After two death and 123 injured, the government of Thailand has announced that the three week Red Shirt protest has finally ended. The anti-government protesters have caused infrastructure damages and forced the Thai government to postpone the ASEAN meeting indefinitely. Many analysts have said that the protests damaged Thai’s crucial tourism industry, and some international credit agencies have downgraded the Thai currency. Although the Thai stock markets have been shut down due to the extended national holiday, many are predicting a selloff once the Thai stock exchange open back for business. Thailand government officials warn that the conflict is not over, and the government is monitoring the situation carefully to see if the Red Shirts will regroup.

With Thai politics aside, this has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for Thailand in terms of not being able to handle the situation to meet its international obligations. Furthermore, the tourism industry, which is critical to Thailand’s commerce, has been damaged due to the instability within the country. But again, I must applaud the current Thai government for handling the situation with such care, because this situation could have ended with more causality. It seems that the restraint of the army in handling the Red Shirts clearly averted a more violent outcome, and for now the Thai government has the much needed domestic stability to work with.

But I am still a little concerned with the constitutional question of the current government. Granted, the Red Shirts have shown that the minority could be as violent when their voice is seemingly not so represented in the government. However, I do want the Thai government to plan a national election soon to restore the legitimacy of its government that is representative of its population.