Computer science professor Phillip Rogaway is a regular visiting scholar to Chiang Mai University and other institutions in Thailand. He makes no claims at being an expert on Thai society, only to being "fond of the country."

What are your Thai contacts saying about the recent upheaval?

Rogaway: In the past, when Thaksin (Shinawatra) was prime minister, my Thai academic colleagues seemed quite united in their antipathy, I felt, and almost all of my Thai colleagues were delighted when he was deposed in 2006. But things afterwards have seemed less clear. Many people have pretty much given up trying to sort it all out. I myself do not really know if the People's Alliance for Democracy protests represent genuine democratic aspirations by people concerned about the overhang of Thaksin's power or if they represent something entirely different from that.

How is democracy viewed by the Thai people?

One of the difficulties in discourse on this topic is a fundamentally different view of what "democracy" means in the U.S. and in Thailand.

Here, we understand democracy quite procedurally you create this corpus of election rules, follow them, and that's supposed to mean you're democratic.

On the other hand, Thais are less interested in the process and more interested in the results. If an elected leader suppresses free speech or has people killed or makes a fortune while in office, is that democracy? To many Thais, a coup to throw out such a person is democratic.

What do you think happens next in Thailand?

Thailand's future is unclear (as is America's). I sometimes feel that the country is on the brink of cultural and environmental collapse.

The combination of deforestation and global warming have increased catastrophic flooding, and it may soon get to the point that the land in Thailand just cannot support the population.

— Clifton B. Parker