The news from Bangkok is not pretty- 70 people have been killed and the “Red-Shirts” were forceably removed from Bangkok by the Thai military. I’m not in Thailand now, but have  spent a lot of time in the country and have friends who are in Thailand at the moment. When I see images of Bangkok burning, I don’t feel good. Malls where I’ve shopped are up in flames and people are being killed on the same streets where I’ve walked before.

I wasn’t in Thailand during the military coup of 2006 when Thaxin first lost power, but followed the news from afar. At that time, I felt like the coup was a positive thing because Thailand had the tacit support of the King who is usually revered in the country  even though he usually remains behind the scenes politically. When I called to check up on our Thai friends, they remained unconcerned about their country despite the airport closures, the curfew and the coup.

When Thaxin was in office, I wasn’t a fan of him, but I was probably biased based on the opinions I learned of my Thai friends. Before the coup, he was the richest man in the nation of Thailand and went from being the head of a telecommunications giant straight to the top of the government in Thailand- some might say that he bought the election.


In the current protests, the Red-Shirts are those who support Thaksin, who seems to be leading them from afar. Thaksin is now wanted for terrorism by the current Thai government who are hoping to work with Interpol in order to arrange for an extradition for the former Prime Minister.

Thaksin has responded on his Twitter account that the corruption charges against him are, “based on false evidence”.

On the other side are the “Yellow Shirts”, who tend to be wealthier than the “Red Shirts” and more skeptical about Thaksin’s claims of innocence and tend to believe that Thaksin bribed the poorer population and that the “Red Shirts” don’t think enough for themselves and are disrespectful to the King of Thailand.

Yellow is also associated with the Monarchy in Thailand.