On Dec 1, 1:14=A0pm, xis2...@googlemail.com wrote:
> Thailand: Bangkok airport siege is backed by higher powers
>
> By Thomas Bell in Bangkok
> Last Updated: 10:01pm GMT 30/11/2008
>
> =A0Have your say =A0 =A0 =A0Read comments
>
> Who has got the power to hold Thailand - and a good sized chunk of
> global aviation - hostage? In the weird and manipulative world of Thai
> politics, where the real players hide behind proxies, its not an easy
> question to answer.
>
> Some of the most powerful people in Thailand are rarely mentioned in
> newspapers. They hold themselves above questioning and above answers.
>
> But a few things are clear. The anti-government People's Alliance for
> Democracy (PAD), which has illegally occupied Government House since
> August and now occupies Bangkok's two airports, has only limited
> support.
> advertisement
> # Thai protestors mass at airports
>
> On a big day their crowds swell to twenty or thirty thousand, but just
> two or three thousand is more typical. At Bangkok's international
> airport on Monday afternoon there appeared to be only a few hundred
> die-hards occupying one of Asia's most important transportation hubs.
>
> The PAD will not disclose their donors, but the protest is known to
> have cost tens of thousands of pounds a day for the last six months.
> Anyone who turns up gets free food, free iced water and free live
> music.
>
> The PAD seems to enjoy complete legal impunity for its actions. On
> Sunday one of the group's leaders, retired Major General Chamlong
> Srimuang, met with police to complain about a string of mysterious
> attacks against his supporters. He was not arrested for hijacking the
> country's two most important airports.
>
> Bangkok's international airport carries about 3 per cent of global
> air- freight and 100 000 passengers a day, many of them transit
> passengers. Thai exporters say they are losing =A356 million a day.
>
> The loss of tourism during the Christmas peak system could knock 1.5
> per cent off the country's GDP this year, industry leaders claim, and
> if tourist arrivals fall by half next year it could cost a million
> jobs.
>
> On Monday the finance minister lowered his GDP growth forecast for
> 2009 from 4.5 to 2 per cent.
>
> It is widely assumed in Thailand that the green light to do all this
> comes from senior figures in the royal palace or the army. The army
> has refused to intervene. Queen Sirikit signalled her support by
> attending a PAD funeral in October.
>
> Meanwhile Thailand's elected government - chosen by the poor but
> loathed by the urban and aristocratic elite- has been driven into a
> kind of internal exile, holed up in their electoral stronghold in the
> northern city of Chiang Mai.
There is no need to comment... You know exactly who behind the PAD. It
is better to keep Thailand up on their feet. Otherwise Thailand will
be hijacked by the PPP. All I can say is that Thai politicians are
smart. Not like Laos and Cambodia whose King were in foreign soils.
Fajkhaum |