At the time of writing, the red shirts are surrounding the Government House and the government has just announced its decision to deliver the policy speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Even though the government may be able to deliver the speech and start working, it will have a really tough time dealing with the red shirts. The mob will likely increase in numbers and activities after the new year. The government cannot use force to disperse the crowd.

The government will also face wars inside the parliament, with the opposition ready to scrutinize and criticize the various controversial ministers.

The government may have to power in a constitutional manner (although this is far from conclusive), but it is hard to deny that its rise to power is also very controversial and, as some like me would argue, even undemocratic.

Here is what I propose Mr.Abhisit do:

1. Reaffirm the public that the government's two major urgent goals are to foster national reconciliation and solving economic problems.

2. Announce that, based on the first goal, the government will dissolve the house and return power to the people.

3. Announce that, based on the second goal, however, the government needs to deliver policies that are urgently needed and crucial to alleviate the economic downturn.

4. Announce that, taking these two goals into consideration, the government will dissolve the house in 6 months' time after the crucial economic policies have been implemented.

5. Ask all political parties, the red shirts and the yellow shirts to sign a MOU stating their intention to accept the elections outcome. The groups must agree not to try to prevent the next elected government from working but they may continue to monitor the government's performance and may criticize it should any wrongdoings occur. The groups, as well as the Elections Commission and the society as a whole, will monitor the elections closely to prevent vote buying activities.

I believe this is a viable option to find a solution out of this crisis. Without house dissolution, the red shirts will not stop protesting because, no matter what one says, the truth is that this government does not have a clear and fully legitimate mandate from the people to govern.

Yet the severity of the economic crisis makes it impossible to delay crucial economic policies (well, they have been delayed for months as street politics prevented the last government from working hard on tackling economic problems too). So the option of house dissolution after 6 months should be acceptable and appropriate.

It should also reduce the legitimacy ofthe red shirts in their protests, allowing the government to deliver its policy debate to break the deadlock. The 6 months time can be used to foster an agreement among all parties concerned toward national reconciliation.