The large flat expanse in central Bangkok known as Sanam Luang is where significant regal ceremonies, such as the funerals of the country’s revered monarchs, take place. Currently, it is the rallying point for forces opposed to the current Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Appropriately perhaps, his opponents who gather nightly at Sanam Luang are hoping for his political death. His future is certainly looking pretty poorly as the outcry over a deal to sell off his family’s private assets worth nearly $2 billion to Singapore’s Temasek continues.

The self-styled ``CEO of Thailand’’ has brought a new style to Thai politics and economics, not least of which is his ability to ensure his re-election, the first Thai incumbent to have done so. However, with the political stability has come a growing resentment at the direction Thailand is heading. Many argue it is losing its way, selling out to foreign interests, and losing touch with its cultural underpinnings.

The interesting thing for Thailand is that the anti-Thaksin protestors _ mainly the urban middle class, civil groups and Buddhist groups _ are not just fighting Thaksin the man. The struggle is about the system he represents.

The point was made by the deputy leader of Thailand’s opposition Democrat Party, Surin Pitsuwan, in an op-ed he wrote for the International Herald Tribune. Thaksin’s reign, he argues, comes down to a clash between a more traditional, humble, largely self-sufficient model, and that of a moreaggressive, materialistic and debt-generating form of administration. ``Thai society is now torn between the soothing, sustainable traditional form of leadership, and one that has presented a mirage of greater wealth that appears to be receding toward the horizon,’’ he writes.

Surin’s contrast is a compelling one and it is one that may offer insights to the bubbling trends in South East Asia that may be beginning to challenge.The Washington Consensus represented by Thaksin, albeit a little loosely in parts.

When I was at Sanam Luang last week (and bought the obligatory protest T-shirt) I spoke to the founder of the Santi Asoke Buddhist movement, Phra Bodhiraksa. The so-called Dharma Army was among the first major groups to get behind the anti-Thaksin movement and their credentials and support have been a boon to the opposition forces.

The central ideal of the Santi Asoke group, is an adherence to a concept, which was translated to me as ``supra-mundane.’’ The basic tenet of this view is the transcendence of the worldly, of the material.

The introduction of a Buddhist vision to the contemporary context is not of course new for South-East Asia: Buddhist movements have been politically active for some time in Laos, Burma, Cambodia as well as in Thailand, on and off, for the best part of the last century. The most forceful aspect of the latest development though is that it is being applied as a counter-weight to the post-globalized, capitalist-based de facto world development model. As such, the movement (which at this stage remains bound loosely by a broad spiritual vision rather than any centralized structure) faces a new challenge.

It may be one that gives it more resonance than it has managed to generate in the past.

Those who have read this column before, and have read my work elsewhere, will be aware I am keen to facilitate the consolidation of an Asian way to modern economic and political development in Asia. The injection of valid, well-constructed, Buddhist ideals in South-East Asia at least is a development to be taken seriously and encouraged.

Groups like the Santi Asoke sect appear unable at this stage to put flesh on their idealistic visions. To some extent, that is needed. But they might not be the ones who should do it. They also need to ensure they can extract themselves from the political bun-fight that looms. But, the Buddhists in Thailand have a valid voice and, in broad terms, offer a useful and significant alternative to the culture of capitalism, as we know it in the West.

They shouldn’t be ignored. 

By James Rose, an Australian, is editor of the online journal Corporate Governance Asia.