuporn Prompan, sat down for televised talks, but their efforts ended up being fruitless.
As long as they stand firm in their opposing stances, it will be very difficult, or even impossible, for the two sides to reach agreement at negotiations.
The Pheu Thai Party and its red-shirt supporters hold the view that they won an electoral majority, which means the public has given them a mandate to amend the constitution in their favour and to bring ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra back home.
On the other hand, the anti-government demonstrators and the Democrat Party believe that as long as Thaksin still dominates the Pheu Thai Party and the government, corruption and abuse of power will continue to pervade politics, and unless the so-called "Thaksin regime" is uprooted, it will not be possible to cleanse the political system of graft.
Before the current political crisis erupted, with the pushing of the blanket amnesty bill as the trigger, Ms Yingluck had established an assembly designed to reform Thai politics.
However, key social critics and opinion leaders turned down invitations to join the assembly, while some resigned after the government tried to push through the amnesty bill.
Now, Mr Suthep has also called for the reform of national politics.
In fact, this is not the first time society has tried to reform politics. Since the 1973 student uprising, Thai politics has been "reformed" several times. But this reform has been largely superficial.
What the past reforms turned out were changes to some laws, some election methods and some regulations governing political parties.
But an understanding of the principles and spirit of democracy have not taken root in society. Therefore, unless real reform takes place, any talks or negotiations will only temporarily solve the problem, and then the crisis will, sooner or later, resume.