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เป็นบทความนี้ลงใน หนังสือพิมพ์ Pattaya today นะคับ
Airport litigation & the rule of law
http://www.pattayatoday.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=4625
by Peter Lloyd / 2009-01-04
I read the new PM, Abhisit’s recent words with great interest: “I would like to correct the failed political system by relying on justice and the rule of law”.
The greatest failing in Thai culture, in my opinion, has been the lack of respect for the rule of law. Any law, when it needs to be broken in the interests of self-promotion, greed, loss of face, or simply selfish inconvenience to the common man driving like an idiot on busy roads, is there to be broken. The tourist gloom we are currently in starkly illustrates what happens when the things which seem so acceptable in Thailand are held to account by a more objective international standard.
Whether it be military coups, corrupt political dealings, police taking backhanders, protesters closing airports, blocking major roads, shooting people in drunken late night arguments, fleeing the scene of car accidents, dangerously drunk driving, you name it, it can only be good for Thailand and for Thais if this lack of respect for the rule of law at all levels of society can be changed.
While I remain hopeful, I don’t think any new attempt to respect the rule of law will receive more than lip service in a culture which regularly flouts it and is proud to do so.
But sometimes international standards and stinging, expensive lawsuits brought in (comparatively) uncorrupt overseas legal jurisdictions can help change a country’s behavior.
Take the airport occupation for example.
In Thailand the feeling seems to be that the airport problems were over once the protesters left, and it is all best forgotten about. Don’t blame PAD ringleaders or ask why the police and army failed so badly, or of holding government agencies to account.
Meanwhile, around the world, armies of lawyers and accountants are planning to do exactly that, as they comb through the wreckage, calculating losses and working out who to sue. The vast economic damage caused to innocent third parties has to be compensated to international standards, and they will make sure that someone in Thailand is held accountable.
Whilst I applauded the recent news that Thai Airways was going to sue PAD for something like 20 billion baht in damages, and also Airports of Thailand, who recently announced they would look to sue PAD for their own huge losses, I don’t hold out much hope for any Thai company trying to sue them – or anyone else - in Thailand, where someone influential will whisper to a potential litigator: “what you do, we fix this Thai style. Your lawsuit will bring loss of face to this country, and you won’t win in court”. Nothing will happen, and no lessons will be learned about taking responsibility, Thai style.
This has happened before, after the tragic Phuket air crash in December 2007. I remember reading that the airline bought off Thai claimants with a settlement which was embarrassingly low by international standards, largely on the basis of irrelevant arguments about Nationalism and promoting Thai unity.
The issue of liability and the result of any government enquiries into what went wrong in the Phuket crash, if any were held, seems to have been swept under the carpet. You never read anything about it in the Thai press. An unfortunate accident, bad for tourism, best left forgotten.
Now, according to the Bangkok Post, foreigners have launched a wave of lawsuits over this air crash, in the US, for damages to be assessed at proper international standards in a transparent courts system.
In the case of the airport occupation, this international litigation route will be repeated by non-Thai companies, including many of the 100 international airlines damaged by the airport occupation, who are currently considering which parties they should sue. They won’t be mugged or pressured into a Thai Style settlement, and will bring their lawsuits in the US.
I suspect the Thai government will end up footing the bill, and so they should, as they ultimately failed as a government, proving unable to stop murderous lawlessness in the capital city; they lost control of the police and the army, they failed to protect Government House and the international airports, and all these failings damaged the economic wellbeing of the country, and its international reputation. The price will have to be paid, and I fear it will be a heavy one.
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