Is Pad Back If Samak Refuses?

[huggybear]

If Samak continues to be stubborn and does not step down, will the airport again be blocked by PAD protesters?

Do you think they will wait until this next weekend?

[thaigerd]

This is my guess aswell:

Next weekend again!

Gerd

[LivinginKata]

Yes, they will be back again. And it's only going to expand on Phuket Island. Saracen bridge as well ?

[fiddlehead]

I too get a feeling that it's going to be a weekend thing for some reason.

If it continues for a few weeks, i can't guess how many tourists will change their plans and go elsewhere.

I doubt the protesters think of this now.

When times get tough on Phuket, i wonder who they will blame? the govt? or the farangs? or themselves?

[LivinginKata]

Here's an interesting twist .... it was not PAD

Monday, September 1, 2008 Phuket Gazette

Airport closure work of infiltrators: Phuket PAD

PHUKET CITY: In a stunning development, the Phuket chapter of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and its affiliate Phuket Watch have denied involvement in the violence and forced closure of Phuket International Airport that left thousands of tourists stranded over the weekend.

At a press conference at the Phuket office of Manager newspaper today, Phuket PAD leader Natjarong Ekpermsup said he and a few hundred other “real” Phuket PAD members were protesting in Bangkok when the airport was stormed and its runway occupied by protesters.

A statement distributed to the press read that a “third party” bent on discrediting PAD and Phuket Watch went to the peaceful PAD protest taking place at the time, infiltrated it and then turned it violent.

Phuket PAD protests were never staged in a way that would harm or negatively affect people’s everyday lives, the statement read.

Third party members in masks and donning the PAD’s trademark yellow shirts were responsible for destroying airport property and preventing tourists from entering or leaving the airport, the statement read.

A local labor union responsible for organizing workers in 12 of Phuket’s 20 union districts told the press conference that many workers decided to join the protest after watching it on television.

Natjarong told the press conference that he suspected that members of groups such as the pro-government National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) may have been among the infiltrators.

[zzdocxx]

[geriatrickid]

I will be surprised if there is a "next time". What happens this week will speak volumes. If PAD tries to block the airport, they will meet resistance from the police and airport workers. By resistance, I mean that the airport staff won't run away like they did the first time. Their livelihoods are at stake now. If the airport is closed they are not paid. Each day that TG was shut down pushed it further into insolvency. It is an airline teetering like all the others. If it is obliged to restructure, say buh bye to jobs. No tourists means that most of the revenue generated by the tourists is lost. Say buh bye to hotel jobs, bar customers, no hansum men to make boom boom with, no suckers for crappy suits or over priced tours, no foreigners coming for cosmetic surgery. And certainly no families with kids. No sane mom is going to let her family get into a jam.

[jts-khorat]

I will be surprised if there is a "next time". What happens this week will speak volumes. If PAD tries to block the airport, they will meet resistance from the police and airport workers. By resistance, I mean that the airport staff won't run away like they did the first time. Their livelihoods are at stake now. If the airport is closed they are not paid. Each day that TG was shut down pushed it further into insolvency. It is an airline teetering like all the others. If it is obliged to restructure, say buh bye to jobs. No tourists means that most of the revenue generated by the tourists is lost. Say buh bye to hotel jobs, bar customers, no hansum men to make boom boom with, no suckers for crappy suits or over priced tours, no foreigners coming for cosmetic surgery. And certainly no families with kids. No sane mom is going to let her family get into a jam.

As mentioned in another post, there are business people (like in educated Thais with money) that I talked to here on Phuket who really believe that it is mysterious "people from Isaan" that blocked the airport. That Phuket police and tax drivers were just by-standing instead of forcing the airport to re-open immediately cut their argument from under their feet.

Loss in tourist revenue... a scapegoat is already made out, and it is not the Phuket people who are to blame :-)

Edited September 2, 2008 by jts-khorat

[thaigerd]

Many hotels here have already a lot of cancellations because of these "protests" and many left earlier as planned.

Gerd

[jts-khorat]

Many hotels here have already a lot of cancellations because of these "protests" and many left earlier as planned.

Gerd

You must be totally wrong and mistaken, as the TAT closely monitors the situation and will explain the situation to all those ignorant foreigners.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will clarify the ongoing political situation to foreign tourists.

TAT Governor Phornsiri Manoharn (พรศิริ มโนหาญ) discloses that TAT is closely monitoring the situation following the government’s declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok. She says TAT has requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for information which will be used to explain the situation to foreign tourists.

Mrs Phornsiri affirms TAT will stick to its previous marketing plans despite a slow down in tourism.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 02 September 2008