PHUKET: Whether the Paris Hilton two-day New Year Beach Party goes ahead really comes down to one simple question:

Does the local community around Surin, 90 percent Muslim and keen upholders of traditional rights, like the idea?

If the answer is Yes, the organisers of the gathering for 50,000 alcohol-drinking, music-loving party people can go right ahead.

If the answer is No . . . the answer is No.

It is the traditional residents of Surin who, rightly, should have the final say. To ignore their wishes would be very, very foolish.

Anyone from Bangkok who imagines they can throw large amounts of money around and buy the support of the local residents for a noisy two-day party on the local beach really should think again.

Considering the wishes of Phuket locals doesn't seem to have figured much in the organisers' thinking so far. It's time, perhaps, they absorbed a little local history.

Over 20 years or more, the Muslim communities on Phuket have come to tolerate and live with the Western-style resorts that have grown up in and around Phuket's beaches, to varying degrees.

Amanapuri, for example, arrived a long time ago, on a remote Phuket headland, and set the worldwide trend for boutique resorts . . . quiet, get-away-from it-all destinations, relaxing and exclusive.

The Westernisation of Phuket has been a long series of compromises, between Muslim and Buddhist neighbors, and with Western visitors.

Even in Patong, where the nightlife sometimes shocks, a sincere and traditional Muslim community goes about its life regardless, in peace and tolerance.

This tolerance has built up over two generations. The obvious tolerance in Patong, though, in places like Bangla Road, where events can be disturbing, is not so evident a couple of beaches north, in Surin.

The communities and the resorts tend to lead separate lives there.

What many people in Bangkok - and other places outside Phuket - fail to understand is that Phuket is about one-third Muslim. This large minority is valued for its social and cultural input and inheritance.

There are more than 50 mosques across the island, something few visitors to Phuket realise.

Over the years, the Muslims of Surin beach have come to tolerate the resorts that operate in Surin. Many of the sons and daughters of the Muslim community have found work in those resorts.

If the resorts support an idea, it is likely to be carefully considered and endorsed by the Muslim community.

The resorts of Surin do not support the idea of a beach party for 50,000 people. They don't want it to go ahead.

Have the full consequences of making a wrong decision about this event been carefully thought through by the organisers?

From the way this idea has been announced and imposed by Bangkok entrepreneurs on Phuket, without proper foresight and consultation, we'd say No.

Let's explain this issue carefully, with some local Phuket knowledge, so that even focussed entrepreneurs from Bangkok can understand.

Anyone making their way to Surin beach who stops off in a convenience store seeking, perhaps, to buy a can of beer will be struck by one thing: there is no alcohol openly for sale around Surin beach.

Is it possible to imagine what might happen if the Muslim residents of Surin object to having a party for 50,000 alcohol-consuming, noise-loving party people in their neighborhood, blocking their roads and interrupting their sleep?

In the past, there have been street blockades when locals fear an injustice has been committed. There have been guns produced and waved.

Of all the communities that take to the streets on Phuket on occasions to express their point of view, the Surin community is perhaps the most vocal and forthright.

If they are not all consulted and told the truth about what this two-day party means for their quiet, traditional way of life . . .

Only the bravest marketing person in the world, only the most obssessed entrepreneur in all of Asia, would go ahead.

Fortunately, this is not a decision we have to make. We are pleased about that.

The resort managers around Surin have already made their approach clear. The local community listens to the resort managers.

The organisers of the event, as of last night, were still gung-ho. The floating stage is being built, the tickets are being sold . . . ''more than 100 hotels'' on Phuket have expressed their support, so the organisers say.

Really? A local newspaper poll now underway about whether this event should go ahead shows the vast majority of Phuket people don't want it, under any circumstances, ever.

The organisers may say they are bringing in 2000 people of military background to manage the security of the party guests.

But anyone in charge of security, anyone taking responsibilty for this event, really needs to ask themselves that one serious question, free from marketing spin:

what do Surin's Muslim locals say?

Unless the opinion of every villager in and around Surin has been sought, we think only a brave person would go ahead and hold this party.

Only a brave person will stand up and take ultimate responsibility for the safety and security of everyone - party-goers, resort guests and residents.

We wish them, and Surin and Phuket, the best of good fortune and prosperity in 2013. Have a happy, safe New Year.