Thats what the Travel and Tourism authority of Thailand has been paying per day to keep the stranded passengers in hotels.! Every Day as they get people out, There are more people who are due to have went home.

200 million baht a day could be much better spent on Thailand.... Schools, Hospitals, Roads

I have really struggled to find a route out of Thailand but luckily have managed to do so and I leave on Tuesday so I can get back to work. When i was searching for an alternative option everything is booked up, flights, trains everything right this very second everything is fully booked until the 5th of December....

Whats your opinion what would 200 million baht a day be better spent on????

You could give Nana the Las Vegas treatment with that cash. Some top notch entertainment in turn would also help pacify those tourists if things go pear shaped again in the future. ;-)

Health care.

actually, I'd be best spending on marketing for the country and setting up roadshows in other countries to advertize Thailand.

But most probably, it'd be in someone's pocket, and never really been spent on those what will be benefitial to the country.

Hope you get to go home soon.

And the PAD's whole premise is to save us from the corrupt Thaksins with their unpaid taxes which have cost the country soooooooo dearly. What a pile of **** - theiving, lying greedy assholes wrapped up in their own self interest.

Could get a few of the Shamu, putting in an aquarium so Thai kids could see.

(i mean the killer whales) =)

and free SRS.

Give the homeless food and shelter!

66 million Vulcan mind melds.

Hobbes - No Comment.!

Sunsnow - agreed

breakingofdawn - currently Thailand is recieving more advertisment than it could ever imagine BBC News, Sky News, Fox News etc etc, but unfortunately for the GOOD people of this country its the worst possible advertisment.! It would cost a lot more than 200 million a day to repair Thailands reputation as a top 10 tourist destination, its very sad.... Im at home ) lucky for me i get to live here just got to leave for work

Jay7 - what the protestors dont realise its their tax money thats paying the 200 million a day, bit of a backward step that... Id also like to know - why they are not at work. Id be sacked if i didnt turn up to work on time. Im very very sure youd be the same

SB, there is only room for 1 shamu in Thailand ) im already here, but that would be a fantastic thing for Bangkok a huge aquarium (Education).... whats SRS???

dy - 200 million baht a day could build a lot of permanent housing for people in this country... Great idea

Frankenburner - mind melting...?? Ill pass comment on that one - taking the 5th

no comment, but sad...indeed

brain surgery...

Dr Sassy... any particular individuals for brain surgery???

Interesting - where does that 200 million baht per day NORMALLY go?

Stu... great point.!.!

You could buy a whole new slate of House of Representatives members with that kind of money. Or at least a few security officials who would see to it that public facilities weren't so easily infiltrated and taken over.

But that's only the expense of outlays, if you consider the losses of import/export duties on high-dollar air cargo, lost visa fees (and subsequent overstays...), lost taxes on income & VAT revenue, etc. etc. then you are talking some seious baht...

Ah sure Thailand can afford it! It s a rich country and sure after the PAD get their way there will be no corruption and those pesky "up country" uneducated, poor folk who will not be able to have a voice until the more educated people like BOD think it is ok.

Now I now this looks like the country will go backwards and stagnant further and one person one vote is really only for those sophisticated types in the west where everyone gets one of those vote thingys or like in those really very non asian places like Japan South Korea and Taiwan.

It will be all good when the PAD get their way and peace, harmony and prosperity will abound- and sure if it doesnt we can always another coup and then another one and then... Ah yeah Thai style is the way to go and sure we can expect the small minority with an education and wealth or decent living standard to share their wealth ,time, and resources helping all the other ignorant people with very little. Sure the PAD are just so noble and care so much about the country and all of the nations people.

And the pope is a muslim!

Don't worry..there soon won't be any tourists to waste money on...once this lot has finally been able to leave.

Watershed moment for democracy and rule of law

AHRC

26 November 2008

News

The takeover of the main international airport in Bangkok by protestors going under the banner of the People's Alliance for Democracy is a watershed moment for democracy and the rule of law in Thailand. It follows some months of increasingly aggressive strategies to get the current government to resign and to block it from making amendments to the 2008 Constitution, which was prepared under the watch of the 2006 military coup leaders and their supporters and pushed through via a deeply flawed referendum.

Alliance members have since August gone from merely occupying spaces like roads and parks to occupying public buildings, in particular, the Government House. Organised armed "guards" have defended their positions both from opponents and from state security personnel. They have also illegally obtained and openly carried an array of manufactured and homemade weapons, including guns from caches that had reportedly been kept in the government premises. They have illegally detained other citizens. They have vandalised, destroyed and stolen public and private property. In the last day or two it has been reported that in addition to occupying the Suvarnabumi airport they have seized busses, and have refused to allow police into the airport to investigate explosions there during the night. They are now reportedly preparing for the latest phase in the "final battle", which is supposedly being instigated under codenames like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities on which the United States military dropped nuclear bombs at the close of World War Two.

