AFP – Local Thai 'Red Shirts' leader Kwanchai Praipana (R) as he addresses supporters at a fund-raising …
UDON THANI, Thailand (AFP) – Kwanchai Praipana's thousands of followers can't see him as he opens his daily radio show with anti-government diatribes, but it hasn't stopped him dressing for the role.
Clad top-to-toe in red, down to the ruby in his ring, there is no mistaking his leanings in Thailand's colour-coded politics, even before he opens his mouth to address listeners across the rural northeastern region of Isan.
"We will keep on breathing until Prime Minister Thaksin comes back," Kwanchai announces from the small studio dotted with signed pictures of billionaire former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.
Though he lives abroad to escape a jail term for corruption, the ex-PM still splits Thai society, hated by the elite as a crook but admired by many in this impoverished region for his populist policies during his five years in power.
In Udon Thani province these "Red Shirts" are led by Kwanchai, a charismatic local celebrity. He estimates 300,000 people tune in to his "We Love Udon" radio show, which he insists is funded by local donations rather than Thaksin.
"All of you must be united and fight for democracy," Kwanchai tells callers to the programme, many of them farmers, who ring in to pledge moral and financial support. Even a Buddhist monk calls in to bless him.
The Red Shirts have held a series of mass rallies against the current government -- installed after rival "Yellow Shirt" protests caused the previous pro-Thaksin administration to collapse -- which they say is illegitimate.
But they also make wider accusations against Thailand's unelected elite, including powerful military officials and royal advisers, saying they meddle in politics and preserve social and legal inequalities.
"The poor feel strongly about the need for democracy, their right," Kwanchai tells AFP. "They want Thaksin back and they want to have an election."
During a rare break at the Udon radio headquarters -- also an office, kitchen and general gathering place for red-clad locals -- Kwanchai explains how village representatives meet there twice-monthly to discuss their goals.
The group now plans to relocate to a larger site, where Kwanchai's ambitious vision includes homes for the radio DJs, a football field for speeches, a cafe, 22 toilets, a meeting hall and even a marketplace.
"The Red Shirts are socially evolving toward a separate way of life," suggested Paul Chambers, a Thailand specialist at Heidelberg University in Germany, "though this way of life is imbued with political ideals".
In the evenings Kwanchai travels in and around the province with his five-man entourage -- three guns between them -- spreading his message to crowds of cheering Red Shirts who then pester him for photos.
"I'm the organiser of the people, not of the party," said the 58-year-old, explaining that he left a poor farming background to become a DJ, before setting up We Love Udon in 2006 to counter the Yellow Shirts' clout.
It is now the "most powerful" of 30 community radio stations under the nationwide Red Shirt umbrella movement, formally known as the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), according to spokesman Sean Boonpracong.
He said the movement has "grown tremendously" in the last nine months, since the protesters disrupted an Asian summit hosted by Thailand before rioting in Bangkok, where clashes with authorities left two dead and scores injured.
"We had a soul-searching session about what we did wrong," said Sean, who denied that UDD members would use arms. "We are doing a better job in terms of making sure we are educating people about our goals."
Kwanchai said one million Red Shirts will rally in Bangkok this month, ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether authorities can seize Thaksin's 2.2 billion-dollar fortune, frozen after the coup.
But given that the largest demonstration in recent months was little more than 30,000-strong, it remains to be seen if the Red Shirts -- however popular locally -- have the momentum to overturn national rule.
"Mass protests in Bangkok alone do not change government, that comes from somewhere else," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
"They have a game plan so we'll see an intensifying of the Red Shirts, but is that going to be enough?"
Kwanchai, it seems, is determined to find out.
"The red shirts have no choice in a situation like this," he said. "If we fight, we have the choice of freedom."
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