There was a time,in the seventies and eighties,when Thailand would take abrupt changes in government in its stride. During those decades of strong military interventionism,coups took place and,with few exceptions,on the morning after life went on. And when regime change did get tricky,there was always the palace; the king was held in high regard,and a gesture by him could settle the power struggle. But as Thailand began to be counted among the fast-growing east Asian economies,there was a simultaneous shift among people towards regarding democracy as crucial to their countrys success story. It was a hard-fought peoples movement in the nineties that pushed the military firmly into the background. But as events of this weekend show,Thailand is now so bitterly divided on what political dispensation it wants that the confused scene can only be conveyed through colours. This weekend the Asean summit to be hosted in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya had to be abandoned after huge anti-government protests. The protesters were outfitted in red,the colour denoting their allegiance to Thaksin Shinawatra,deposed in a palace-backed military coup in 2006 and thereafter in exile but still massively popular with the rural poor and the countrys northern region. Ranged,feebly,against them were government supporters in blue shirts. Thats a little different from the yellow shirts who brought Thailand to a standstill last year. The yellow shirts are believed to be a Bangkok coalition,its middle classes,businesspersons and royalists who felt crowded out of Thaksins constituency. That agitation led to Thaksins proxy prime minister being ousted and the current incumbent,Abhisit Vejjajiva,being installed. A state of emergency has now been called,but the eerie resemblance,with sides changed,to last year is sobering. Thais must ask themselves,can red and yellow ever be less distant?
