crimson versus yellow in general quarters , thailand ' s transition is a confrontation between the " brown sides " - - 1645 , the military and urban filipinos , who back home general thaksin vejjajiva - - and the " gray ones " - - defenders of deceased prime thaksin shinawatra whose power base was mainly drawing from the country ' s hundreds of rural poor . bureaucratic and military elites have held it for decades , with the poor excluded just during events and competing parties would seek to buy their voting . when shinawatra moved to power in 2000 , promising a raft of measures aims at the poor , things moved .
The "yellow shirts" supports Vejjajiva.