BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat last night declared a state of emergency at two of the country's airports seized by protesters, setting the stage for a possible bloody confrontatio

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Dear Minister of Foreign Affair and Minister of Defence,

My daughter and her schoolmates are stranded in Northern Thailand, Chiang Rai on a School (Catholic Junior College) CIP mission. I called your hotline and your duty officer say they can't do much and we need to work out with the travel agent/own transport to get them home. Last night their teachers think of going by land traveling 3-4 days by bus to Northern Malaysia to get their flight. I say no as it is even more dangerous and ask them to wait.. Fortunately, they abort that idea. Though it is relatively still safe up there as compared to Mumbai, I hope you got our Ministry of Defence C130 or any Silkair airline to get them home. I believe the Thai govt/military will also prefer to contain their own problems and will open up their military airports or those up North to help their foreign guests. I believe there should also be quite a numbers of Singaporean stranded in Thailand who are unable to get back..

I read that the SAF airforce is conducting exercise this weekend at Choa Chu Kang. If the situation gets worse, perhaps you can get the SAF Airforce to make this a real mission to rescue and evacuate our stranded citizens home. The SAF recent TV Commercial looks like hollywood movie with the echo of "Sa-sa-sa" (Kill-kill-kill). As a retired NS men, I would say Soldier. You don't need to kill (for now), Just go, save and bring back our girls home safely . If necessary, I will volunteer to put on my green again for this mission and pay for the C130 plane ticket. If you bring my daughter back, I will also offer to have her sign up NS for 2 years after her A-level to payback the country. Please help and do what you need to do, not movie hype and wayang to show how good our NS boys are.. Let's them get real.

-- A plea for help from a desperate and helpless Singaporean dad.

How can the People Alliance for Deception (PAD) called itself patriotic and doing in the name of the King when what it is doing is causing catastrophic harm to the nation? Businesses and the economy are affected. The country is running down. They are rascals trying to claim power which they failed through the ballot box.

Civil war and strife ultimately breaking up the kingdom is inevitable when patience and restraint run out for the United Front for Democracy Against the Dictatorship (UDD).

By damaging the economy since August thus leading to possible breaking up of the country and invoking all these in the name of the King is high treason.

Dear cspeh,

I have some female friends stuck in bangkok too. I am planning to travel by land to meet up with them to bring them back to singapore. I am frequent visitor to Thailand and can speak Thai. I have lead CIP teams to Chiang Mai many times. perhaps you can contact me and i can see how we can co-ordinate the return trip by land if the situation turn worse. my email address is pitipeter@yahoo.com

PAD and its Supporters and Backers are a load of crap. They are doing more harm to the country than any possible good that might come out of their actions, if any to begin with.

The thai govt is democractically elected, so it should be allow to function in the democractic process regardless if its related to any ex-politician. PAD should stop being a neusence and if its good enough, fight it out in the next election. If PAD is good, the people will support them for the next govt.

Its probably a good time for the land's highest institution to come out to settle the issue once and for all for the good of Thailand.

No leader is good for the Thai people. As long as there is a Raja there, it is tough to have a govt. I thought they are peaceful and friendly bunch of people but alas they are not, more like troublemakers who are intolerant and ignorant about things, they move where the wind blows (by the elites of cos!).

I admire those like Samak and now Somchai who tried their hands in leading the country but only told to step down even after legitimate votes were in place!

Looks like these bunch of people just have nothing better to do except to listen to some "rich" crap people and cause this protest!

This only leaves a very bad image of PAD to the world! Dumb indeed!

Btw I saw this coming the minute Somchai took the PM role! These bunch of idiots cannot tolerate Thaksin, what more Somchai who is "related" to him? Wonder why Somchai didnt think this would be a problem when he took the seat! Anything to do with Thaksin, it is a no go! Nobody is supposed to be more famous than the maharaja there, havent they learnt this already?

#2

I am now stuck at home due to the occupation of the two airports by PAD. My original travel plan was to take a bus from Johor Baru to Hadyai, and then from Hadyai to Bangkok, followed by Bangkok to Chiangmai, and have checked many sites looking for fare and schedules. I do not think it is that dangerous to travel by bus. Anyway, if the number of travelers is small, and you are willing to pay, you can get them spend about two hours to travel from Chiangrai to Chiangmai, and then go by AirAsia from Chiangmai to Kuala Lumpur, or SilkAir from Chiangmai to Singapore. But those flights may be close to being full these days. Besides, Bangkok Airways has flights from Chiangmai to Samui, from where it should be easier to get to Singapore, both by air and by bus.

Perhaps "the other side" can also take over the offices of the businesses owned by the leaders of the PAD and block the roads whenever they want to leave Thailand for business or for holidays!

cspeh #2, I will be praying for the return of your daughter & others trapped there. Did you have any contact with her since? #4 sounds genuine but pls, pls, pls be very careful who you are dealing with. Not saying this contact is, but crooks who kidnap and sell girls prey on the vulnerable & desperate people.