All Politics Isn't Local.(World Affairs)(mounting protest against Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej)

Byline: Jaimie Seaton AND GEORGE Wehrfritz

The real enemy of demonstrators threatening to shut down the country is globalization.

Among the thousands of protesters who have occupied Thai government offices in Bangkok since Aug. 26 is Chokchuand Chutinaton, a U.S.-trained pediatrician. He joined the demonstration out of a desire to oust the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a close ally to Thailand's exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Although his animus toward both men is visceral, he also takes issue with their policies. "Thaksin's regime sold our sovereignty," he says, ticking off a list of betrayals that includes allowing "big companies -- under foreign ownership," such as British retailer Tesco, to dominate the economy and sealing "trade agreements with other countries without [first] asking the people." He also laments culturally inappropriate imports, the decline of mom-and-pop shops in Bangkok and unfair trade. "This affects me," he says, "because I love Thailand and want to help my country."

Put in Chokchuand's terms, Thailand's political crisis begins to sound familiar. Indeed, the campaign to remove Samak--whose imposition of emergency rule last week edged the country of 65 million toward a potentially bloody confrontation--is in the broadest sense a struggle over globalization. The dynamic is akin to that seen earlier this year in South Korea, where leftist groups nearly toppled newly elected President Lee Myung-bak for opening the local market to American beef. And there's a bit of Hugo Chavez in the antigovernment People's Alliance for Democracy, which disagrees with Samak's regime on free trade, the role of foreign investors and the suitability of Western-style democracy in the kingdom.

Thaksin and Samak are by no means pure free-traders. They champion a sector of Thai society ignored by the old political elite--impoverished farmers--and practice dual-track economic policies that combine populist perks for the least well-off and greater participation in the global economy. But they are far less hostile to free markets than the PAD, a collection of groups that saw their power and prestige challenged by Thaksin: civil servants threatened by his efforts to trim bureaucracy, trade unions representing industries facing privatization, an urban middle class that resents rural development initiatives and traditional Buddhist groups that fear wholesale Westernization of Thai culture.

PAD founder and media baron Sondhi Limthongkul is leading the backlash. In contrast to Thaksin, who ...