The lines of democratic division are less clear now and Thailand’s grinding political conflict is best understood as a power struggle between competing elite camps with divergent visions for the country’s post-Bhumibol future. Thaksin’s and the UDD’s calls for democracy and social justice mask a game of non-ideological power politics that his side is clearly losing to the conservative forces that have coalesced against him. It’s thus perhaps symbolic that the blood the UDD plans to pour in protest at Government House will spring from self-inflicted wounds.

– Extracted from Shawn Crispin, “Bloody desperation for Thailand’s reds”, Asia Times Online, 17 March 2010.