is often broadcast through loudspeakers, it is remarkable to see everybody come to a halt.
Color of Love According to both Thai and Khmer astrology, each day of the week is associated with a particular color. As King Bhumibol was born on a Monday, which is associated with yellow, the most loyal of royalists can be identified by their choice of yellow clothing on Mondays. Blue garb is also a popular color to wear on Fridays out of respect for Queen Sirikit’s birthday.
The King’s Predecessors Another much-respected member of the monarchy from the Chakri dynasty was King Rama IV or King Mongkut. Reigning from 1851 to 1868, he was known as the ‘Father of Science and Technology’ for embracing Western technologies and innovations, effectively beginning Thailand’s modernization process. He also hired English and American missionaries to teach the princes English, and Western mercenaries to train Siamese troops.
King Mongkut’s son, Chulalongkorn the Great, otherwise known as King Rama V (1868–1910), was also a hugely popular king. He is credited with abolishing the slave trade in Thailand, (depicted on the back of the B100 note), building railways, introducing electricity and through various reforms in the Thai feudal system and his influence in ‘modernizing Siam’, continuing to save the country from Western colonization.
The Man Who Brought Democracy
One Thai who has had immeasurable influence on modern Thailand is former prime minister Pridi Banomyong. He was one of the leaders of the 1932 Pro-Democracy Coup that saw the end of absolute monarchy and the adoption of the current and more popular constitutional monarchy. Pridi helped draft a new constitution and was, and still is, seen as a controversial figure in Thai history. He spent his remaining years in exile in France. After a generation overseas, his grandson, Ariya Banomyong, has returned to Thailand and is the current manager of Google in Thailand.
Making Siam ‘Civilized’
Another influential but controversial figure among Thais is Field Marshal Luang ‘Plaek’ (Strange) Phibunsongkhram, who is also a former prime minister of Thailand. Phibunsongkhram was charged with inculcating a sense of nationalism among Thai people during his time in the National Assembly and Thai military. Through various mandates, he ordered the Thais to learn the national anthem, salute the flag in public and communicate in public only in the Thai language.
Phibunsongkhram was also responsible for promoting the use of forks and spoons instead of hands for eating and adopting more Western attire. Indeed, up until a 1940 Thai Cultural Mandate, the common traditional costume for women, especially in rural areas, was a wrapped sarong and little else. Despite being the son of a Chinese immigrant, he was also responsible for the launch of numerous anti-Chinese policies and the closing down of Chinese schools all over Thailand. Many older Thai people remember him for his simple and easy to remember mandate of ‘Wear a hat and become civilized.’
Like his political nemesis Pridi, Phibunsongkhram died in exile, his final years being spent in Japan.
Field Marshal Luang ‘Plaek’ (Strange) Phibunsongkhram
THE COLOR OF POLITICS
Thaksin Shinawatra is a former prime minister of Thailand (2001–6) who remains both revered and disliked. After courting previously neglected rural Thai voters, he won two landslide election victories and arguably changed the face of Thai politics forever. Many of his policies, including providing universal affordable health coverage and low-interest agricultural loans, were hugely effective and consolidated his support base among the poorer classes.
Thaksin’s emerging power and popularity unsettled the élite, the middle classes and Thailand’s traditional establishment who had, almost exclusively, been in the political driving seat for decades.
Thaksin is also controversial for leading Thailand’s ‘War on Drugs’, which saw around 2,275 drug traffickers and addicts killed over a three-month period in 2003. The government claimed that only 50 deaths were the result of police actions, the rest being assassinations and revenge attacks by drug dealers and gangs. In 2006, the telecommunications billionaire was stripped of his family fortune of $1.4 billion by the Supreme Court after being found guilty of corruption. Since then, half has been returned. He lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai following protests led by the conservative royalist People’s Alliance for Democracy (its supporters known as Yellow Shirts), which overthrew his government in December 2006 while he was abroad—one of 19 military coups and attempted coups since the founding of the constitutional monarchy in 1932.
After Abhisit Vejjajiva from the People’s Alliance for Democracy replaced Thaksin as prime minister, supporters of Thaksin, made up of mostly poor and rural Thais, known colloquially as Red Shirts, have clashed many times with the Yellow Shirts. During the tenure of what the Red Shirts consider the illegal, undemocratic and unlawful appointment of Abhisit, there have been numerous Red Shirt protests. The most notable occurred in 2010, when hundreds of thousands of Red Shirt protesters took to the streets. Violent clashes between the protesters and the military left 92 dead and more than 2,000 injured.
A protestor waves a flag at the popular pro-democracy site, the Victory Monument, in Bangkok.
Thousands gathered every day in the capital, listening to speeches, attending rallies and mainly blowing whistles.
Many of the protesters in 2013–14 were unified in their anti-Shinawatra sentiments.
In 2011, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra, leader of the Pheu Thai party, was elected prime minister. One of the populist policies on the Pheu Thai party’s agenda for 2013 was to pass a blanket amnesty bill which would have retroactively exonerated political criminals from crimes they had committed. This would have allowed her exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra to return to Thailand without fear of charges. Needless to say, the Thai people opposed and supported the plan in equal numbers.
Support for Sale
The Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts are not officially aligned with any political party. Rather, they are independent supporter groups. Many believe that the two high-profile supporter groups could one day officially launch their own political parties.
WHAT TO DO BUT LAUNCH A COUP
When Yingluck Shinawatra, the leader of the Pheu Thai Party, won a landslide victory in the 2011 elections, many Thais were prepared to give her a chance despite the fact that she was the sister of the deposed Thaksin Shinawatra. For others, old wounds heal slowly and allegations came swiftly that she was merely a puppet for a political party that Thaksin would still be controlling.
The final straw for the non-believers came in November 2013 when Yingluck attempted to pass a broad amnesty bill that would, in effect, allow Thaksin to return to Thailand where he would not face any charges nor serve the two years in prison that he was sentenced to in absentia, and, most controversially, have all his seized assets returned. Anti-government protests quickly formed up and down the country, especially in Democrat stronghold areas like Bangkok and Phuket, with pockets of protesters traveling to Bangkok to join the street marches. Their aim, as seen on various items of merchandise made quickly available, was to Shut Down Bangkok in order to Restart Bangkok.
