EDITORIAL
The People's Alliance for Democracy went too far this week and immeasurable damage has been done to the nation's image, its tourist industry and investment climate. Whether the PAD has a just cause or not is irrelevant. The damage is the result of destructive tactics employed in the belief that somehow the end justifies the means. It does not and never will.
As the number of countries warning their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Thailand climbed into the high-twenties yesterday, it became clear just how spectacularly we had shot ourselves in the foot. The 2006 coup had a negative impact on external relations as did the scares over the outbreaks of Sars and bird flu. Almost all of us have painful memories of the horrors of the tsunami four years ago from which recovery was slow and sad.
The last thing we needed now was this debacle at Suvarnabhumi airport and the likelihood that foreign investors and tourists, who gave us the benefit of the doubt on previous occasions when we exhibited fits of eccentric behaviour, will lose patience and start looking for somewhere safer and more politically stable.
The tourism industry's biggest headache is uncertainty. No one knows for how much longer the political turmoil will continue or how it will be finally resolved. While we do know that visitors here on holiday or for business are not in any danger, the country's association with anarchy and chaos has created a risk factor. Mobs on the loose while police stand idly by and watch and grenades are thrown are not images we want to project, especially in an age when the internet and high-speed communication links quickly flash details of such behaviour around the world. Living in a much smaller and interconnected world is the price we have to pay for globalisation. We should have learned by now that being a source of bad news always has an impact on investment, stock and money markets, as well as trade and tourism.
Only when lasting political reconciliation has been achieved and red shirts no longer battle yellow shirts will the two million people employed in the tourism and hospitality industry have something to smile about again. That is if they still have a job. There are around 4,000 travel operators, both inbound and outbound, with 200,000 employees, excluding those in the hotel sector. Some companies have seen all their business dry up. This means layoffs are inevitable and ripple effects will be felt across several industries because tourism creates so many other jobs in related fields. If there is one ray of hope, it is that chartered flights direct to Phuket and Krabi are still continuing to arrive. Even so, the damage caused to the country's image and reputation is going to take months, if not years, to repair.
The effect on the global perception of Thailand and on inbound tourism are not the only reasons to end the unrest quickly and restore law and order. They are just two of the most urgent. Huge numbers of people are being inconvenienced and every day that passes without a resolution increases the danger of a further escalation. And all for what? Hysteria over the perceived influence of one man?
Yesterday's men might have earned an appropriate place in history, but a country cannot keep on living in the past. Nor can its citizens think that invoking a particular person's name gives them the right to run riot and tear the country apart. It is time we picked up the pieces and moved on. We do have a global recession as well as an image problem to worry about.
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