The alliance has exhibited a number of features that from past lessons of Thailand and other countries around the world pose grave dangers to the future of the country's imperilled democracy. Of these, the following can be said.

1. They spring from a far-right ideology that has for decades driven successive military-bureaucratic administrations in Thailand, which dramatic changes to political and social life of the last two decades have increasingly threatened.

2. Their coordinated attacks and actions on the pretext of self-defence and national interest are designed to cause a widespread feeling of insecurity and uncertainty and allow reactionary elite forces to push Thailand back to a 1980s model of "half-sail" semi-elected government.

3. The alliance leaders have occupied the public space and forced people throughout Thailand to either take sides for or against them, or to opt out completely, thus alienating millions of people and denying them the opportunity to have a say on the key political and social questions of their time.

Some commentators and opponents of the alliance have described its agenda as fascist. This is not an exaggeration. Experience shows that the types of systemic changes and regimes that follow such movements, although they may not describe themselves as fascist, have fascist qualities. Indeed, successive dictatorships in Thailand's modern history appreciated, expressed and used many fascist symbols and policies, and the residue of these can be found in the language and behaviour of the alliance leaders today.

If these events are allowed to continue, and it is self-evident that they are being allowed, they will effectively undo everything that was done to build a culture of democratic rights and participation in public life in Thailand during the 1990s. The damage that they are now in a position to effect will surpass anything of that caused by the ousted government of Thaksin Shinawatra, and could even provoke a greater disaster than the 2006 coup and scrapping of the 1997 Constitution. Whatever institutional and legal gains were made in the last decade or two will be undone. [9b

Already, the criminal justice system of Thailand has been reduced to an utter joke, its agencies and personnel either unable or unwilling to intervene effectively to protect public property and people's lives, or even prosecute wrongdoers. That the security forces can carry out coups on the whimsy of generals and engage in battles over trifles with those of neighbouring countries but not responsibly protect the Government House or international airport is sheer farce. That government agencies have been forced to negotiate and cut their losses rather than insist that the law be enforced is dangerous folly. And that the senior judiciary, which through a succession of highly politicised judgments has played a major part in contributing to the current mess has nothing useful to contribute when lives are at stake and the country is in greatest need of intelligent guidance is altogether shameful.

Peaceful protest is not only a part of democratic process; it is integral to it. But the rallies and blockades in Bangkok of recent days, weeks and months have not been peaceful. Nor can they properly be called protests at all, as they are not merely demonstrations of a wish, but acts aimed at achieving goals at all costs. And the costs to Thailand have already been very high. They will get higher, and be felt in terms of the lives and liberties of all people in the country if they are not brought to an end. All people in Thailand have a right to oppose this ultra-conservative project for state dominance at their expense.

The Asian Human Rights Commission especially takes this opportunity to call for far greater global attention on events in Thailand, which have passed for these few months without any discernible reaction from international bodies, especially the United Nations. Having vacillated on the 2006 coup the world community cannot afford to this time let things just go on without some meaningful intervention.If Thailand slips further backwards it will be to the detriment not only of its own millions but the entire region. At a time that repressive anti-democratic forces are either making comebacks or strengthening their positions almost everywhere, Thailand cannot afford to be lost.

what makes you think that the tourism authority is really going to pay either the hotels or the stranded passengers anything at all? First, they don't have the money to do it. Second, when they have some money, it will be so complicated to try to collect that few will do it other than a few big hotels with political connections.

happynoworries:

"Pioneer project. Create change agents and send them to North, North Eastern and South to educate young potential youth in those area. Educate them to embrace the globalization as well as the knowledge and wisdom of their origin. Most important of all, convince them to be humble and respectful to the diversity of their own nation."

Yea, sure. It is the nort, north-east and south that need education about diversity in their own nation...blah But isnt it the people from those areas that experience the worst racism in this country? Shouldnt that money be spent on educating Central Thais? They are the racists many times who cannot be humble and respectful nor understand that they are not the central place of the world. Oh same goes to Central Thais and everyone in this country...about globalization that is. That what you do here, affects around the globe and vice versa. Oh well...

About where the money should be spent..Thinitan: "Conservatives in Bangkok ?called the shots for decades,? Thitinan said.

?They are unwilling to change with the times ... "

I agree with friednlyCat. I wouldn't believe everything you read and I doubt very much if TAT is able to arrange a compo payment scheme in such a sort amount of time. Expect a fair bit of that 200 m figure to leak into peoples pockets.

Exactly what "disaster" in 2006? Do they mean the totally bloodless and peaceful coup that removed a corrupt leader and his cronies? So for whom was it a disaster? Oh...now I see who the AHRC support...and I see why too...