OK, I am going to write something hugely unpopular again....

The closure of major airports in Bangkok in the past few days have caused more than widespread disruption to travellers from the world over; it also brought to our attention the issue of 'democratic deficiency' and the deep-lying social tensions (along class lines?) in the Kingdom of Smiles.

As someone who spent several years living in South East Asia as a child, I started visiting Thailand since my secondary school days. First it was short weekend trips to the Thai capital with school friends, then longer visits to northern Thailand and the surrounding scenic hills. Because a close buddy of mine from my school days in Singapore came from Thailand, this country has never been quite alien to me. One of my very first impressions of political turmoils in Thailand came in 1985 during one of the military coups. I was surprised by the extreme ease and carefree attitude with which the Thai population go about their daily lives amid the crisis.

The fact that more than 10 military coups have taken place since 1932 underlines how fragile and instable the democratic political system in Thailand is. Without some knowledge of Thai language and local politics, most foreign visitors to Thailand could only skim the surface of this highly complex society without ever coming into contact with the non-tourist  parts of Thailand's social fabric. Underneath all the 'big city, bright lights' of modern urban Thailand, the country is deeply religious, traditional and - most important of all - highly class-conscious. One's perceived social status and class origins remain extremely important to most Thais, which in part explained why Thais with darker skin colours are looked down upon in their own country, because people with fairer complexions (meaning they do not need to labour under the burining sun to make their ends meet) are considered to be socially and financially more superior than those with brown skins. 

Unlike her immediate neighbours, Thailand has never been under communist rule, nor was she colonised by western powers,  Due to her neutrality during the Second World War, the country did not suffer large-scale damage to her infrastructure or socio-economic systems. Yet the problem of rural poverty, illiteracy, income inequality and social divide is just as great, if not more, than some of her less fortunate neighbours in South East Asia. Just take a look at Bangkok's slums and the notorious nightlife spots, where young girls and boys from poverty-ridden provinces such as Issan are available for as little as 100 Bahts (about 2-2.50 Euro), you know something is not right. This is not some war-torn countries in Africa or  Central America on the brink of social collapse we are talking about, but a country that has pried herself for  being never involved in large-scale military conflicts in her modern history. One has got to ask themselves: why is economic hardship and daily struggle to survive still such a major issue in the lives of ordinary working-class Thais?

In recent years, political protests and mass demonstrations have become almost a daily occurence in Thailand, in large part due to the rise to (and fall from) power of the controversial businessman/telecom tycoon turned politician, Thaksin Shinawatra. I will refrain from making any judgements about current situation in the Thai capital, because it is not easy for a casual observer like me to comment on the moral merits or political rights or wrongs of Mr. Thaksin, especially when one gets very little information or insightful analysis in foreign media about political developments in Thailand. Virtually all we read about in the news coverage overseas are about the ongoing corruption allegations against Mr. Thaksin and his political allies.  

I came across the following article in BBC website, which seems to provide views from both pro- and anti-Thaksin camps. Usually I have my reservations when it comes to BBC articles, because some of their foreign correspondents (notably the ones stationed in Beijing) came up with quite a lot of craps, but this one seems quite sincere in his attempt to shed some light on the background to the ongoing political saga in Thailand that puzzled many of us who are not so familiar with Thai politics:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7716033.stm

Here is the full text of the above-mentioned article:

Thai crisis exposes class struggle

For weeks the yellow-shirted protesters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have hogged the limelight in Thailand.

With the backing of powerful military and palace figures, they have helped unseat one prime minister and two members of his cabinet.

The embattled government, led by allies of controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has in vain protested that it was popularly elected less than a year ago.

Now it has started fighting back with a series of mass rallies by its own red-shirted followers.

This is a dangerous contest between two power-hungry political factions who see it as a zero-sum game, in which they either win everything, or lose everything.

But it has become much more than that.

The rift has split Thai society, along regional and especially along class lines.

'Dress in red'

It is Monday morning, in a quiet backstreet in Udon Thani, provincial capital of a north-eastern province bordering Laos and a known Thaksin stronghold.

Radio DJ Kwanchai Sarakam is taking calls. He is a firebrand Thaksin loyalist who already faces criminal charges over his involvement in a clash with PAD supporters in July. But his callers are just as fired up.

