Here in Thailand the People's Alliance for Democracy has taken over Suvarnabhumi Airport and the lesser Don Muang Airport, Bangkok. This action has apparently paralysed not only flights in and out but the entire Thai tourist industry. The Prime Minister appears a lame duck, totally impotent, and surely it is only a matter of time before he resigns and the election the PAD are demanding is granted.
It is quite clear the police and the army are not prepared to use force to clear the airports of protesters. The BBC portrays the PAD as royalist, middle class, suburban, but I think the real point is they represent people power and they are not the mob from the outer fringes of Mongolia, as it were. The PAD is a group of people that normally would obey the law of the land. A bit like the residents of Tonbridge Wells, methinks.
Of course most commentators have failed to observe this point: it was no secret that the PAD was going to take its protest to Suvarnabhumi Airport. So without wanting to sound too glib why didn't the government put restrictions in place at the airport and prevent this occupation from occurring? I cannot see the British or the US government leaving Heathrow or JFK respectively unsecured in the event of proposed and publicised mass protest. This failure must surely lie at the door of Mr Wongsawat, the beleaguered Prime Minister. Increasingly he appears to be utterly inept giving some credibility to the PAD claim that he is proxy of our old friend, Mr Shinawatra.
I believe most visitors from first world countries will eventually recover from their ordeal. Clearly the tourist industry has been and continues to be very badly damaged and this will undoubtedly knock into many other areas of the economy.
Personally I feel grateful that there has not been significant bloodshed and it appears that the army and the police are eager to avoid it as well.
Mr Thaksin must be rejoicing with the preconditions in place for a saviour to be airlifted in. Thaksin is reported to have netted 70 billion baht (c £1.35 billion) tax free from selling his phone company about two years ago. Yup he didn't pay any tax on this gain or income and he was selling a Thai asset, located in Thailand, to a Singaporean company. Thaksin's handling of other issues while PM, drugs and the insurgency in the South of Thailand suggests he has little regard for the value of life or normal judicial process. I don't know the detail of his other misdemeanours but he has been sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment in absentia and has chosen to be a fugitive by staying away. So it is Thaksin, his criminal conviction, his corruption and his influence from outside the country that has stirred up the PAD and they must be deeply concerned about the prospect of a man of his pedigree returning.
So Thailand is in melt down with Suvarnabhumi Airport closed.
How is this affecting ordinary lives? In Hua Hin today I heard a well known hotel chain had made 60 redundancies and its occupany is 47% compared with 85% at this time last year. No doubt this is a story that is being repeated throughout Thailand.
So these are challenging times to put it mildly.
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