All Quiet on the Eastern Front

FYI, we're following the regional news closely and are confident that our departure plans will not be impacted. The airports we're using have remained open, and the protests have been peaceful, for the most part. The US Embassy in Thailand did not suggest that we hasten our departure and said that life in Bangkok is business as usual.


'Critical' weekend
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=130153

Escalated anti-government demonstrations were in their fifth day on Saturday, with the prime minister losing support from the Army amid signs of an increasing government dilemma.

"This weekend will be critical," said academic political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak.
"The government is in a dilemma. If they crackdown, that may cause a boomerang, but if they don't, they look weak," said the director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University - who also is an Oped contributor to the Bangkok Post.

The French news agency AFP reported on Saturday afternoon that about 45 protesters used bolt cutters to break into Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's abandoned office at Government House, occupied for days by the anti-government group.

One of the activists told AFP that protest leader Chamlong Srimuang had ordered them to force open the doors so that he could use the offices himself, the report said.

On the street on Saturday, and particularly from Government House, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) continued its call for the resigination of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and the entire government. The court ordered protesters out of Government House last Wednesday but on Friday stayed the injunction indefinitely in an order to promote a peaceful solution.

Meanwhile, protesters agreed on Saturday to lift their siege of two of the three airports in the South. But the international airport at the important tourist centre of Phuket remained blockaded, after PAD allowed flights to resume for travellers at Krabi and Hat Yai.

On Friday, army commander Gen Anupong Paojinda rejected a call by Mr Samak to declare a state of emergency and call out troops. He suggested the use of police instead, or the resignation of the premier to cool tempers. Mr Samak repeated he would not resign.

"If the PAD succeeds in ousting Samak, it will be a huge setback for Thai democracy," Prof Thitinan said. "It will be the crowning success for the right-wing conservative contingent who are against election-based democracy."

PAD leaders, such as retired Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, have said the Thai electorate is too uneducated to vote in honest politicians and continues to sell its votes to the highest bidders.