The first is an old lady, with a warning for the military. "Listen to me, soldiers," she shouts down a crackly phone line, "if you dare try another coup, forget about getting roses, because I will dress myself entirely in red - red hair, red panties, red bra, red fingernails - and jump in front of your tanks. You will have to run over me, a grass-roots woman, and crush me to death."

Other calls follow in a similar, if less melodramatic, vein.

The show finishes with a rousing song, scorning "educated people" for their ignorance and lack of manners.

Kwanchai threatens to bring a red-shirted army to Bangkok to declare war on the PAD. He says there will have to be bloodshed before Thailand can get through this crisis. He almost seems to relish the prospect. But the sense of being engaged in a class war is commonplace on both sides of this struggle.

Rich-poor divide

"You see these people here - they are all educated people," one man told me at a PAD gathering in Bangkok. "But the ones who support the government party, they are all uneducated, especially from the north and north-east."

This is a typical comment from the PAD, implying that the millions of rural people who consistently vote for pro-Thaksin politicians are either bribed or do not understand what they are doing.

It is the justification the PAD gives for demanding a parliament which is part-appointed.

Such an attitude infuriates Ankham Ratanasingha, who runs a small farm with her husband just outside Udon Thani.

She had to leave school at 10 years old, but takes pride in having educated her two children to university level.

"If the PAD cannot convince me that their version of democracy will help grass-roots people like me, then I will fight them to my last breath," she said. "They should treat us with respect, not as people they can just squash under their feet."

"The problem of Thai political crisis is a class struggle", says Attajak Satayanutak, an academic from Thaksin's home town Chiang Mai.

"We have a wide gap between rich and poor. The poor did not receive anything from the state for a long time. Then, for the first time, Thaksin gave this opportunity for them."

The affection for Thaksin Shinawatra has held up remarkably well in the north-east, a poor and arid region known as Isaan.

Local people say his populist policies, like universal healthcare and the village loan scheme, brought big improvements to the quality of their lives.

But time and again they cite something else - dignity. They told me he offered them the hope of improving themselves, without making them feel small, or humble.

His darker sides - abuses of power, human rights violations, arrogance - were brushed aside as less important.

Isaan has long been the butt of jokes in Thailand. It has a culture and language closer to that of neighbouring Laos than the central plains around Bangkok. It supplies much of the cheap, migrant labour to the capital.

But it has one valuable asset Thaksin Shinawatra identified as he began planning his bid for power in the late 1990s - voters, around one third of the total.

He was the first politician to court them directly, with appealing policies, rather than relying on the local godfathers to deliver their support.

In doing so, he has awoken a new political self-awareness in a previously passive region. And Isaan people are furious about the comments they are hearing from the PAD in Bangkok.

"Those who think Isaan people blindly follow Thaksin Shinawatra have an outdated image of our region," I was told by Puttakarn Panthong, a local politician who is not affiliated with Mr Thaksin's party. "They have better education now, and they understand who and what they are voting for."

Stuck in exile

So at the first of the big rallies in Bangkok, the former prime minister's phone-call, from somewhere overseas, was the most eagerly awaited moment of the night.

A huge roar went up from the 60,000 red-shirted faithful as his voice came over the speakers, asking: "Have you missed me?" There were more than a few tearful faces in the crowd.

But this was also a carefully-choreographed event, intended to send out a signal to the PAD and its royalist backers, that they face formidable opposition. The crowd was far larger than any the PAD has managed to attract this year.

Aside from Mr Thaksin, the highlight of the night was a song sung by Chaturon Chaiseng, one of the most respected politicians in the Thaksin camp.

He was also once a left-wing activist who took up arms against the military during the communist insurgency of the last 1970s.

And the song he chose was written by one of his comrades-in-arms, which tells of the sadness of a young rebel unable to return home.

The reference, or course, was to Mr Thaksin, stuck in exile, facing a two-year prison sentence if he comes back.

But it also connected his poor, rural followers today, with the class conflicts of Thailand's past.

Behind Mr Chaturon they held up the words "NO MORE COUP" in bold red letters. It seemed more of a warning than a plea.

One man turned to me and said: "If the military mounts another coup, this time the country will split, and there will be civil war."