When observers talk about how the bloody crisis in Bangkok is a clash of two different Thailands, they have two particular places in mind.

Lamoon was perhaps being a little unfair. Abhisit did try to visit the nearby town of Nong Khai back in March, but hundreds of red shirt protesters sent him scurrying away by helicopter. Crowds in several north-eastern provinces have in the past months blocked roads and rail lines to prevent reinforcements to Bangkok.
To many middle class, urban Thais, Isaan is a place of rustics and bumpkins and many have shown a stunning lack of sympathy for the deaths in Bangkok, dismissing protesters as ‘buffalos’—slow, stupid and in the thrall of Thaksin. For the protesters, this perhaps rankles more than anything else. On the streets of Bangkok, many protesters have proudly worn the label of ‘prai,’ an antiquated term roughly meaning commoner. In Isaan, red shirt supporters are fully aware that subsequent governments have continued many of Thaksin’s pro-poor policies. But this isn’t the point.

See the full article from “The Diplomat”




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