Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij wrote on his Facebook page on 7 May that he and his wife had just eaten at a restaurant on Thong Lo off Sukhumvit Rd.  Customers sitting at the next table told them that UDD leader Natthawut Saikua and his family had just left their very table less than five minutes before.

Korn said that he and his wife were amused as it showed that those who called themselves ‘prai’ [commoners] did not live their lives much differently from those who they called ‘amaat’.

Korn later added, ‘Let me explain my post a little bit. If you read carefully, you’ll see that my point was why instigate social divisiveness when everybody has the same way of life?  I’ve never seen that Thais are different. And that’s the point.’

Less than an hour after Korn’s posts, Natthawut responded on his Facebook page that he had taken his family that evening to eat at his wife’s favorite place.  He never expected that Korn would ever make a point out of this.

‘Listen, Korn. It’s because this country has people who think like you that suppression still remains.  Why do you insist that prai always have to be poor, stupid and subject to abuse?  How come prai cannot eat at the same place as that of capitalists?  Viva the people,’ Natthawut said.