social re-engineering II
Tuesday, October 02, 2001
The opposition to the new social order was continuing apace and a more liberal and conciliatory attitude is starting to emerge in the government's ranks, but it was not to stay that way.
The PM was originally quoted in the Bangkok Post on 2 September as saying the the "crusade has gone too far", and the Pattaya Mail on 31 Aug reported that entertainment venue owners were calling for 4 AM closing times, then in typical Thai fashion everything changed again and everyone was all for the new social order again with the PM claiming in the Nation on September 5 that it was all his idea!
And of course criticism in the foreign press is just bias according to both Purachai and Thaksin, whose foreign press commenst received lots of coverage in the local media. ALl of this was in response to a Time article on massage, prostitution and the new social order in Thailand.
Meanwhile Phuket has been warned that they are next in line, with the Phuket Gazette reporting in 11 September that Bangkok-style drug raids were expected to start in bars in Phuket.
Most of the coverage since then has been fairly minor while the zoning details are debated endlessly and the latest mutations of the crackdown do not seem to be receiving much mainstream press coverage.
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