Although I’ve spent the majority of the past week lazing about on Bali’s beaches, I’ve been following the events in Thailand loosely. From an outsider’s point of view, it just looks like chaos. All I can see is a group of radicals trying to overthrow an elected government. The economy, tourism, the wellbeing of the people of Thailand – how is this for the benefit of the country?

I have no qualms with people protesting the legitimacy of the government – if people have gripes then they should be free to voice their concerns – but threatening to bring the country to a standstill (water, power, transport, strikes) is something else entirely. By taking over television stations and airports, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has not only stood in opposition of Thailand’s government, but of the foundations of Thai society.

Law and order? It’s gone out the window as the PAD makes its bid to ruin the country. People have a right to protest; they don’t have a right to do what the PAD has done. Where will it end? The need to do what PAD is doing should come from a collective desire to improve the lives of the people of Thailand, but in the 21st century, when people’s lives benefit from a stable economy and political climate, this kind of action is self-defeating.

You have to look at how the public will benefit. What will people gain from the PAD taking to the streets? By PAD’s logic, anything goes and all is fair in the name of achieving political goals, so what’s to give the average guy in the street any incentive to support the PAD over the government that was voted in?

And what about those who oppose the PAD? They’ve seen that there is no order to contain what is happening. Their own uprisings against the PAD are thus legitimatized by the new rules that the PAD has brought to the table. This isn’t about what’s fair and what’s just anymore; it comes down to brute force muscling into politics because the basic framework of the country doesn’t fulfill the needs of the PAD.

People need to wake up and stop supporting the PAD because if the current situation worsens, it’s going to cause damage that will be very difficult to repair.

From listening to the conversations of foreigners in Indonesia, it’s as if people think that this kind of state is the norm for Thailand. “They do this every three or four years,” was one comment I overheard.

For anyone concerned about traveling to Thailand, despite the State of Emergency, the country is not engaged in all-out civil war. Thailand is still safe.