The roots of the current unrest extend back more than a decade, to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s first electoral victory in 2001. Thaksin’s triumph did not represent the normal alternation in power that one finds in a democracy.
当前乱象的根源可以追溯到十多年前。2001年，前首相他信第一次在选举中获胜。他信的胜利并没有带来民主国家常见的权力更迭。相反，他的胜利标志着泰国长期处于分割状态的贫穷农村大众的政治崛起。曼谷的老牌精英成了杯弓蛇影。