Waiting in the Wings

Thai language borrows the English word “mob,” meaning crowd of people. I hear it used to describe the group that has been protesting outside the prime minister’s office nearly every day since the new government started up six months ago. But here the term doesn’t imply lawlessness or lowest-common-denominator thinking.

This mob seems mostly to be made up of the elite. The real target of its complaints doesn’t even work in the prime minister’s office anymore. He was removed by a coup nearly two years ago.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire businessman who led Thailand until September 2006, was never really sidelined. The current prime minister admits to being Thaksin’s proxy. Former members of his party still hold senior posts. And while several court cases accuse him of corruption during his term, he’s unlikely to ever go to jail.

He claims he’s done with politics. The people in the mob don’t believe him, but they can hardly wave signs saying “No more!” while he’s already saying “Enough!” So the object of the protests, and the alternatives being offered, seem a little fuzzy.

The true common folk, in fact, wish Thaksin would come back. His populist policies are the reason the leading party succeeds so well upcountry. His confidence and take-no-prisoners style may explain why he made the military nervous enough to overthrow him. And the fear that some day he’ll pick up where he left off fuels the “mob.”