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SCANDINAVIAN TRAVELER | EXPLORES | BANGKOK
End of the road: Antigovernment protesters bring the Sala Daeng intersection to a standstill
Two years later, just after opening another restaurant,
they had to shut the doors for a few weeks
when red shirts occupied downtown Bangkok and
demanded a new election.
“There was barbed wire and sandbags and soldiers
everywhere. It was like a ghost town,” he says.
“You know it’s serious when even 7-Eleven is
closed.”
S
upporters
of the ousted government
are afraid. Many hail from the north
and northeast of the country, which is a
stronghold of the previous regime. Most
are rice farmers who have come to Bangkok
to work before returning home for the harvest.
“I am upset. Thaksin Shinawatra and his politicians
are the only ones who ever did anything for
poor people. We got healthcare, infrastructure
and help with our debts, says Somwan, a
fiftysomething single mother who works
as a maid in the affluent Sukhumvit area.
We meet at the building where she
currently works, close to Ekkamai Road.
She’s contemptuous of the current
military regime and can’t wait for another
chance to vote Thaksin back to power.
“The yellow shirts say we’re stupid, but
we’re not. We vote for those who actually do
something for us,” she says.
The rift between the two camps goes deeper
than rich or poor, town or country. Both sides have
their elites meaning it’s more a case of old money
versus new money. Entrepreneurs usually back
the pro-Thaksin red shirts, while those who have
inherited their wealth or who have benefited from
their proximity to the aristocracy or the king usually
support the yellow shirts.
Geographically, the north is red and the south is
yellow, while ideologically, liberal reds are pitted
against conservative yellows.
T
haksin
Shinawatra rose to prominence
in the mid-1990s. His Thai Rak Thai
party won the election in 2001, with
massive support from disenfranchised
farmers in the north and northeast, a
group that had been politically awakened by new
technology such as the internet and satellite TV.
Thaksin listened to their grievances, won the
election, and delivered on his promises, thereby
cementing his popularity. His well-oiled
political machine has won every election
since, a cause for alarm among Bangkok’s
old guard.
Thaksin has been ousted from power
three times by the courts and twice by the
military amid accusations of corruption and
Thomas
nepotism, something many see as an attempt by
Anostam
the ruling classes to cling to the power voters have
repeatedly denied them.
While it is true that Thaksin’s numerous administrations
have been tainted by corruption scandals,
there is little – if any – evidence to show that other
governments have been any cleaner.
Political statement:
A Thaksin T-shirt
‘The yellow shirts
say we’re stupid,
but we’re not.
We vote for those
who actually do
something for us’
Get the
insider’s guide
to Bangkok at
scandinaviantraveler.com
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DECEMBER 2014 | SCANDINAVIAN TRAVELER