HISTORY & POLITICSHISTORY1979
After three years of
military rule, elections
and parliament
restored.1980
Prem Tinsulanonda's
government works
to undermine the
communist insugency
movement and
eventually ends it with
a political solution.In September 2008, Samak Sundaravej was unseated by the Consti-
tutional Court on a technicality: while in offi ce, he hosted a TV cooking
show that the court found to be a confl ict of interest. Still not politically
satisfi ed, the Yellow Shirts seized control of Thailand’s main airports,
Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang, for a week in November 2008 until the
military manoeuvred a silent coup and another favourable court ruling
that further weakened Thaksin’s political proxies. Through last-minute
coalition building, Democrat Abhisit Vejjajiva was elected in a parlia-
mentary vote, becoming Thailand’s 27th prime minister.
Thaksin supporters organised their own counter-movement as the
United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, better known as the
‘Red Shirts’. Supporters hail mostly from the north and northeast, and
include anti-coup, pro-democracy activists as well as die-hard Thak-
sin fans. There is a degree of class struggle, with some Red Shirts ex-
pressing bombastic animosity towards the aristocrats. The Red Shirts
most provocative demonstration came in 2010 after Thailand’s Su-
preme Court ordered the seizure of US$46 billion of Thaksin’s assets
after fi nding him guilty of abusing his powers as prime minister. Red
Shirts occupied Bangkok’s central shopping district for two months
and demanded the dissolution of the government and reinstatement
of elections. Protest leaders and the government were unable to reach
a compromise and in May 2010 the military used forced to evict the
protestors, resulting in bloody clashes where 91 people were killed and
a smouldering central city (US$1.5 billion of crackdown-related arson
damage was estimated).
In 2011, general elections were held and Thaksin’s politically allied
Puea Thai party won a parliamentary majority with Thaksin's sister
Yingluck Shinawatra elected as prime minister. For more information,
on this see p 696.Troubles in the Deep South
Starting in 2001, Muslim separatist insurgents have been waging a low-
scale war against the central government in Thailand’s southernmost
provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala. These three provinces once
comprised the area of the historic kingdom of Patani until it was con-
quered by the Chakri kings. Under King Chulalongkorn, the traditional
ruling elite were replaced with central government offi cials and bureau-
crats from Bangkok. During WWII, a policy of nation-building set out to
transform the multi-ethnic society into a unifi ed and homogenous Thai
Buddhist nation. This policy was resisted in the Deep South and gave
birth to a strong separatist movement fi ghting for the independence of
Patani. In the 1980s and ’90s, the assimilation policy was abandoned
and then-prime minister Prem promised support for Muslim culturalThaksin was the
first prime minis-
ter in Thai history
to complete a
four-year term of
office.THAKSIN
AFP/GETTY IMAGES ©» Military response to student protests, 1976