The drivers made three demands. First, that the police superintendent in charge of Patong be removed. On this point they scored a big victory. The superintendent was transferred within hours to an empty desk at Provincial Police HQ.
Second, they demanded that no legal action be taken against them for blocking all roads in and out of Patong and many within Patong, an offence that would normally merit a fine of B500 under Section 385 of the Thai Penal Code. On this, too, they won, with the authorities promptly caving in.
Third – and this was the tricky one – they demanded that action be taken to rid Phuket (or Patong at least) of the plague of unlicensed, or “black”, tuk-tuks that have been competing against them.
Unfortunately, the only legal action that can be taken against unlicensed transport is a B1,000 fine for each offence. That’s just two fares.
So were the tuk-tuk drivers justified in their siege?
In one sense, yes. They have grown increasingly frustrated at the competition from the illegal tuk-tuks, and at the inability of the authorities to do anything about it.
The law needs to be beefed up, perhaps by bringing in a sliding scale of penalties for repeat offenders, up to confiscation of the vehicle or even jail time. That might be effective.
But at present the law is ineffective, and the legal tuk-tuk drivers are, as they see it, in a battle for their livelihoods and their right to monopoly. Six months after they first carried their grievances to Provincial Hall, nothing has been done (and nothing can, under present law) to turn back the tide of illegal competition.
But in another, much more important sense, the licensed tuk-tuk drivers are absolutely not justified. Causing chaos, blocking roads and strangling the tourism lifeblood of Phuket is a Neanderthal way to behave, quite apart from being illegal.
Mob rule is one of the darkest corners of a society that otherwise has a worldwide reputation for its bright smiles and friendliness.
The authorities appear powerless to address the root problems or to deal with the apparently inevitable mobs that arise from this powerlessness.
Tuk-tuk drivers already have a terrible reputation for extortionate pricing and explosively over-the-top reactions to any perceived threat. This latest show of truculence will do nothing to improve that reputation.
But do they care? Probably not.