But what about Thailand?
The subcontinent is not the only part of the world in our region with a national crisis on its hands. Apart from the Mumbai terror attacks, which look set to further inflame tensions between India and Pakistan, it is perhaps easier than it should be for us to forget that Thailand is suffering quite a dramatic crisis of its own. For six days now, Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi Airport has been closed, having been seized unlawfully by anti-government demonstrators under the umbrella of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD - unofficial). Back in August, the Prime Minister’s office was taken over by the same group, and all of this after democratic elections were held in the country last December.
In an era when national security is such a hot topic that punters are forced to only take 100ml bottles of liquid on board with them on flights, sealed in little plastic bags, shouldn’t we be concerned that an entire airport has been taken over in one of our closest neighbours, by a political organisation that reportedly is seeking to remove voting rights from people through unlawful acts?
The People’s Alliance for Democracy, which is seeking to overthrow the government and completely reengineer Thailand’s fledgling democracy, seems to have been quite throughly misnamed. Diehard monarchists at heart, they certainly make the Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy look like a knitting club for hippy centenarians by comparison. Andrew Walker from the Australian National University has a fairly strong view about the situation:
Dr Walker said there was no justification for the protesters’ actions.
“Their action is unreasonable and should be condemned - this is a group using force and the threat of violence to bring about overthrow of an elected government.”
I think it’s quite reasonable for people to refer to this as a terrorist attack.”
Thailand’s armed forces seem incapable or else unwilling to act to restore order. To date, at least according to his ministerial website, it does not appear that Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has issued as much as a media release on the matter. Apart from expressing frustration at the difficulties the government is facing with getting stranded Australians out of the country, it would seem the Rudd Government does not have anything to say or strong thoughts about how it can assist.
Frankly, I don’t think this is good enough. Australia should be rightly concerned if its neighbours are incapable of controlling their own civil infrastructure; infrastructure that services a substantial tourist trade with this nation and indeed that could potentially be put to nefarious use, as recent events should have burned into everyone’s minds. We need to offer the Thai government formal assistance in this matter, and demand that they bring the situation under control, with all visiting Australians returned to home soil immediately.
Tags: People's Alliance for Democracy, Stephen Smith, Thailand
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on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am and is filed under Foreign Policy, Rudd Labor Government.
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December 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 am
The People’s Alliance for Democracy is indeed badly named, given their anti-democratic and even fascist tendencies. But the pro-government side isn’t exactly clean either. The other day I wrote Thailand’s political crisis: an introduction which describes the problems with the Thaksin-Samak-Somchai sequence of prime ministers. (The criticisms of PAD only appear in the comments, oops.) My Thai ex-pat partner has also put together a longer-term political view.
I’m wondering what sort of “assistance” you think Australia might give? This is an internal dispute within another sovereign nation which, while inconvenient, doesn’t really have any direct impact upon Australia. Neither side can be seen as “the good guys” or “the bad guys”. And, unlike previous times, the Royal Thai Army is staying well out of it. Can Australia really take sides here?
December 5th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Yes, it is a fairly interesting and confusing situation, given that it appears that neither the government nor PAD should be exempted from criticism. The government has now been thrown out on charges of electoral fraud. You have to pity the poor Thai people in this situation; on the one hand they have an apparently corrupt government, and on the other hand, they have a myopic, out-of-control opposition!