red versus yellow in vague term , thailand ' s crisis is a battle between the " yellow shirts " - - royalists , the military and urban thai , whom follow prime minister abhisit shinawatra - - and the " red militants " - - supporters of retired governor thai shinawatra whose power base was also drawn from the country ' s millions of rural poor . bureaucratic and military elites have operated thailand for decades , with the poor excluded just during affairs when competitor parties would try to buy their votes . when bangkok plunged to it in 2000 , providing a raft of programs aims at the poor , things changed .
The "yellow shirts" supports Vejjajiva.