PHUKET: When shoppers in a North Carolina Wal-Mart are hit by police with pepper spray as they rush to buy discounted telephones, it's ''a disturbance.''

When people campaign under the Occupy Wall Street banner and the cause goes global, it becomes a worldwide ''protest movement.''

But when two villagers die on a dangerous bend in north Phuket and the locals, who have raised the matter of road safety there many times before, go out onto the streets, they are instantly labelled a ''mob.''

Phuketwan believes that even in the best governed nations of the world, there are times when the average person will consider himself or herself deprived of a voice.

At those times, there is only one choice: take it to the streets.

People who take disputes onto the streets are not necessarily a ''mob.'' That word has connotations usually associated with violence.

The Phuket villagers who blocked Phuket's main road after a crash last week that claimed the lives of two neighbors felt deeply aggrieved, and in our opinion had every right to express both their grievance, and their grief.

From all accounts, the protest was peaceful. There was undoubtedly anger but no violence, so we have been told, except for a small fire close to the vehicle involved.

For that reason, it's hard to understand how peaceful Phuket villagers could be labelled ''a mob.''

And there's a good chance that because the people went out into the streets to express themselves, a dangerous curve will - finally, finally - be made safe for all travellers, not just for the villagers.

If Phuket's authorities will not listen and act appropriately at the right time, especially when life and death issues are at stake, people on Phuket, as in all democracies, have the right to protest.

While the option should only be a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted, Phuketwan believes there are times when street protests are justified - as in this case.

Only in repressed societies like China are street protests entirely prohibited. In democracies, they have to be tolerated. Gandhi did it, why not Phuket?

More power to this particular Phuket ''mob,'' and to all other ''mobs'' who think the way they do.