Thailand Responds to Bomb Blasts with a “Good News” Publicity Blitz

Bangkok, Thailand. February 16, 2012. Although it’s too early to tell for sure what the intentions were of the three Iranian terrorists who exploded three bombs in central Bangkok, the initial public reaction of the Thai government was to try to downplay the incident as something other than a terrorist attack. In stead, according to the Thai government, at most it was a targeted assassination of the Israeli ambassador or other Israeli officials. This interpretation is supposed to calm Thais and all potential visitors to the kingdom, except, of course, the Israeli ambassador himself. No one need to worry about security in public places and Thailand is still safe for the 16 million tourists who are welcomed here with open arms, according to tourist officials.

There are few countries as easy for a foreigner to enter as Thailand. Nationals of many countries can just show up at immigration with a passport and receive a stamp permitting them a 30-day stay. The nationals of many other countries, including Iran, can also show up and receive a “visa on arrival” good for a 15-day visit. Iranian visitors to Thailand increased 20%-30% in the last three years. Once here, visitors can, and many do, overstay their visas, and there is virtually no attempt to search for or apprehend them. An overstay simply pays a relatively small fine when he exists the country.

A good beginning for Thailand would be for it to stop denying the threat of international terrorism, and to take measures to deal with it.