David Cameron Must Clarify Thai Holiday Cancellation

It seems that David Cameron’s controversial trip to Thailand will not be going ahead. Everyone agrees that the Cameron family have been forced to change their holiday plans but no-one seems entirely sure why.

The Telegraph and the Daily Mail subscribe to the school of thought which says the British Prime Minister was concerned about how the electorate would view the lavish holiday at a time when his government was making widespread spending cuts.

The Independent took a very different viewpoint announcing that Cameron had cancelled following complaints from campaigners about the country’s human-rights record. Meanwhile, the Metro sat on the fence, claiming the human rights issue had affected the British Prime Minister’s thinking but concern over the cost of the holiday was the decisive factor.

Although the political turmoil in Thailand has been well documented, this is the first example I can find of a political leader possibly boycotting the country because of it. Thousands of people have cancelled trips to Thailand out of fear for their own personal safety but there has not been much of a movement to persuade people that they should stay away from the self styled ‘land of smiles’ because of alleged human rights abuses.

The trouble in Thailand all started when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by the military in 2006 amid widespread allegations of corruption.

In the aftermath of the coup Shinawatra’s political party, Thai Rak Thai (Thai love Thai), was forcibly dissolved by a constitutional tribunal but it rapidly reformed under the moniker of the People’s Power Party (PPP).

When democratic elections were eventually held in 2007 the PPP won more votes than any other party and was able to form a coalition government. At the time BBC correspondent Jonathan Head described the election result as, ‘a dramatic repudiation of the coup’.

Shinawatra, now living in exile, began publicly discussing a return to Thailand and it appeared the coup had achieved little more than to force the ruling party to find a new name.

In 2008 the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), commonly referred to as the yellow shirts, began a campaign of well orchestrated public protests. This group was affiliated to the opposition Democrat Party but also had a strong royalist agenda. The PAD demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his PPP government.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej is revered in Thailand and the PAD’s support for the Thai royal family was central to its manifesto and appeared to be reciprocated when the queen attended the funeral of a PAD member killed during the protests.

PAD supporters seized a number of regional airports by force and Sundaravej was forced to resign, not ostentatiously due to the protests, but because he was found guilty of breaching political protocol by receiving money to appear on a cookery programme.

In a move which was not designed to placate the PAD Shinawatra’s brother in law, Somchai Wongsawat, was appointed as Sundaravej’s successor. The yellow shirts responded by escalating their actions and succeeded in shutting down both Bangkok’s major airports. Ultimately the protests were a success as the constitutional court dissolved the PPP and banned its leaders from politics.

This allowed the opposition Democrat Party to form a coalition and its leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, was appointed Prime Minister. He attended Eton with Cameron and the two are rumoured to still be friends with some newspapers suggesting that the holiday in Thailand might have been arranged at Vejjajiva’s instigation.

The 26,293,456 people who had voted for the PPP were understandably upset and felt that the courts had conspired to ensure that their electoral wishes were overlooked. They threw their collective weight behind the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD). The UDD is immediately distinguishable from the PAD because its supporters wear red rather than yellow shirts.

Politics in Thailand may be divided between red and yellow but it is seldom black and white. Regardless of their affiliation protestors do not spontaneously decide to mobilize, they are invariably paid to do so. The red shirts are financed by Shinawatra and his associates, the yellow shirts are also extremely well funded by a variety of politically motivated benefactors.

The UDD and the PAD first clashed in 2008 but it wasn’t until 2009 that the red shirts sprang into action. 100,000 of them made the journey from northern Thailand to the countries capital hoping to overthrow the Democrat government, just as the PAD had done its PPP predecessor.

The protesters descended on the seaside city of Pattaya causing the ASEAN summit to be cancelled and remained encamped in Bangkok for almost two months. During this period the army was witnessed firing live ammunition and around 90 protesters are believed to have been killed. When the red shirt leaders eventually surrendered the protests had caused 180 million Baht’s worth of damage, according to government estimates.

There is very little sign of reconciliation between the two factions and  the red shirts will surely make their presence felt at next year’s election, whether through the ballot box or on the streets. It is the sort of situation which a foreign head of state would be well advised to steer clear of but Cameron appears to have waded clumsily into the debate.

If Cameron has cancelled his visit due to Thailand’s human rights record then he is unwittingly providing propaganda for the opposition party, known in its current incarnation as Pheu Thai. Such a decision might also have an adverse affect on the estimation of the country in the minds of British holidaymakers.

It is time the prime minister put an end to the conjecture by being specific about the reason behind his abrupt change of holiday plans.

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