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| People at the New Year’s Eve street party in Bangkok putting up a poem on democracy calling for a brighter future for Thailand. Those at the event included students as well as small businessmen and professionals. (Straits Times) |
As the military regime, which took power in a coup last May, indicates that elections may be delayed, and the royal succession looms as King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 87, grows more frail, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the idea of extended military rule, as shown by the street event.
And it is not limited to disenchanted peasants or disgruntled politicians. Among the group on the sidewalk were students, a lawyer, a musician from a band which performs political songs, small businessmen and professionals, as well as a handful of lecturers from universities in Bangkok.
Whether such pockets of dissent will morph into something larger, and if so how long that will take, is a critical question.
Another question is whether dissent against extended military rule will render outdated the simplistic "red-yellow" narrative of rural poor vs urban royalist elites that serves as shorthand for Thailand's epochal political conflict, as people from both sides find common cause.
(AsiaOne)
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