The military in Thailand early Tuesday morning declared Martial Law, to “keep law and order” amid the political crisis that began last year.  The order, issued at 3:30 AM local time while most were asleep, comes less than a week after the head of the Thai army issued a stern warning to protesters to avoid violence. 

The army has also granted itself wide-ranging powers to enforce military rule, although it is not clear if this is a full military coup, or if the army is merely trying to end a volatile situation.  Either way, the army didn’t lift a finger during months of incessant street protests from the royalist and conservative opposition that hasn’t won an election since 1992.  But it did finally move once government supporters – known as “red shirts” – began making their presence known in Bangkok.

This almost certainly will delay the elections called for July, which were called after a court forced Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office last month for supposed “abuse of power”.  Her supporters called it a “judicial coup”.  They’re likely to see the state of Martial Law as yet another establishment step to push them even further from the power they’ve earned through democratic elections.

Thailand’s political strife is playing out largely along class lines.  The conservative and royalist opposition comes mainly from Bangkok and the south, are middle class and up.  But the political parties of Thaksin Shinawatra were swept into office with bold development, health, and education programs for the poor and neglected north, where the upper class’ servants traditionally came from.  Thaksin was overthrown by coup in 2006.  Once democracy was restored, the people rose up again and elected his sister Yingluck in 2011.