UDD fighters at Government House

In Thai politics, right now, there is plenty of push-and-shove on the streets, and among analysts. One of the advantages of New Mandala is that it offers opportunities to challenge prevailing assumptions and test new perspectives on complex events. So, let’s really open the discussion.

Let’s see your theories, succinctly stated, about what’s going on.

New Mandala will award a copy of Thailand’s Political Peasants: Power in the Modern Rural Economy for the best theory as judged, democratically, by the number of thumbs up minus the number of thumbs down.

Please add your theory as a comment below this post for the adjudication of the masses. Anonymous comments are welcome, but please restrict yourself to only one submission. You can, of course, vote up or down for as many theories as you like.

The competition remains open until 5 pm on Thursday, 14 November 2013, Canberra time. Hopefully it is clear by then who the people think has the best theory about what’s going on in Thailand.

We will crown the winner of the inaugural “New Mandala Thai Political Theory” contest on Monday, 18 November 2013.