Thailand – a nation divided

To understand the recent ‘Red Shirt’ protest’s that lasted approximately 2 months, you need to go back to the 1997 constitution, understand the rise of the Bangkok’s middle class and political history.

In 1997 a new Constitution was put in place which brought it up to a similar standard as Developed countries. This meant both houses of parliament were elected, a reduction of police authority, independent government agencies were established, (like the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court, the Office of the Auditor-General), electoral reform to stop vote buying were some of the major changes. These changes were seen by some as enabling government to be too strong and stable.

There is a divide between the new Bangkok middle class and the poor Northern farming class. In 2001 Thaksin was elected as Prime Minister and his grassroots economic policies helped reduce poverty and provided universal health care, making him hugely popular in rural Thailand. Thaksin became seen, by the ‘Yellow Shirts (new Bangkok middle class)’ as an Autocrat, with conflicts of interest, anti-Royal comments and a political rift with a senior Monk. Loud anti-Thaksin support came from a media moghul, prominent socialists, scholars and 'royalists' and factions within the Thai Military. In September 2006 the General Election was not required because of a Military coup a month earlier.

The military drafted a new constitution, which a majority approved in a national referendum in 2007 but Northern Thailand voted against the new constitution. The new constitution watered down many independent bodies but provided clearer lines on corruption. In December 2007, Thaksin’s party, with minor party support, formed a coalition government. This was seen as vindicating Thaksin against the military coup.

The new government, the ‘PPP’, vowed to amend the 2007 constitution prompting the ‘Yellow Shirts’ to resume protests, culminating in the shutdown of the Bangkok International Airport in 2008. Then the ‘Constitutional Court’ dissolved the PPP party due to corruption, a new coalition government was formed with a majority from the Democrat Party (Yellow Shirts) but the ‘Red Shirts’ were not happy with how the coalition was formed and started to protest again.

The Thai constitution has the King as head of state, where the King appoints an 18-member privy council who perform policy around the monarchy but with half the council formerly involved with the Military there is innuendo that the council plays a pivotal role behind scenes of Thai politics.

At the end of the day, all the people I had spoken too (the middle class in Bangkok) have less regard for politics and more interest in the King’s comments … so similar to the Middle East, maybe Western Democracy, anti-corruption legislation and a check and balances constitution is not for everyone but the Northern Thai’s will put their hand up to disagree.