Class, Democracy and Resistance In Contemporary Thailand. What is the Dissertation

Class, Democracy and Resistance In Contemporary Thailand. What is the red clothe yellow shirt conflict intimately - Dissertation ExampleIt then proceeds to explore why, if the Red Shirts are indeed representative of those who have been oppressed by an elite urban-centric Thailand, support is existence given to a leader like Thaksin Shinawatra who, by all showing, is a rent-seeking and corrupt politician. It uses class and resistance as lens by which the red shirt and yellow shirt phenomenon may be understood and seeks to unravel tha complex dynamics that underlie Thai-style contemporary politics. II. Introduction The image is a searing wizard, and has captured the attention of a global audience. Outside Siam paragon, one of Bangkoks gleaming edifices, a man stands with his fist clenched. He has the weatherbeaten face of a rural farmer from northerly Thailand and he is in a red shirt. The picture captures the audience because of the juxtaposition it presents the two faces of one c ountry. On the one hand, as represented by the fashionable mall that is the Siam Paragon, it is a modern and bustling economy, well on its way to Capitalist-style development. On the other hand, it is a simmering hotbed of discontent, with rural labourers coming to the center so that their voices may finally be heard. This contradiction lies at the very heart of the Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt conflict in Thailand. This paper aims to contend the political conflict in Thailand between the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts in Thailand, a conflict that has led to many dramatic scenes being played come in before the international media but whose underlying themes and issues remain hidden from the Western spectator. There is much myth-making that has helped both sides along with one side demonizing the other and glorifying its own, and volume seeing only what they choose to see. The conflict illustrates the complexity of Thai politics, and the stark class injustices and inequality that have attended the so-called Land of the Free. On the one hand, there is a group who has long been a victim of historical injustices and seeks to be heard by the center and it does so by supporting a strongman whose political career has been riddled by charges of corruption and misfeasance in public office (see Chaturon, 2009). On the other hand, is a group affiliated with the Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who professes support for the King and who levels on Thaksin the charge of not being respectful enough to the Thai Monarch, but who represent the elite and midriff class in Thai society and to the lower classes in rural Thailand (Chaturon, 2009), partially responsible for the gaping inequalities in the political economy of Thailand by defend the status quo from which they benefit. Andre Vltcheck (2010) puts it succinctly Imagine that you are Thai and poor, as most people in this country still are. Imagine that you are aware of your tender position, as most poor Thais are , and that you are educated and understand the complexities and hidden meanings of political life of your country, which most Thais do not. You have basically two alternatives if self-destruction or emigration is not the option to support the outrageously elitist aristocracy and the army (many of whose members now paint themselves