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PHUKET: The beaches of Phuket are beginning to look once again like the great arcs of sand that once had them regularly included in lists of the Great Beaches of the World.
The taxi and tuk-tuk mayhem that has been the holiday island's biggest negative is gradually being sorted into a workable system.
But the real test is yet to come. And the Army and Navy must be prepared for it.
People who are now losing their jobs or having their jobs drastically altered have always had a sense that what they have been doing is ok. For some, there's a sense of entitlement. It's theirs, by right.
And dealing with the social consequences of the remaking of Phuket will be the coup commanders' biggest task.
Get it done and keep it happening and Phuket's future as a prosperous tourist destination for Thailand will be ensured for generations.
Fail to follow through on the wonderful start and we'll all finish back at square one, with every young man on Phuket believing that he can earn a good living as a taxi driver and entrepreneurs believing the beach is the place to make money.
We've been told by a reliable source that the military has been just as shocked about the scale of Phuket's problems as every governor is when he realises why his predecessors have changed nothing.
A list of 10 Must Do items is being circulated at private meetings between the military authorities and Phuket's administrators. ''Reclaim Beaches'' and ''Fix Taxis, Tuk-Tuks'' are just the first two of 10 items.
Over the past few days, our attempts to find out what the other eight items are have failed. For the present, the secret is being kept. But we, like many others, will continue to speculate about what might happen next.
Drugs and Weapons are likely to be on the list, along with Migrant Labor. The other five items? Environment is bound to figure strongly, but it could be there in different ways.
Without follow through, though, the Phuket remake won't hold.
Once people start saying: ''But I have a family to support'' the Army's job will grow tougher. For years, that's been the prime excuse for most of Phuket's mistakes. The other excuse is: ''We are just giving the tourists what they want.''
Well, Phuket and Thailand will be better giving the tourists what they need, not what they want.
The social consequences? Authorities need a game plan to deal with people who need alternative employment, and to keep the people who might cause problems out of trouble.
The beaches look wonderful but the need for a difference in outlook may take six months to a year to achieve. Come high season, Many of the shorefront and beach vendors will be trying to return to their jobs. Decades of doing the wrong thing now need to be explained.
Reader Brett Masters sent Phuketwan a photograph of a woman at Rawai beach. ''After 18 years,'' he wrote, ''this old lady has no business anymore.
''She is known as Momma, a lovely old lady who always has a smile on her face . . . except as she watched her business being torn down.
''Yes her business was illegal but many Thai people are just trying to survive.''
If Momma and the taxi drivers can be persuaded to start again doing something else, doing something that doesn't damage Phuket's future, the Army's efforts will all prove worthwhile.
But if this once in a lifetime chance is missed, Phuket's future may never look as bright again as it does today.
The taxi and tuk-tuk mayhem that has been the holiday island's biggest negative is gradually being sorted into a workable system.
But the real test is yet to come. And the Army and Navy must be prepared for it.
People who are now losing their jobs or having their jobs drastically altered have always had a sense that what they have been doing is ok. For some, there's a sense of entitlement. It's theirs, by right.
And dealing with the social consequences of the remaking of Phuket will be the coup commanders' biggest task.
Get it done and keep it happening and Phuket's future as a prosperous tourist destination for Thailand will be ensured for generations.
Fail to follow through on the wonderful start and we'll all finish back at square one, with every young man on Phuket believing that he can earn a good living as a taxi driver and entrepreneurs believing the beach is the place to make money.
We've been told by a reliable source that the military has been just as shocked about the scale of Phuket's problems as every governor is when he realises why his predecessors have changed nothing.
A list of 10 Must Do items is being circulated at private meetings between the military authorities and Phuket's administrators. ''Reclaim Beaches'' and ''Fix Taxis, Tuk-Tuks'' are just the first two of 10 items.
Over the past few days, our attempts to find out what the other eight items are have failed. For the present, the secret is being kept. But we, like many others, will continue to speculate about what might happen next.
Drugs and Weapons are likely to be on the list, along with Migrant Labor. The other five items? Environment is bound to figure strongly, but it could be there in different ways.
Without follow through, though, the Phuket remake won't hold.
Once people start saying: ''But I have a family to support'' the Army's job will grow tougher. For years, that's been the prime excuse for most of Phuket's mistakes. The other excuse is: ''We are just giving the tourists what they want.''
Well, Phuket and Thailand will be better giving the tourists what they need, not what they want.
The social consequences? Authorities need a game plan to deal with people who need alternative employment, and to keep the people who might cause problems out of trouble.
The beaches look wonderful but the need for a difference in outlook may take six months to a year to achieve. Come high season, Many of the shorefront and beach vendors will be trying to return to their jobs. Decades of doing the wrong thing now need to be explained.
Reader Brett Masters sent Phuketwan a photograph of a woman at Rawai beach. ''After 18 years,'' he wrote, ''this old lady has no business anymore.
''She is known as Momma, a lovely old lady who always has a smile on her face . . . except as she watched her business being torn down.
''Yes her business was illegal but many Thai people are just trying to survive.''
If Momma and the taxi drivers can be persuaded to start again doing something else, doing something that doesn't damage Phuket's future, the Army's efforts will all prove worthwhile.
But if this once in a lifetime chance is missed, Phuket's future may never look as bright again as it does today.
Will the Thai military next crackdown be on the rampant commerical sex business in Phuket, not just in Patong but all the beach towns and also in Phuket Town itself where there is a huge commercial sex business mainly for Thais and Asians, with many illegal migrant females doing all the work, having been brought in from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and even SW China?
Posted by Robert on July 4, 2014 08:24