Once the news began to filter through yesterday that the protests in Bangkok had ended, party-goers in the Thai capital took to the streets to celebrate the Songkran New Year Water Festival. Soldiers swapped their guns for water pistols and joined in with the crowds celebrating. The scenes were on one hand surreal, but in many ways typically Thai. The land of smiles and jai yen that can also be the land of contradictions and jai rawn. Yesterday I watched novice monks throwing water over passers-by to celebrate the Thai New Year. A few days ago I watched television pictures of one older monk in saffron robes joining in with some red shirts who were attacking the car of a government official in the Thai Interior Ministry. Amazing Thailand.
Thailand is a country that never ceases to amaze me. The country has many faults, as the events in recent days has shown, but it still has so much that is fascinating and rewarding for any visitor that comes here and that is part of the reason why Thailand attracts so many repeat visitors. However, ‘Amazing Thailand’ as the adverts proclaim, can no longer just assume that tourists will continue to return. The country has to face up to the economic downturn and the image last year’s airport closures and recent street violence are having on potential visitors. The political divide hasn’t gone away, but hopefully the violence has. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Thailand has not been in lock-down in recent days, although it would be easy to get that impression looking at the pictures of the disorder in parts of Bangkok. The trouble was serious and disturbing, but even as it went on, within a few miles of buses being burnt out and shots being exchanged, Thai people and foreign visitors were still celebrating Songkran. Amazing Thailand indeed. Tourists haven’t been targeted and there have been no media reports of any innocent foreigners being directly caught up in any fighting. With the end of the trouble, more and more people joined the traditional party in the Khao San Road and Sukhumvit areas of the city. The only guns that most people in Bangkok have seen in recent days have been of the toy variety projecting water. The majority of people actually in Bangkok and the rest of Thailand will all have a similar story to tell when they get back home and are asked what it was like during the protests. Hopefully, it won’t deter too many potential visitors from coming to Thailand and enjoying what is still a great country to visit. Inevitably though, some tourists will cancel their trips to Thailand and look for alternative destinations.
Thailand does have political problems that have been allowed to fester for far too long and none of the sides involved can claim the moral high ground. Some yellow shirts used violence last year and some red shirts have used violence this year. Political leaders, including Abhisit and Thaksin, have been guilty at times of poor decisions. The silent majority of Thais have had enough of yellow shirts, red shirts and blue shirts (the latter showing up in Pattaya to confront groups of red shirts). I hope the silent majority in Thailand can become the vocal majority. In the Bangkok violence last year and this year, some Thai people have lost their lives and many more will lose their livelihoods as the knock-on effects from months of political protests and economic woes kicks in. There is no obvious solution and Thais on all sides will have to reflect. Those in the red camp believe they are right and those in the yellow camp believe they are right. Both sides have legitimate grievances. Peaceful protest is one thing, but leaders from both yellow shirts and red shirts have acted illegally and irresponsibly at times and both sides must be dealt with by the legal system in the same equitable manner. That is part of the democratic process.
Away from Bangkok, hundreds have lost their lives and thousands injured (as happens every year) because of accidents on the roads during the Songkran holiday period. The majority of accidents are drink-related. Thai New Year is sanuk for many, but not all.
In the deep south of Thailand, the continuing troubles there continue to fly beneath the radar of most international news coverage. The area involved isn’t a tourist area and consequently it hasn’t grabbed international headlines in the same way that Bangkok has. Whoever is in charge of Thailand, whether it be Abhisit or somebody else, has an incredibly difficult task to try and heal the rifts in Thai society. The rift isn’t just between rural Thais and urban Thais, rich and poor, royalist and republican. It isn’t just about pro- and anti-Thaksin supporters, it runs deeper than that. There has been too much self-interest on both sides and too little compromise. The overwhelming majority of Thais claim to be patriots and have Thailand’s best interests at heart. If that is true, and I’m sure it is, then collective heads need to be banged together and some middle ground has to be reached. In a nation where over 95% of the population are Buddhists, Thai politics now needs to find its own Middle Way.
