However, what we have received from the Thai Government is an invitation from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to join “a five-day familiarisation trip to promote Asean Connectivity and travel between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos”.
Increased tourism and foreign investment can indeed make it harder for a country to downplay its crimes against minorities by bringing increased international attention. But on the flip side, investors, whether they be construction, communications or even hotel companies, despite saying they seek to “help generate incomes for local communities”, inevitably increase the income of the corrupt and callous government officials who are perpetrating these crimes. As expats in Phuket know all too well, when tourists put the cash into the hands of the poor locals, it ends up in the hands of those who wield actual power.
The Thai government’s silence on this issue speaks tons about its attitude to what is happening with their northern neighbour. Despite the fact that the United Nations have called Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, Thailand has done nothing to call Myanmar to account. In fact, Thailand’s recently announced policy to “push back” Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution serves only to compound the misery of these desperate people.
You would think that the international attention on Thailand in recent years due to human trafficking and slavery in its fishing industry – where some Rohingya refugees will undoubtedly end up – would make the government more proactive about dealing with the situation. But it has not.
For now it seems that the only thing we can do, in the face of official inaction, is to deny Myanmar our valuable tourism and investment dollars. Maybe if these sources of income dry up the Myanmar government will be forced by economic, if not moral sanctions, to stop the violence against its ethnic minorities.