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Less than 48 hours after shutting down Bangkok's international airport, anti-government protesters have forced the closure of the Thai capital's domestic airfield. The occupation of Don Muang airport by 3,000 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in the early hours of Nov. 27 was an attempt to prevent government ministers from flying to the northern city of Chiang Mai to attend a cabinet meeting called by embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat at his home...
...PAD's provocative actions are alienating some Thais, even erstwhile supporters who fear that the ongoing crisis is derailing what once was one of the region's most promising economies. With foreign investors and tourists (who bring in some $16 billion a year) spooked by the political instability and Thailand's manufacturing base bracing itself for a drop in global export demand, national growth forecasts for 2009 hover at a bleak...
...Thailand's economy aside, the PAD's fundamental flaw is that it wants to blow things up without having articulated how it will put things back together again. Opposition leaders promise to bring a so-called "new politics" to Thailand. But what that means isn't clear, apart from trying to circumvent the problem of rampant vote-buying by replacing the one-person-one-vote system with a largely appointed parliament. Doing so would ensure that the electorate's pesky habit of returning pro-Thaksin elements to office would cease. But Thailand's reputation as a stable, democratic oasis...
...politics, just as Thaksin and his top cohorts were legally excluded from office last year. Lower-echelon Thaksin stalwarts would have to reconstitute themselves as a proxy party. Still, support from rural voters probably would ensure another victory for the pro-Thaksin camp - much to the disgust of the PAD...
...Back at the Bangkok airport, PAD executive Puchong Tirawatana continued to stoke antigovernment ire. "This is all because of one man, Thaksin Shinawatra," he said, as a yellow-hued sea of protesters armed with plastic hand-clappers milled around near him. "[Thaksin is] a selfish criminal who is willing to destroy the country for his own personal gain. I'm really worried that violence will increase and the country will be in a civil war." Then, in a marked change of tone, Puchong apologized for the siege that had stranded thousands of tourists in an airport whose Thai name, Suvarnabhumi...