With failed attempts to induce violence, The Thai Government has issued a State of Emergency decree citing violence as the reason. After your eyes have recovered and rolled back out of your head, please read on.
In a clear sign of desperation, Thaksin’s proxy Government may have just sealed it’s fate if it was not sealed already by one of the other things that are going wrong. The last time an unjustified State of Emergency was called was for exactly the same reason Link Here. That was done by then Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of the People Power Party (PPP). That ended badly and signaled the start of a death spiral for the Government.
This more or less confirms that the attempts at violence were orchestrated by Thaksin. Without proper justification for a State of Emergency, the courts could possibly remove the Government ultimately handing the protesters exactly what they want. A State of Emergency suspends many of the rights in a democracy and empowers the Government to act like a dictator to restore order.
A State of Emergency needs to be justified and on a big scale. According to police reports, the people that have been lobbing grenades at the peaceful protesters are just a very small group perhaps not more than 10 people, and not overwhelming violent mobs like the Red Shirts in 2009 and 2010. Clashes between rival universities are more violent than what has been going on with the peaceful protests, and that did not cause the need for a State of Emergency. No doubt every Government who has an Embassy or Consulate in Thailand is taking note at the desperation of Thaksin as this looks exactly like how the mess in Syria got started.
It is yet to be seen how the military will respond to this State of Emergency, and we do not want to speculate as it can be a wide range of responses including conducting a Coup on a Government that is once again is abusing it’s authority just to stay in power. No matter how this ends, that State of Emergency has freed up a lot more seats on incoming flights and the tourist economy will take a bigger hit than it is taking already.
