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2. Please explain the relationship between the Thaksin regime and the

emergence/development of the Yellow Shirts and the Red Shirt movements?

Thailand political situation has not been in its most stable position in the past decade. The

explicit polarization has ignited when the Yellow shirts protesters, who later on seen as elites

or the upper class, started their protest against Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister at the

time. In the meanwhile, the Red shirts or the !nited "ront o" #emocrac$ against

#ictatorship% &!##' was "ormed in late ())* to be counter+protest to the Yellow shirt

moements. This essa$ aims to explain the relationship between the Thaksin regime and the

emergence o" the Yellow Shirts and the Red Shirt moements.

The reasons behind the Yellow shirt protest lied essentiall$ to the social "actors. It was

explained that since the participants were not poor, so it was necessar$ to look back to see

what had happened with Thai econom$ in the past decade that was so signi"icant that

"rustrated the non+poor so much that the$ had to come out to the demonstrate. Thaksin was

attacked b$ issues threatening the middle class which was the most crucial political

instrument "or the middle class. -urthermore, the populist polic$ was not as use"ul to the

middle class, as it was to the poor. It was true that the middle class did bene"it "rom the

uniersal healthcare but not much "rom the SMs bank, illage "unds, etc, but not as much as

the poor. /n the contrar$, it caused more insecurit$ to the middle class. -irstl$, because o" the

"act that more o" them work in the "ormal sector, thus proportionatel$ the$ paid more tax,

which was the main resource "or the subsidies proided "or the populist program. Secondl$,

the$ did not directl$ bene"it "rom man$ o" the programs, which, to them, were created to

sere politicians0 scheme. Thirdl$, it reduced some 1ualit$ and standards o" serices that the$

were used to. To be more elaborated, "or example, the uniersal healthcare or 2) 3aht cures

all% program clearl$ created e1ualit$ to all Thai citizens to access the healthcare.

It was reported that the limited subsidies "or the health scheme deteriorate the medical

standard in the hospitals that 4oint the program. Since the budget was lower, thus the program

were not able to coer all the expenses, led to the lower standard comparing to the more

expensie ones that the goernment did not subsidize. 5s a conse1uence, i" the middle class

wanted a better serice, the$ had to go to the priate hospitals, which began to priatize and

the "ees became more expensie "or the middle class. In other words, in order to maintain a

good li"e the$ used to hae, the$ now had to pa$ more. These also are the reasons that it was

 belieed to be the urge "or the middle class to 4oin the protest to against Thaksin regime.

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6oweer, there also were other issues relating Thaksin0s legitimac$ that were mentioned

during the protest. -or instance, the Supreme 7ourt had conicted him "or corruption charges

such as tax easion and iolation o" law prohibiting political "igures "rom haing business

deal with goernmental organization. 8eertheless, to conclude, the Yellow shirts emergence

actuall$ based mainl$ on the middle class0 agendas. The moement consisted o" 

homogeneous group, characterized b$ their economic and social status. 6oweer, the shared

societal interest among the group was the "ear o" alteration that came together as part o" 

modern societ$. Thaksin Shinawatra who had success"ull$ s$mbolized himsel" as the messiah

o" these changes such as bureaucratic administration re"ormation and the introduction o" 

 populist polic$, became a threat to the conseratie middle class. This caused the "rustration

among them, along with the politicized issue o" disa""ection to the monarch the "eeling and

emotion o" the people was used to catal$ze the moement.

Regarding to the Red shirts, it is composed o" arious groups that categorized in "ie di""erent

groups within the moement as9 :' Thaksin himsel", (' those hired b$ Thaksin, 2' idealistic

reds, ;' iolent extremists and

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shirts. 5n important issue that the Red shirt used against the Yellow shirt was that the elites

had been blocking the poor "rom the accessibilit$ to resources to sustain the "ormer0s power.

This whole concept o" implementation o" double standards and ine1ualit$ was used b$

Thaksin to portra$ his commonalit$ to the Red shirt participants, along with the image o" 

 poert$ alleiation proider9 Thaksin was able to bu$ the heart o" the excluded ones.

-urthermore, the head o" the coup0s iewpoint on the people indicated disrespect"ul attitude

that the conseratie ruler had oer the people, together with the "act that Thaksin, the poor 

icon, was ousted created discontinuit$ in people0s lies and indicated the comeback o" the

conseratie power which oppressed the poor be"ore Thaksin came. >astl$, the connection

 between the ro$al "amil$ and the Yellow shirt participants was constantl$ used to emphasize

the ine1ualit$ between the two classes.