ABSTRACT
Thailand’s “color-coded” political conflict began in 2004 when the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a coalition of royalist-nationalists known as “yellow shirts” for the color of their t-shirts, called for the removal of the elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, on the basis that he was corrupt and aimed to usurp the king. The May 22, 2014 coup by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was the twelfth successful coup since the People’s Party brought an end to the absolute monarchy on June 24, 1932. One approach to understanding the years since 1932 is as an extended and unending conflict over sovereignty between the people and the rulers. Every constitution promulgated since 1932, including both the 2014 Interim Constitution and the 2017 Constitution drafted by and promulgated under the NCPO, states that sovereignty belongs to the people. The constitutional provision failed to discourage civil society activists from challenging the NCPO in a series of criminal, civil, and administrative cases.
