Throughout history, Isan has seen "revolts", "mad people's movements", "segregation bids" and "communist domination". Anthropologist Charles Keyes writes in his book Finding Their Voice: Northeastern Villagers and the Thai State that the 1901 Phu Mi Bun uprising in Isan, which followed economic restrictions and tax burdens, foreshadowed the subsequent challenges by rural northeasterners to the Thai state's authority.
looking for change: Red-shirt activists Rattana Phuiphom and Krekyut Competdee.
Due to its proximity to Laos and a history of leftist politics in the region, the government in 1961 twice undertook raids and arrested alleged communist supporters.
More than a century later, the red shirt protesters who marched on Bangkok in 2010 differed from the Phu Mi Bun rebels, according to Mr Keyes, in that "the 2010 protesters were not 'ignorant' peasants, but were Thai citizens with sophisticated understandings of rights and justice".
In some ways, the current military regime's responses to the appearance of organised political opposition in the region mirror that of the tactics used in the mid- to late-20th century.
On Aug 2, the National Council for Peace and Order announced that a total of 738 community relations units — comprising four to seven members — would promote a set of 12 core values outlined by coup-leader Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha. Those values include nationalism, morality, discipline, sufficiency principles and democracy with the King as head of state.
The troops, which will be dispatched across the country, are part of the military's second stage of what it calls the reform road map, which will shift from the capital to the provinces.
"The problem today should be seen … as an inadequate appreciation by the elite and urban middle class of the legitimate desire of northeasterners to have a significant voice in national politics," Mr Keyes said.
Jakrapob Penkair, a fugitive red-shirt leader, said that past confrontations in Isan were necessary for "security" and "stability" reasons.
"Isan is made to look inferior, economically dependant, politically turbulent and underdeveloped because Bangkok can't afford an Isan with some bargaining powers," he said in an email interview.
Indeed, political leaders who were brutally murdered in contemporary Thai history were mostly from Isan. The list includes Thong-in Puripat, Tiang Sirikun, Krong Chandawong, Chamlong Daoruang and Tawin Udon.
Since 2009, 44-year-old red shirt leader Rattana Phuiphom has been educating people at the grassroots level in Ubon Ratchathani about freedom and rights. But many people did not want to participate, saying it was a waste of time.
"When you asked me what I think when some yellow shirts look down on Isan people as stupid, I think it's true. They are not aware of their rights, and just focus on personal gain," she told Spectrum after an encounter with military men who were trailing her friend.
"Sometimes I'm discouraged, but I want Isan people to be smarter. I don't want other people to look down on us as stupid."
Her efforts have paid off, but only up to a point. In the past, villagers would be very afraid of government officials, but now they are starting to monitor how the state officials work.
"I told them that every human being is equal, and that we all share the same dignity," she said.
In 2012, when funds started to recede, Mrs Rattana encouraged a local Pheu Thai MP to continue with the project, but the idea was rejected.
"They don't want chao ban [villagers] to know their rights. They are afraid chao ban will become smarter and less susceptible to vote-buying," she said.
POLITICIANS ARE EVIL
Prajak Kongkirati, a lecturer at Thammasat University's political science faculty, said the 1992 elections following the Black May protests, which returned substantive power to politicians as opposed to the military-led governments of the past, added weight to the idea that elected politicians are the source of corruption in Thai society.
The belief held by the upper middle class and elite, said Mr Prajak, is that corrupt and power-hungry politicians came into power because they were elected by greedy and uneducated rural people, thus the justification for a coup.
The idea that only "good" people should be involved in politics is a discourse that has gripped Thai society for the past 20 years. Also called "moral politics", Mr Prajak said the ideology is supported by the urban middle class who are mainly yellow-shirt advocates.
"They believe that good people should hold power, and the means is less important than the ends," he said. "Rather than focusing on accountability, yellow shirts view elections as dirty and are therefore opposed to majority rule."
But Mr Prajak argued that politics is about power negotiation and interests between various groups in society.
"We are naive to believe that there is a group of very pure people who do not care about power and do not have conflicts of interest. It's a very large myth," he said.
The NCPO's recent decision to suspend elections for local administration organisations was another example of the idea of getting rid of corrupt elected politicians. But it raised questions about whether the organisations will be any less prone to corruption under appointed state officials and private sector specialists than they were before.
More than half of the 200 members of the National Legislative Assembly announced recently are serving or retired military personnel or police, thought likely to support Gen Prayuth for the top job as prime minister. Gen Prayuth's brother and close colleagues are among their number. The NLA, which will function as both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has no single representative from farmers, the labour force or the middle-class civilian population.
"If we continue to believe that each and every one of us is unequal, and as long as people are still looked down upon as uneducated, then it is hard to create democracy and for the society to have peace," said Mr Prajak, who wrote a doctoral dissertation on electoral violence and democracy in Thailand.
ONE MAN, NO VOTE
The question of who should be allowed to vote has a long history in political theory, but the way democracy has evolved over the past century is towards the idea that it is a function of equality, not competence or education level.
Before becoming a lecturer at Thammasat University's British and American studies programme, Edward Knuth taught at a private university in Bangkok. Once, a short essay question on one of his exams asked: "Why did King Rama VII abdicate the throne of Thailand?"
"My student's answer was: 'He [the King] was shy.' This is someone from Bangkok. Do you want this student to have the right to vote?" Mr Knuth asked. "It may sound harsh, but the truth is there are some absolute total idiots in Bangkok. There's no geographic line on ignorance."
In the July, 2011, elections, the Pheu Thai Party of Yingluck Shinawatra gained 104 out of 126 seats in the national parliament from 20 northeastern provinces, only to be ousted three years later in the May 22 coup.
Krekyut Competdee, 35, the owner of an internet cafe in Ubon Ratchathani, said villagers receive an average of 200-500 baht from each canvasser for political parties during elections. Some, such as Mrs Rattana, accepted money from every candidate but voted for Pheu Thai.
Mr Krekyut knows the names and backgrounds of every candidate in the recent elections.
"Witoon Nambutr and Supachai Srila are the only two Democrat Party MPs who mingle with locals," he said, referring to the two Democrat MPs from Ubon Ratchathani who secured seats in the 2011 elections.
Like other red-shirt supporters, Mr Krekyut was disappointed to see politicians that he elected removed from office every single time, despite Pheu Thai and its previous incarnations winning every national election since 2001.
When the People's Party staged the 1932 revolution that brought an end to the absolute monarchy in Thailand, their aim was to make Thailand a less hierarchical society.
In its announcement on the day it seized power, the People's Party said: "They [the aristocrats] accused people of not deserving the right to vote because they are stupid … but the reason why people don't know as much as aristocrats is because the aristocrats don't want them to have much education. This is because they are concerned that when people are educated, they will discover the evilness of the aristocrats and will not let themselves be taken advantage of."
Usa Saengjun is a 68-year-old writer who originally came from an aristocratic family before she married a poor farmer. She said aristocrats disdain red shirts as stupid or illiterate because they are only interested in personal advantage.
"Conservative aristocrats are afraid of change and become so anxious about it that they are losing their minds," she said.
stereotype spreads: A Facebook post calling Isan people ugly, poor and stupid. photos: sawed kruwongpaiboon