After Days of Conflict in Thailand, Political Road Ahead Remains Unclear

JUDY WOODRUFF:

For more on all this, we turn to two veteran Thailand watchers. They are Kevin Hewison — he's director of the Carolina Asia Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — and Richard Doner, associate professor of political science at Emory University.

Thank you both for joining us.

Richard Doner, to you first. Who are these protesters? Who are the people in the red shirts? And then who are those in the yellow shirts who last November, December disrupted the last government?

RICHARD DONER, Emory University:

The yellow shirts, who have been protesting the last few weeks, basically, as your report said, at one level are supporters of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but more deeply, they are largely…

JUDY WOODRUFF:

You mean the red shirts.

RICHARD DONER:

… people from the rural areas…

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Excuse me. You said yellow. You mean red shirts.

RICHARD DONER:

The red shirts, I'm sorry, the red shirts. Thank you. The red shirts are largely from the countryside and reflect a couple of levels of frustration.

One is they reflect the fact that Thailand, even though it has developed at fairly high rates of growth, has suffered increasing levels of inequality, especially between Bangkok and the countryside.

Second, Thaksin was able to tap into those frustrations and win significant elections. He was deposed, as your report said, by a military coup, so another source of frustration for the red shirt demonstrators is the fact that, in their view, democracy has been violated by the military coup and subsequent opposition to Thaksin or pro-Thaksin politicians, leaders who have been elected, elected through democratic means.