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Baguettes in hand, Thai protesters get a Tunisian accent

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 07:48 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - As slogans blared from megaphones denouncing Thailand's leaders at a recent "red shirt" anti-government protest, one group waved baguettes and held up French placards in solidarity with a popular revolt in Tunisia.

While the motivations of Thailand's protesters differ from those in Tunisia, the image, captured in photographs and spread on Facebook, illustrates subtle yet significant change in the world's grass-roots protest movements, showing how one can quickly feed off another thousands of miles away.

Thailand's colour-coded activism of red-shirted and rival yellow-shirted protesters bears some similarities to movements opposed to long-serving Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and the ousted Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Protest movements in all three countries question government legitimacy and income disparities also play into seething underclass anger that can quickly turn violent in all three countries.

The richest 20 percent of Thais, for instance, earn 55 percent of the country's income, a figure close to Tunisia, a former French colony where the top fifth take in 47 percent of the wealth, according to World Bank statistics.

That's largely where the similarities end.

But in an era where news, gossip and blogosphere observations move at lightning speed from one country to another, courtesy of Twitter and Facebook, that's enough to inspire protesters in Thailand to write slogans in French and bring out baguettes.

Michael Montesano, an expert on Thai politics at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said the Thai protests were part of a "slow-burn civil war" between two groups with clearly defined social bases, rather than one coordinated people's push, as seen in Egypt and Tunisia.

"What we're seeing in Thailand with the two protest groups is political posturing towards an election and given what's happened in the past, that's an encouraging sign," he said.

Thailand's five-year political standoff is split broadly into two camps of activists with loose allegiances to political parties and multiple demands.

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The red shirts, comprised mostly of working class and rural supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, held a 10-week protest last year, shutting down Bangkok's commercial heart until the military put down a violent insurrection, leaving 91 people dead and about 1,800 wounded.

They have attracted crowds of 30,000 people twice this month on Bangkok's streets to demand 19 leaders detained on terror charges are freed on bail.

Their largely urban, middle class rival yellow shirts helped Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rise to power in 2008 by pressing to undermine two elected governments led or backed by Thaksin.

They are now also in the streets, turning against Abhisit and demanding he scraps an agreement with Cambodia aimed at settling a border dispute, a move Abhisit says could push the two countries to the brink of conflict.

Facebook and Twitter play a part in Thai activism but they have not galvanized protesters as in Tunisia and Egypt. Thailand has an estimated 17 million internet users and Facebook is the most popular social media.

Many English-speaking Thais and foreigners followed fast-moving developments during the March-May protests on Twitter although the site has yet to catch on among Thai speakers.

But both sides have Facebook pages followed by many thousands.

In general, street activism has been led more by traditional media such as newspapers, satellite television and radio.

The government has shut down opposition television stations and tried to block their radio stations and some have gone underground.

But all sides recognise the growing potential of new media.

The Thai government has blocked tens of thousands of web pages deemed a threat to national security or the country's revered monarchy.

Many sites were linked to the red shirt protest movement. (Editing by Jason Szep and Robert Birsel)