Colour Clashes

The estimated 26,000 'Red-shirts' who rallied in Bangkok yesterday did so largely without incident. The 'Reds' demonstration was to mark the third anniversary of the coup that toppled their hero Thaksin Shinawatra. The number of protestors showed that while Thaksin isn't yet again the force he would like to be, he's not disappearing any time soon, either.

Oddly it wasn't the 'Reds' that attracted the most attention yesterday. Rather it was the 'Yellow-shirts,' who stole the big headlines after they tussled with riot police and Cambodian villagers in a protest over supposed land-encroachment at the border.

The 'Yellow-shirts,' are supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). It was PAD that ultimately provided the impetus for the 2006 coup and it was they who forced the closure of Bangkok's airport last year which  led to the fall of Thaksin's proxy party, the PPP.

PAD initially drew its support from the middle and upper-classes and the elite of Bangkok- the 'Blue Blood Jet Set,' the Bangkok Post named them. Within this group were socialites, upper-level bureaucrats and some lower-rung members of the royal family. As stories of Thaksin's corruption grew though, support for PAD rapidly sprung from Muslim's in the south, from the lower reaches of the civil service and Buddhist groups, and from labour unions opposed to the selling of state-owned assets.

Bizarrely, PAD campaign for less, not more democracy, believing that many Thai weren't sophisticated enough to use their votes wisely; here PAD mean Thai from the poor North and North-east which are the areas that the 'Reds' draw most of their support from.  "Representative democracy is not suitable for Thailand," claimed their most well known leader, Sondhi Limthongkul. Sondhi and PAD proposed instead a system of 'occupational representation,' meaning that 50% of MP's would be appointed based upon occupation. The 'Yellows' and the 'Reds' are then implacable foe.

Not content with bringing down two governments, the alliance, to the surprise of many formed an official political party- the New Politics Party (NPP)- and Saturday's protest show that their intentions to be a major player are serious. The Cambodian border-dispute has long been a sore-point for PAD, and indeed for most Thai and Cambodians. Several soldiers from both sides have been shot and killed and murmurerings of war are frequently heard. PAD, or as they are now, NPP is playing a high-stakes game here.

Cambodian Soldiers near the disputed border