absolutelyBangkok archive · Politics
Originally published Dec. 18, 2009
An Al Jazeera feature: For three years Thailand has been divided into two political camps, the yellows and the reds. Rageh Omaar asks is the country at the brink of a bloody conflict.
Thailand has emerged from months of political turmoil and street protests with a new, conservative government and now the country’s Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister of Thailand, is keen to stress to the world that things in Thailand are back to normal.
But from his self-imposed exile in Dubai, ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra is trying to keep alive the flames of a revolution. In the meantime Thailand’s political conflict had become color-coded. The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in yellow, and the rural driven National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), calling for Thaksin’s return, in red.
Now, with Democrats finally in power, it looks as though Abihsit is right — things in Thailand are back to normal. The rural revolution has been curtailed, and the elite are back in power with the backing of the army and the blessing of the king.
Has Thailand’s revolution come to an end? Can Thaksin still whip up support from abroad? Does he represent the biggest threat to the current government or has he been defeated?
Rageh Omaar examines the truth behind the color-coded class war that is unfolding in Thailand, and ultimately explore if real democracy, in what is essentially a patronage system, can be anything more than a dream.
But are things in Thailand back to normal?
Thitinan Pongsudhirak
’s quotes are, once again, key:
Via Saksith
From the absolutelyBangkok archive. Back to all stories