CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- While the political crisis here is in a relative lull, the shrinking of the Thai economy is exacerbating the discontent that has spurred rival camps of protesters in recent weeks.
In Chiang Mai, the hometown of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a hotbed of support for his so-called "red-shirt" followers who rioted in Bangkok earlier this month, the impact of the economic slowdown is pronounced.
Around 35% of the city's economy depends on tourism, according to the local chamber of commerce, and another large chunk comes from migrant workers who toil in the export-focused factories in and around Bangkok and then send money back home.
With the global recession and political tensions eating into both of those revenue streams, some local businesspeople are joining the antigovernment protesters to vent their frustration.
Lay Luangcharoen, 44 years old, until recently ran a business making wooden-doll key-rings in the outskirts of Chiang Mai. He started the business 17 years ago after raising seed money driving a taxi in Bangkok.
Business began to dry up last year, as the global economic meltdown kicked in. Then, yellow-garbed anti-Thaksin protesters invaded and occupied Bangkok's airports for a week in
November, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers and badly damaging the country's reputation as a safe and reliable tourist destination -- as well as forcing the collapse of the pro-Thaksin coalition government.
Now 12 million baht ($340,000) in debt, Mr. Lay has reinvented himself as DJ Lay, and stars on an antigovernment radio station in Chiang Mai, where he exhorts listeners to rally against the government of new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
"Only a democratic government can produce the leadership we need to get out of this economic mess," says Mr. Lay, brushing some crumbs from his thick mustache before going back on the air to fumble his way into an a capella rendition of "My Way."
Mr. Abhisit says Thailand is now "back to normal" after the worst political violence the country has seen in 16 years. Earlier this month the protesters -- many of whom want to bring back Mr. Thaksin, who was deposed in a 2006 coup -- hijacked buses and set them on fire and threatened to blow up cylinders of liquid petroleum gas.
The government lifted a state of emergency Friday and antigovernment protests resumed peacefully in Bangkok Saturday, with around 5,000 people venturing out to a park near the historic Grand Palace.
Three leaders of the previous round of rallies have been granted bail, after being charged with illegal assembly and inciting people to break the law, but didn't attend Saturday's demonstration.
Another is a member of parliament and as such claims immunity from prosecution, while another, Jakrapob Penkair, fled before he could be arrested and is in hiding.
A new tier of leaders has since emerged, one of whom, Somyos Prueksakasemsuk, on Saturday said the red-shirt movement hopes to lead several more antigovernment rallies around the country before returning to Bangkok for more demonstrations in Bangkok by mid-May.
Mr. Abhisit, 44 years old, says he is willing to listen to some of the protesters' demands. He is pressing for changes in Thailand's constitution to reduce judicial powers which Mr.
Thaksin's backers say have been unfairly used to dissolve political parties sympathetic to the former premier, who is in exile, and now traveling in Africa and the Middle East, to avoid extradition and imprisonment for corruption.
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