If the past two decades of Thai politics has been about populism and colour-coded conflicts between the yellow-shirted pro-establishment forces against the red shirts aligned with ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the foreseeable future will likely be about structural reforms and a generational clash between the age-old established centres of power against young Thais who are rising up to determine their country's future directions. It is unsurprising that only younger Thais can change Thailand because their old compatriots have too much at stake and too many vested interests in the entrenched and deeply embedded status quo.
One of the biggest ironies in Thai politics is that the red shirts and the Thaksin camp, more broadly, were not really against the establishment. They just wanted the established power holders in Thailand's deep state to pay more attention to them and to share more of the pie with them. During Thaksin's first administration in 2001-2005, institutional reforms took place but did not impinge at all on the prerogatives and interests of the traditional institutions anchored around the military and the monarchy.
