Another Nation Article

[Yehtmae]

NIGHTLIFE CRACKDOWN: Public backs blitz: poll

Published on Aug 27, 2001

 

The government's ban on liquor sales after midnight and crackdown on pub closing hours are popular among city residents, but protests among those affected continue and academics are divided over the campaign's impact on the economy.

An Abac Poll survey of 1,215 Bangkokians over the weekend showed that 60 per cent of respondents agreed with the "social-order" campaign being carried out by the Interior Ministry.

Seventy-one per cent of those surveyed agreed with the strict enforcement of the 2am closing time of entertainment places, compared with 8.8 per cent who disagreed. And 58.5 per cent supported the ban on liquor sales after midnight, compared with 14.5 per cent who disagreed.

Abac Poll is a research unit of Assumption University.

In recent weeks squads of police have forced popular bar districts to enforce oldantiquated laws stipulating that last drinks must be ordered at midnight and patrons out of the door by 2am.

Despite howls of protests from affected businesses, the government has been adamant that the strong measures are necessary."Protest or no protest, I don't care. But any place found to continue past closing time may be temporarily shut down and may lose its licence altogether," Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said at the weekend.The campaign is threatening or affecting tens of thousands of nightlife jobs, including waiters, waitresses, musicians, comedians, singers, taxi-drivers and bar girls. Small and big businesses such as music halls, discos, karaoke bars and khaotom shops are feeling the pinch of the clampdown. And there have been warnings that Thailand's tourism, which has been attracting fun-loving foreigners for decades, could also be seriously affected."It's knocked our business down by probably 30 per cent on some nights, and who knows how it's going to affect nightlife in Thailand in the future?" said David Jacobson, who runs Bangkok's chic Q Bar.

Other bar-owners agreed, saying the crackdown on go-go bar districts like Patpong and Soi Cowboy - where cold beer flows freely but drugs are rare - would do little to protect Thai youth from social evils.

"The majority of establishments they're shutting down, in Patpong and Soi Cowboy, have nothing to do with drugs or young Thai kids," said the manager of a pub popular with expatriates and tourists, who asked not to be identified.

Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun vowed to take tough action against police or other government officials found to be operating entertainment places that broke the law or turning a blind eye to their violations of the law.

Academics have been divided over the pros and cons of the tough measures. A prominent economist warned that the restrictions on night-spots, which employ hundreds of thousands of people, could do major damage to Thailand's finances.

Sompop Manarangsan, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that patrons of night-spots had high purchasing power, and reduced consumption on their part would affect demand in the agricultural and service sectors.

"We have to accept that foreign tourists like the nightlife in our country," he said. "The restriction on the hours affects tourism, which is the one important sector the government is pinning its hopes on to boost our sluggish economy."

Sompop said that if the government was worried about the effects of drugs and vice on youth, it should limit its crackdown to a strict enforcement of the ban on people aged under 20 from visiting entertainment venues.

But Sompong Jitpradap, an education expert and adviser to the Senate committee on women, youth and the elderly, voiced support for the "social re-engineering " programme.

"We have to look at the long term," Sompong said. "Lost income cannot be compared to the loss of children's innocence."

The Nation, Agence France-Presse