It's not just red shirts vs yellow shirts; there are many players behind scenes.
 
The current political turmoil is not as simple as a power struggle between the Democrat-led government and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The battlefield also has several other factions that have jumped in for other purposes.
 
The two colours - yellow and red - seen fighting over the past couple of years, do not reflect the complete picture. There are also some other players behind the scenes.
 
In the beginning, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) wore yellow and took to the streets to fight Thaksin and his cronies. In their yellow shirts - the colour denoting His Majesty the King's birthday - the PAD managed to convince the elite that Thaksin was being disloyal to the monarchy. The military sided with the PAD and staged a coup in 2006 to topple Thaksin.
 
Shortly after the coup, a small group of activists and Thaksin supporters formed a loose coalition of red shirts to protest against the junta. They attacked Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda accusing him of masterminding the coup and toppling an elected government.
 
The red shirts associated themselves with the poor, especially those in the North and the Northeast, both strongholds of Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.
 
The yellow and the red groups have made their respective goals clear in the struggle. The PAD, with its new politics, wants to see fewer elected politicians and wants the elite in power, while the DAAD are championing for a full electoral system to have voted-in people run the country.
 
The real game of the red shirts was revealed in the 2007 election, when the PAD and its alliance in the military and the Democrat failed.
 
The yellow shirts took to the streets again to bring down Thaksin's two proxy governments under Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat.
 
The Democrat Party, which had the second highest number of seats in the Lower House, used its powers to have Thaksin's former right-hand man Newin Chidchob do an about-turn and help form the current government. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cannot claim his government is democratic as long as he cannot explain how he got Newin to change sides.
 
Now, the red-shirt DAAD have started fighting against the elite and establishments like the Privy Council, who they believe used judicial authority to topple the two previous governments.
 
The political environment and situation has been different since Newin changed his colour from red to blue. Maybe, it would have much simpler if he wore yellow and openly sided with the Democrats. However, this politician from Buri Ram decided to wear blue to associate himself with the royal colour in the national flag - the blue stands for monarchy.
 
However, this royal hue is just a pretext for Newin to protect himself from the reds and allows him the freedom of movement under the government's umbrella. Like Thaksin and more than 100 others, Newin was banned from politics for five years but many know that he runs the Bhum Jai Thai Party as if there were no legal restrictions. He has even more of a bargaining power than the ruling Democrat Party.
 
Newin reportedly offered to help control the red-shirt protesters in Pattaya during a major Asean summit before Songkran Day.
 
Unfortunately, and perhaps intentionally, the presence of his blue-shirt men worsened the situation, stoking the protest and disrupting the summit. The DAAD also accused Newin of dispatching his men to create chaos in the capital, leading to the Songkran Day riots.
 
If the situation gets out of the government's hands and forces Abhisit to call a snap election, Newin's Bhum Jai Thai Party would benefit the most because the Democrats would be blamed for the failure.
 
Meanwhile, despite being a pro-government group, the PAD's demands as reward for its struggle to install the Democrats in power is becoming troublesome. They are calling for a revamped security arrangement as well as the removal of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, police chief and the Army chief since the recent police reshuffle disappointed PAD leader, media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul.
 
Plus, the attempt on Sondhi's life on Friday added more fuel to the fire and made the equation even more difficult to solve.
 
The armed forces, who dragged their feet during the Pattaya crisis, are also factors and factions in the political equation. Having weapons in their hands, they could create more problems than solutions. They could also seize power if Abhisit fails to get them under his command.