ASEAN HEADLINE-POLITICS | Thaksin’s comeback tour attempts to rally red shirts

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BANGKOK – Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has his work cut out trying to win back support from the red shirts, if there are enough of them still around.

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Thaksin, now on parole, has been touring former red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) strongholds in Chiang Mai, Nonthaburi, Nakhon Ratchasima and Pathum Thani.

His visits included meetings with political dynastic “big houses,” who were power brokers for the red shirts at ceremonies and parties.

The settings may have been informal, but the underlying motive that brought Thaksin to the provinces was indeed serious.

The ruling Pheu Thai Party is desperate to regain its dominance in politics after having been dethroned as the country’s main force and largest party by the Move Forward Party in last year’s general election.

The red shirts were once diehard supporters of Pheu Thai, which endured a long absence from government during the nine-year rule of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha’s administration.

At the same time, a rapid paradigm shift was taking place in the form of the anti-junta pro-democracy movement, which posed a direct challenge to the status quo. It marked the birth of the youth-led protests under the banner of the Rassadorn group, which spread fast among university students and sections of the population previously oblivious to the business of government and politics.

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A source said the movement found a close ally, the Future Forward Party, which was later dissolved over an illegal loan and then morphed into the Move Forward Party (MFP).

The Rassadorn group eclipsed the red shirts, who by then had struggled without substantial support from Pheu Thai even though several UDD stalwarts were spotted at many Rassadorn-organised protests against the Prayut administration.

Speaking on a political talk programme recently, UDD adviser Tida Tawornseth said there was little hope of Thaksin working his magic and making the UDD the formidable force it once was.

She argued that many UDD members have hung up their red shirts and switched to wearing orange, the colour of the MFP.

Tida said the last straw for the red shirts looked to be Pheu Thai’s decision to drop the MFP in favour of forming a coalition government with the conservative parties that were once part of the Prayut administration.

This was seen as reneging on a promise made to the MFP, Pheu Thai’s closest pro-democracy ally, for which Pheu Thai could not be forgiven by many red shirts who share the same pro-democracy ideology as the MFP and its supporters, according to Tida.

Bangkok Post