Good Point. The Red Shirts movement has grown larger than Thaksin himself.
Discourse about class exploitation and unequal political voice has been growing among the red-shirt protesters, most of whom are dirt poor with little or no formal education. Well-to-do Bangkokians only have to see the welcome given by the capital's working class to their red-shirt counterparts to recognise this.
What will not disappear though is that, with or without Thaksin, there is growing recognition that the poor are oppressed and exploited, and their demands for greater socio-political and economic equality have gone unheeded by many in the mainstream mass media, which continues writing columns lambasting Thaksin.
Or perhaps they simply don't want to admit what they're seeing?
The level of disdain and bias among the educated middle-class and the elite, mostly in Bangkok, is appalling. They're not just ignorant about the plight of the poor, but are indifferent to it. In fact, they failed to realise the red shirts managed to shut down a good part of downtown Sukhumvit despite the mainstream media predicting the protesters had already lost the battle.
The level of real contact between the middle-class and the elite with the poor is mostly superficial and confined to relationships where the latter are servants and subordinates.
The middle-class and elite feel that they are entitled to being superior and that the poor should know their place in life. Therefore, when the poor continue supporting Thaksin, many of the well-off folk in Bangkok have no problems supporting a military coup.
Nevertheless, nothing is as incoherent as the belief that only the educated middle-class and the elite are qualified to run this country. One must consider how backward Thailand remains politically and economically when compared to countries like South Korea to appreciate what a "marvellous job" the elite and the middle class have been doing for the Kingdom.
If the upper echelons of society have been screwing-up Thailand for the past many decades, might it not be fair for the poor to now say: "Enough is enough", and seek a chance to run or ruin this country too?
The mainstream mass media has been so busy blasting Thaksin Shinawatra for being the cause of all political evil that it has failed to see the seeds of the class struggle that have been germinating since the 2006 coup. Nevertheless, the attacks on the old elite have been unprecedented.
