Word: thaksin
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...shirts originally coalesced as supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and later convicted in absentia of abuse of power. Their key demand is a new election, whereby a party linked to Thaksin could conceivably return to power. But in recent weeks, their raison d'être has expanded beyond loyalty to a fallen politician. The movement's leaders now include a motley crew of populist orators, social activists and opportunist politicians - all preaching the gospel of class struggle. "I don't even like Thaksin," says Thienchai Mangmeetanasothon, owner of a small business...
...Instead, the red shirts are incensed that Abhisit is in office at all. In December 2007, in the first postcoup election, Thai voters cast the most ballots for a Thaksin proxy party. As fears grew that Thaksin might be pardoned by his allies and stage a political comeback, the yellow shirts responded by occupying the Prime Minister's office complex for months and hijacking Bangkok's two airports for a week. They only dispersed when a court dissolved the then ruling party as punishment for electoral fraud, allowing an Abhisit-led coalition to form through parliamentary backroom deals. "This...
...shirt leaders know their popularity depends on fanning the flames of class rage. Even though some of their supporters are rich entrepreneurs who profited during Thaksin's rule, they have reached into the language of Thailand's feudal past and characterized the current political crisis as pitting the phrai against the amataya. Roughly translated, that's a conflict between the serfs and the aristocracy. Abhisit struck back on local TV: "Thailand no longer has [such] social classes. People are equal under the constitution, although they have unequal opportunities." But the underclass isn't convinced. "The poor work hard and contribute...
...Exile A telecom billionaire who has spent much of his self-exile in Dubai, Thaksin is an unlikely savior for a legion of bus commuters. He is everything a Thai farmer or construction worker is not: a pale-complexioned ethnic Chinese with nary a callus on his palms. (Abhisit fits that category too.) But Thaksin knew how to tap into a voter base long underexploited by traditional Thai politicians. His populist policies, which included heavily subsidized health care and microfinancing schemes, delighted the lower classes and helped Thaksin win the largest electoral mandate in Thai history. Economists have critiqued...
...color of anger, danger and protest. So it's fitting that supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, have chosen deep scarlet as their identifying hue. Tens of thousands of Red Shirts have thronged Bangkok's government district since March 12 in increasingly virulent demonstrations demanding that current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down and hold new elections. But red is also the color of blood, and in response to Abhisit's steadfast refusal to resign, the Red Shirts decided to shed their own. As dawn broke on March 16, hundreds lined...