This is a battle pitting the rural poor and their liberal allies against wealthy urban conservatives who now want to diminish the elected status of Thailand's parliament. It is fought on the streets between the left-wing red-shirts, whose power base is in the north-east, and the yellow-shirted royalists of Bangkok and the south. It is also a struggle for the soul of Thailand after Thaksin, the telecoms billionaire turned politician whose legacy has divided a country. The outcome will be studied with trepidation by a region with much to lose from the implosion of a former tiger economy.