Everyone’s favourite minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, was due to arrive in Phuket last night to inspect land plots on Koh Racha that he is accused of abusing his position in the Land Department to help his buddies acquire. In one of the weakest displays to come from a government seemingly founded on weakness, Chalerm not only decided not to land at Phuket International Airport (PIA), but he cancelled his entire trip “to avoid violent clashes”. What nonsense.

Here is a minister who is on the verge of being toppled; he had a chance to really defend himself and he didn’t even have the courage to set foot in the province. There were about 1,000 PAD protesters waiting for him at PIA last night. There were no indications that they were going to lynch the minister. The protesters were animated and were there with banners and headbands, but they were only further infuriated by Chalerm’s no-show.

Today, PAD vowed to do what they know best: erect a stage. I went to Saphan Hin after work to see what they were up to, but found no evidence of any action.

So how should we treat the no-show? Is it effectively an admission of guilt? You would have thought that a minister in such a precarious position would be doing all he could to defend himself.

Chalerm was met at Krabi Airport last night by a smaller group of protesters. Today, he had the audacity to claim that the protesters in Krabi were paid to be there by people who have lost in land deals in the Andaman region. Evidence of this? None provided.

Chalerm said he was afraid that protesters would clash with the police. Again, this is nonsense. There is nothing to suggest that the protesters in Krabi or Phuket would have clashed with anyone. Why would they? When was the last time there were large-scale riots in Phuket about anything? When the Chinese workers’ unions took to the streets?

Yet still Chalerm did not address the issues at hand, instead calling on the governors of Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga to fly to Bangkok to discuss the matter.

There is no-one on this earth who can save Chalerm Yoobamrung.