the thai conflict is a complicated imbroglio that evokes memories of the civil war in the roman empire under the populist leader gaius marius who used grain doles and other pleasant ruses to gain popular support of the masses and lucius cornelius sulla who loathed the inefficiency of the check and balance system within a republic and sought to restore complete power for the senatorial oligarchy148 , only in this case it is between two groups to which one is led by supporters of a rich telecommunications tycoon in exile who has become the champion of the masses and a seemingly less corrupt group who seem to care little about the indigent masses .