I no longer live in Thailand but am still, after 15 years of living there, very in-tune with what is going on over there and most of the friends that I have in this world still live in that country. Therefore, I keep pretty close tabs on what is happening in the Land of Smiles.
Recently, the government of Thailand went into a full lockdown of sorts to combat Covid-19, just like most of the rest of the world. This meant cutting off almost all international flights, restricting travel between provinces, having a curfew, and closing non-essential businesses. Seems pretty normal so far right?
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The Prime Minister of Thailand: Prayut Chan-o-cha
Then, the Prime Minister made a unilateral decision to ban all alcohol sales. This was first enacted just before the Songkran Festival, which is 5 days of drunken mayhem that normally sees people packed together in small spaces... you know? Precisely what we are supposed to avoid doing during social distancing. This was an obvious decision that needed to be made because I can tell you from many years of experience, if there was ever a place where you are definitely going to spread a virus like wildfire, it would be the Songkran Festival in Thailand.
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It is a great party, but obviously had to be called off
After the Songkran extended weekend, something very strange happened: The government decided to keep the alcohol ban in place indefinitely. This obviously pissed a lot of people off who now found themselves trapped in their homes, without some "party favors" to help pass the time. It also spawned an underground "black market" for booze at inflated prices. Just like a lot of things that are illegal in Thailand, the law against them doesn't really stop anything.
The population tolerated this rule for 2 weeks, even though tensions were starting to run high among the out of work, forced to stay at home, bored population. They were still getting booze, but it was being done by some rather underground methods and at inflated prices. Such is the price you pay for "illegal" merch i guess. Very few people caught with this were even prosecuted because the police were likely in on the racket (I have no proof of this actually happening, but lived in Thailand long enough to know that the coppers never let a crisis go to waste!)
The people who had the foresight to guess that the government would likely extend this ban went and purchased booze in bulk which was kind of amusing at the time. I know several of my friends that were part of the panic rush on beer purchasing
Once Songkran was over, the government decided to extend the ban until the 20th, then again until the 30th. When April was finishes life was supposed to being slowly returning to normal but then the office of the Prime Minister announced their oopsie stating that all emergency measures were staying in place until the end of May including the booze ban.
Obviously this upset a lot of people. There are people out there that don't drink that got all sanctimonious about this and were actually celebrating and virtue-signaling about how the booze band was a good thing. Is alcohol bad for you? Sure it is, but not everyone it trying to live to be 137 years old and would prefer to enjoy life now, is that so wrong.
I have no idea what changed their mind at the top government level, but it wasn't even 24 hours later that the Prime Minister announced that the alcohol ban would be lifted on Monday, the 3rd of May. I suspect there might have been some phone calls from Chang and Singha - two massive beer manufacturers with very wealthy and well-connected owners.
I wish I could say that this reversal was actually a thought-out decision on the part of the government but I think it is more likely a backroom deal made by corrupt politicians with the owners of the breweries. I suppose it doesn't matter and I am not going to speculate any further. With booze being back for sale perhaps the people can buy alcohol in more reasonable quantities and at least after the first day it won't be a mob scene in the booze section of the grocery store.
I also believe that if the government actually tried to enforce this that they would quickly find themselves very unpopular with the majority of the population. This Prime Minister already isn't very popular, so I suspect this was a very big motivating factor for him. It also looks like he may have done it intentionally in order to appear compassionate to the people. It might also have a teensy bit to do with the billions of dollars per year that alcohol provides the state in the form of taxes.
Whatever the reason is, I am happy it is over... for now. One thing is for sure: Prayut and his rich pals certainly weren't having any trouble finding a drink.
