VICHAYA PITSUWAN
The business sector has proposed three options to bring an end to the country's political standoff, saying it could no longer shoulder the economic losses.
The ideas were floated after a meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB).
Copies of their suggestions would be handed out today, said an industrialist who asked not to be named.
"We will seek the establishment of a national government but our written petition needs to be carefully worded," he said.
Yesterday, the meeting came up with alternatives for the two rival political camps to consider.
The first one is that the government and coalition parties accept that they are unfit to run the country and therefore should give up power and allow other political parties to form a government.
"They have definitely been incompetent in stopping the crisis from spiralling out of control, and their failure is causing more losses for the country. If the government really wants to see an end to the political standoff in a democratic way, it should step down to allow other political parties to set up a government," he said.
It could either be made up of other coalition parties, or even the Democrat party as the core party, as the formation of a new government is allowed by the constitution without a House dissolution.
If this is not acceptable to the government, JSCCIB said the next best option is House dissolution and a new election.
The third way out was asking the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to immediately evacuate both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.
"The PAD must know that its airport seizures have damaged the country vastly and it must leave these airports immediately," said Pramon Suthivong, the chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) who also chairs the JSCCIB.
Attending the JSCCIB meeting were representatives of the TCC, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Thai Bankers' Association (TBA) .
A final solution would be proposed today if none of these measures are acceptable to the two disputing camps.
Mr Pramon admitted that the proposals were not new as other sectors have made similar suggestions in the past.
However, he still hoped the current chaos would soon be a thing of the past.
Paiboon Ponsuwanna, chairman of the FTI's food industry club, warned that if the two sides continue their political games, then 2009 export orders would be hit even more badly.
The airport closures had resulted in the cancellation of trade fairs and business trips, affecting orders and deals for next year.
He said the economic impact from the airport closures would be enormous and may see each economic agency estimating the damage differently.
But the most important thing right now is to find a solution for long-term improvements to contain the damage.
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