In Thailand’s rural heartland, former Thaksin loyalists count cost of nation’s ‘lost decades’

Surat Kaephuang, 62, has taken to setting up a stall selling fishballs and sausage skewers outside his convenience store in Khon Kaen to supplement his income. - ST/ANN

KHON KAEN/UDON THANI – For the past two decades, Thailand’s north-east rural heartland has been an electoral stronghold for Thaksin Shinawatra, delivering staunch support for the billionaire businessman’s brand of populist politics – even in his absence.

Hundreds of so-called “red-shirt” villages in rice-growing regions across provinces such as Khon Kaen and Udon Thani helped form the base of the pro-Thaksin political movement, with many residents travelling to Bangkok to join mass protests in the wake of Thaksin’s removal as prime minister in a 2006 military coup.