THAILAND’S GOVERNMENT has promised that a meeting next month of Asian leaders on the tourist island of Phuket will not end in disaster, after anti-government protesters forced the humiliating cancellation of last month’s summit.
The East Asia Summit, tentatively scheduled for June 13th to 14th on Phuket, was cancelled on April 11th when anti-government protesters invaded the meeting in the beach resort of Pattaya, about 150km south of Bangkok.
The summit fiasco kicked off an intense week of political strife for prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was forced to impose emergency rule in Bangkok for 12 days to quell street protests by supporters of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Mr Abhisit’s handling of the crisis brought the country back from the brink of chaos, though most of the underlying problems remain unresolved.
The summit, which brings together leaders from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, had originally been scheduled for December, but was cancelled after People’s Alliance for Democracy members demonstrated in the streets and occupied Bangkok’s two main airports.
As far as venue security goes, Mr Abhisit is taking no chances and security officials are enforcing a 5km zone around the venue within which rallies will be banned. “We will make sure the meeting restores confidence in Thailand,” defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan said.
Phuket is a stronghold of Mr Abhisit’s Democrat Party, which heads a four-month-old coalition government.
