The testy words spoken in the House had hardly lost their stench when key Cabinet members loaded with hubris displayed their arrogance of power.

Their first exercise was the speedy removal of senior officials considered major obstacles to the quick fixes needed to serve their patrons.

The director of the Department of Special Investigation and the police chief in Chiang Rai's Mae Chan district were the first two to get the axe on the sacrificial alter of the People Power Party.

The first had a crucial role in pursuing criminal cases mostly related to Thaksin Shinawatra, his family and cronies. The soft-spoken, mild-mannered officer was seen as a real threat if those cases are packed with strong evidence and brought up for indictments. He saw the abrupt transfer as a simple fact of life.

The second had been a pain in the neck of House Speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat, whose car and residence, as well as those of his canvassers, were searched by a joint team of police and soldiers in the district. His transfer to a less significant area was regarded as a mild punishment for having served the Council for National Security too well.

Of course, more heads will roll when politicians see what they can achieve with resolve and swiftness facing no resistance. Never mind some critical comments in the media. They are merely pipsqueaks to be dealt with using an iron hand later.

Here comes a new era of political arrogance without any sense of shame. In fact, it is just like turning the clock back five years. We can treat the Surayud government's time as a sheer waste of time. What is to be seen from now on is whether the level of arrogance and greed will exceed previous levels.

Cabinet members have shown that they will try hard to compensate for their incompetence with brash ideas and clowning. Tainted characters, who don't care about their limitations, queue up to fill various positions. It is a way of rewarding them after the easy task of lying to voters to win House seats.

Which era will prove more dangerous - Thaksin's regime or the present one under his self-confessed nominee? It is still too early to gauge the ruthlessness of those currently carrying out vendettas for their patrons.

This is a Thai-style of democracy that was quickly admired by the West without waiting for these politicians to show their true colours and arrogance. They waste no time in making their presence felt, together with the familiar shamelessness.

The West should by now see that Thailand is reliving the Thaksin era. Democracy existed on election day; the rest has been tyranny in disguise. Cabinet members are mainly Thaksin's cronies and nominees who made it known pretty fast that they would not tolerate too much criticism.

To ensure they maintain their firm grip of power and avoid making the same mistakes as the old regime, this new bunch will solidify their power base by putting their cronies in key positions for self-serving purposes.

Judging from the fact that several of them still have criminal charges pending, nobody should remind them of their consciences and sense of shame for fear of risking their wrath. Our gutter politics does not require politicians to prove their honesty and integrity. Laws are not a sufficient deterrent for politicians to subdue their greed.

Another horrifying aspect of this is that we stand to face a new round of extrajudicial killings now that the war against drugs will be revived with gusto.

Extrajudicial killings during the Thaksin years claimed more than 2,800 victims, though the actual number of cases was said to exceed 8,000. The investigation into the killings shows evidence of a massive abuse of power, but Surayud chose to dilute its content for unexplained reasons.

The revival of the war against drugs, with tentative targets as high as 5,000, should garner the attention of human-rights groups and Western governments that do not profess hypocrisy.

If the official figure of past killings is 2,800, then the unofficial figure of this new war should end up far surpassing the stated target. This is not hypothetically or idly mentioned - the hissing was from the mouths of power-mad politicians.

Yet they are no fools. They are dangling carrots in the form of multimillion-baht mega-projects and whatnot to entice foreign suppliers and contractors so that their governments will be more than willing to turn a blind eye to whatever misdeeds and corruption is involved in the wheeling and dealing.

What will the consequences of this new round of arrogance of power and mischief be? Hard to predict, yet it will be bolder, and will aim for optimum results in making the most out of self-serving political investments. Aside from political uncertainty, there are inherent risks in the way they handle the national economy.

The greenhorns and fumbling amateurs in powerful positions managing affairs of state rely on their advisers, who also have tainted track records and criminal pasts, not to mention a streak of failures causing severe damage to national interests.

There are few options for those who care about the future of the country.

They can either accept fate and destiny, or, after a while, go back on the streets if the miscreants show the potential of again wreaking havoc on the national economy.