For months now, Thailand’s uneasy political truce has been unravelling in slow motion. The robustness of debate, not to mention the levels of spite and vitriol, are returning to familar levels.

According to James Hookway, writing in The Wall Street Journal, the “détente” is now under threat. He describes how tentative efforts by the Pheua Thai government to reform the constitution are making the armed forces anxious. The sum of all their fears — an aggressive return by Thaksin and the removal of any legal protections they have engineered — must once again seem a real prospect. The never-ending story of Thaksin against the dominant faction of the royalist-military establishment is one we all know well.

By definition, I suppose, it is not over yet.

What do New Mandala readers think? Are we watching the gradual disintegration of the arrangements that have kept Thai politics relatively stable since the 2011 election? And in 2012 will we see see a repeat of 2008? Or 2006?

Thanks also to a long-time New Mandala reader for passing along the copy of Siam Rath from which I took this image, and for so many other useful publications.