The protest which last three weeks was abandoned this Wednesday. The ousted Prime Minister Tasksin's supporters, the so-called " Red shirts" ended the siege of Prime Minister Abhisit's offices. The demonstrators in the rest of Bangkok scattered about since the troops on Monday used tear gas and automatic-weapon fire to clear the protester. Finally the protest was defused without major bloodshed. Seemingly PM Abhisit won the public-relations war and the ousted PM Tasksin had the worst day of all his life because his own chance to return Thailand was heavily weakened by the the end of the rampage of his supporters. After all, Thailand was greeted by a period of peace.
That severe protest has done significant damage to the already-weak economy and the image of Thailand in the world. As for economy, GDP of Thailand fell annualized, season-adjusted 2-3.5per cent. More seriously, the economy was expected to shrink 17 per cent from the previous quarter. The tourism of Thailand was anticipated to be heavily weakened due to lasting political chaos since last year. On November last year two main international airports in Bangkok had been closed for four days. Tourists could not either step out of the airports or get on any airplane. Some of them even faced the chance of being killed for the present government's "yellow shirt" supporter rushed into the airpoints with guns and bullets. This time the traffic in Bangkok was jammed by the "red shirts". Numorous of visitors complained about an horrible journey to Thailand.
Worsestill, the Asian meeting was forced to be cancelled because the leader of China, Japan and Korea had no chance to go out of the hotels. The vital meeting aimed at resolving the worst global slump in decades and had been put back for three months because of the political chaos at that time.It was tragedy that an important chance to grapple with the economic downturn could not fufill its expectation. Thailand government was accordingly blammed and even some countries claimmed that Thailand should not have host the Asian meeting.
In my opinion, no matter who win the public-relations war, all people in Thailand end up losers. As long as Thailand remains politically unstable, the chance for Thailanders is slim to win the battle with the global recession. Both Tasksin and Abhisit should stop hostile and work hand-in-hand to help their mother country out of the terrible economic slump. Negotiation is a preoccupancy for them.
I remember that not long ago our group had discussed something concerning the issue if it is necessary to have a strict censorship. Considering what has happened in Thailand, I think sometimes a cogent censorship is really necessary. I think what causes this riot is partly ascribed to the weak censorship of the government in power, of which their oppnent parties make use to spread some agitating messages to make chaos. Hence, one can not assertive agree that only a loose censorship can bring a society harmony.
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