Bangkok was effectively cut off this week as the city’s second airport was closed after it was stormed by anti-government protesters who are already laying siege to the main international air hub in the Thai capital.
Don Muang airport, the former international terminus, now mainly handles domestic flights. But it has also recently played host to the Thai Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, who had set up temporary offices there after demonstrators invaded the compound of his Government House headquarters three months ago.
The double airport closure left thousands of international travellers stranded for a third day after all flights at Suvarnabhumi airport were halted as People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters, who are calling for the government to quit, continued their occupation.
The blockade of Don Muang was an apparent attempt to stop ministers flying to meet the prime minister, who has summoned his cabinet to the northern city of Chiang Mai to discuss the mounting tensions that bring the threat of another military coup ever closer. Somchai’s flight home from an overseas trip was diverted to Chang Mai.
A government spokesman said Somchai could decide to declare emergency rule to evict the protesters, but when his predecessor tried the same tactic in September it had no tangible effect as the army said it was not prepared to act.
The country’s army chief this week called for new elections. General Anupong Paochinda, the influential army chief, urged Somchai to resign and call snap elections to resolve the deadlock, but in a nationally televised address the prime minister said he would continue to work for the ‘good of the countryâ€.
The snub to the army chief heightened fears of an imminent coup as the anti-government demonstrators, whose invasion of Suvarnabhumi airport provoked the chaos, continued the occupation. The protesters, who are well organised and funded, gave the tourists food and drink. Leaflets in English explained their campaign and apologised for the inconvenience. But many tourists were angry and some feared a confrontation, particularly after riot police arrived outside the terminal building at about 5am.
Anupong, who has repeatedly shunned calls for an army takeover to restore order, appeared to be trying to find a solution to the crisis by calling a meeting of military chiefs, academics and senior officials.
He called on the demonstrators from the PAD to leave the airport. He suggested that the government, which was elected less than a year ago, should dissolve Parliament and seek a new mandate in a fresh poll, which the ruling People Power Party would almost certainly win.
The general also proposed an interim administration be appointed before the elections, raising fears among the government and its supporters that the powerful royalist-military elite would use the opportunity to tinker with the Constitution to keep them out in a ‘covert coupâ€.
‘There’s no doubt this suggestion was not a very veiled threat by the army,†said Chris Baker, a historian and political analyst. ‘They’re saying to the prime minister, if you don’t go, there’s the threat of a coup. I think it might happen.†—