BANGKOK — Thailand's political pendulum has now swung all the way back to an era that existed before the rise of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001. What transpired under Thaksin during 2001-2005 is being undone and redone. Whether the new Democrat Party-led government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva can maintain old-style, pre-2001 Thai politics will be the overarching theme of 2009.
The pro-status quo coalition that expelled Thaksin from power from September 2005, when the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) coalesced, has so far succeeded beyond expectations in its restoration of pre-Thaksin Thailand.
As Thailand's political clock has been wound back by a decade, the pressing question this year is whether it can be kept there in the face of rising expectations and a growing political consciousness previously unseen, underpinned by the inexorable drive of democratization and globalization.