BANGKOK, Apr 14 (IPS) - For nearly two weeks, Pairoj Chotsripanporn joined the ranks of anti-government protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office, wearing the trademark red shirt of the movement.

But he has decided to give the shirts that identified him as an anti-government activist a rest – at least for now. On Tuesday, the 52-year-old trader from Bangkok chose to wear a white shirt with blue checks over a pair of grey trousers after it became clear that the movement he belonged to – the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) – had to capitulate to the might of heavily armed soldiers. 

"It is dangerous to wear a red shirt now," said Pairoj, as he stood in the midst of nearly 100 other former red-shirt-wearing UDD protesters who, like him, had traded the shirt that reflected their political leanings for something more neutral. "We will be attacked by this military-backed government. But we will not stop." 

A short distance from where he spoke in a historic part of the Thai capital stood rows of soldiers in combat gear. Pairoj and his fellow political travellers jeered at the soldiers, cursing loudly, calling them "Buffaloes! Damn sh*ts! Go home!" 

They were cries that had little bearing by that time in the afternoon. Two hours before, three leaders of the ‘red shirts’ had handed themselves over to the police and urged the nearly 2,000 UDD supporters camped outside the premier’s office, Government House, to go home. 

This move came as the hundreds of soldiers, followed by armoured personnel carriers, advanced towards an area outside Government House that had become the last stronghold of the red shirts, whose leaders had been using strident rhetoric to force the current coalition government to step down and call for general elections. 

There were fears in some quarters of a bloodbath, given that the troops, under the cover of the harsh emergency laws, had opened fire the previous day on the protesters who had Molotov cocktails and improvised petrol bombs to defend themselves. 

That clash left some 74 people injured, some with gunshot wounds. The death toll remains unclear, with some UDD members stating there were two fatalities, while others allege it was much higher. The government of Prime Minister Abhist Vejjajiva has denied that charge. 

The about-turn by the UDD brought to an abrupt end the violence and the political tension that had gripped Bangkok since Monday at dawn, when hundreds of red shirts blocked off many major intersections across the capital and clashed with the troops. 

A similar show of muscle by the red shirts was on display on Apr. 11 in the resort town of Pattaya, when UDD supporters forced the cancellation of a 16-nation summit as part of its campaign against the Abhisit administration. And a few days before, the red shirts attracted over 100,000 supporters to protest outside the home of the chief adviser to the country’s revered monarch, calling for the adviser’s ouster. 

The red shirts draw much of their support from the urban and rural poor and have the backing of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, now living in exile to avoid arrest on corruption charges. 

Thaksin led a government that was elected with thumping majorities in the 2001 and 2005 elections until it was deposed by the military in a September 2006 coup, Thailand’s 18th putsch. 

In 2008, another elected government that had Thaksin’s backing and pursued his many pro-poor policies was crippled by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, a yellow-shirt-wearing protest movement that drew support from the urban elites, royalists and conservative bureaucrats. That government was subsequently forced to quit after the military refused to back it and the courts issued a controversial verdict that it be disbanded. 

Abhisit’s Democrat Party succeeded in forming a coalition government due to backroom deals orchestrated by the military and reportedly large cash payments to parliamentarians to back his administration. 

The red shirts were hardly impressed, accusing the new coalition government of lacking in legitimacy, being propped up by the military, having links to the PAD and calling for the parliament to be dissolved and fresh elections held. They took to the streets outside Government House on Mar. 26. 

But while the four-month-old government of Abhisit could take comfort in the current change of fortunes in its favour, there are already emerging signs that the decision to invoke emergency laws and turn to the military to crack down on the red shirts could backfire. 

The first salvo has been fired by the Student Federation of Thailand (SFT), a network of over 10 universities in Thailand that has history of activism in the country’s political movements going back many decades. 

The SFT is supporting the call by the red shirts for the Abhisit government to resign and hold fresh elections so that the country gets a "people’s government." It also wants the emergency laws repealed. 

"Until now the student movement had been silent and did not come out in support of the red shirts. But that silence has ended because the government used emergency laws to send in soldiers to crack down on the protesters," says Suluck Lamubol, a member of the SFT’s executive committee and an undergraduate studying history. "The government must be held accountable for what happened." 

"Others have also started to speak out because the military didn’t hesitate to use force to protect this government," Suluck told IPS. "This government seems to be afraid of the people." 

Similar reactions of Thais who had not identified with the red shirts were on display in some parts of Bangkok following the recent events. 

"People will not accept such use of violence. You cannot let the military shoot at people," said a 39-year-old civil servant who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The people will rise up against the government because of such suppression." 

To thwart anti-government sentiment, the Abhisit administration must ensure that the rule of law is enforced fairly, says Naruemon Thabchumpon, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. "Society is waiting to see if the state will be impartial and ensure due process of the law." 

"The government cannot be seen supporting one colour, the yellow-shirt PAD, since their leaders are free even after all the disturbances and breaking the law last year," she added in an interview. "(Red shirt leader) Veera Musikhapong is an honourable man for deciding to save the lives of his supporters and give himself to the police and be jailed."