The Dynamics of Change: the Decline and Revival of the Anti-Thaksin Movement

Abstract

This article analyses the dynamics of change within the movement against former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It focuses on its decline under the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and revival under the new movement organization, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC). It asks questions of what conditions affected the conflict and decline of the anti-Thaksin movement under the PAD; and what major factors caused the successful revival of the anti-Thaksin movement under the PDRC. In responding to these questions, interviews of 100 anti-Thaksin informants from 13 provinces in different regions of Thailand were conducted. It argues that three dimensions of conflict brought about the fragmentation and decline of the anti-Thaksin movement under the PAD: conflict between liberal and ultra conservative forces within the movement; battles between the PAD and the Democrat Party; and internal disagreements within the movement over the New Politics Party. The revival of the anti-Thaksin movement was the result of official dissolution of the PAD as the movement’s organization, the role of the Democrat Party in supporting the PDRC, public pressure over the attempt to pass the amnesty bill for Thaksin, the new ‘loose and pluralistic structure’ of the movement and its ‘inclusive’ strategy to diminish the earlier fragmentation, and making the movement appear less of a political one in order to attract the apolitical middle class and younger generation.